the one where jake & grace become friends

[Grace Longbottom]

2018 - half-way through Jake & Grace's third year

As Grace raced down the corridors and towards the library, she couldn't get rid of the butterflies in her stomach as hard as she tried. She'd been paired with Jake Gullane for an assignment in History of Magic and ever since, she'd been ridiculously nervous about actually working with him especially regarding her what she'd heard from everybody else about him: he was nothing but trouble... which made him yet another person she was intimidated by despite never having spoke to him before in her life.

It also didn't help that she liked his best friend, Kieran Bass, who she'd been good friends with for nearly three years now. Of course, she'd only realised she liked him at the start of the year but ever since she had, she'd been a total mess. She couldn't count the amount of times she'd done something silly around him from blurting out something totally bizarre in the middle of a conversation to accidentally whacking a flowerpot off a desk in Herbology with her elbow.

To make matters worse, she was fairly certain Kieran knew judging by the way he acted around her. She knew she didn't have a shot at all and that made it all the worse - knowing that the fate of her first crush was destined to be doomed. She often-times wished that she was living in a fairytale because in that fictional universe, things were so much simpler. You put on a pretty ball gown and danced and voila, you were together forever after that first kiss! But Grace couldn't even imagine telling Kieran, let alone kissing him. The whole situation was just mortifying. Really, really mortifying.

Finally bursting into the almost deserted library, Grace searched for the very boy she was supposed to be meeting and spotted him almost immediately. Cringing inwardly, she fiddled with her bracelet as she slowed down to a walk and approached the table. "I-I'm sorry. I got distracted. I was doing... well, I was doing stuff -" 'Dancing in the Room of Requirement again', her brain helpfully supplied, "- and I lost track of time. I'm sorry. Really, really sorry. I swear, I'm not usually late for stuff like this - or... or anything, really. Have you been waiting here long?"

((OOC: sorry it's so rambly!))

[Jake Gullane]

Jake had been marginally dismayed to find himself paired with Grace Longbottom for this History of Magic assignment. History of Magic was not his best subject, mostly because he never did much work for it at all, and he had been hoping to blow off this assignment altogether. He suspected that Longbottom would have different ideas. He didn't know a lot about her at all, except that she seemed very quiet and generally well-behaved, and therefore presumably liked to get History of Magic assignments done. The only other impression he had of her was that she was quite amusingly awkward at times. He didn't mean that in an unkind way, but the fact was that the few times he'd been around her at all, mostly when he was with Kieran, who was friends with her, she didn't seem to have known what to do with herself, and managed to do things like knock flower pots off desks. Maybe if he was lucky, she'd just do all the work herself... but somehow, something in Jake wasn't quite happy with that idea. The trouble was, Grace seemed nice, and extremely easy to take advantage of, which meant that Jake was reluctant to do it. Perhaps he'd actually have to do some work for once...

Thinking he might as well make a decent impression, he had turned up in plenty of time, only to find that she wasn't here yet. Unfazed by this, he had found a desk, dumped his bag (which contained some Muggle DVDs he'd shoplifted in the holidays and had been reselling to those who liked Muggle entertainment, as well as a couple of cleverly faked IDs he'd been working on) beside his chair and sat down to wait. He'd amused himself while he waited by carving his name into the woodwork of the desk with the knife he always carried in his pocket; if he was caught, he could expect to be thrown out immediately, and very possibly reported to his Head of House, but he was tucked away in a corner, and was keeping a careful eye out for the librarian, or any prefects.

He looked up with his usual easy grin as she approached, looking flustered as usual, and raised his eyebrows at her stammered apology. Did she really think he cared about things like time keeping?

"Chill," he told her cheerfully, "It's fine. I don't mind." He tilted his chair back onto two legs to look at her, and waved at the other chair at the desk. "So what's this assignment on again?" he added vaguely.

[Grace Longbottom]

Pushing back some loose pieces of hair that had managed to escape from her bun behind her ear, Grace hesitated before she pulled out the chair near him and sat down, looking the very definition of prim and proper as she crossed her legs over one another and folded her hands in her lap. That grin he was wearing was... well, it was comforting but her mum always told her that just because somebody looked friendly didn't mean they were. Even Rosa managed to look sweet at times and Grace knew from first-hand experience that Rosa being nice wasn't always the case.

"It's about witch hunts and, um... and..." Grace trailed off as she caught sight of the knife in her hand and her mouth dropped open a little. She looked around busily, trying to make sure that nobody was watching them. "I... that's... it's illegal to have knives in schools. I mean, besides for dinner. You kind of need a knife for dinner. Unless you're having pasta or something - I don't know many people who cut pasta before they eat it. That's a little weird, isn't it? I mean - not that those people are weird! Just... you... I-I'm sorry."

Glancing down at the bag she'd set on the floor, she cleared her throat even as the blush rose in her cheeks. She always managed to put her foot in it somehow. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a couple of books on the history of witch hunts. "I didn't know what to bring, really. I'm not very good at all this school stuff. I don't really... well, I'm not really interested in learning about the history of magic," she explained softly, setting the books down onto the table and sliding them over so he could get a good look. "Hopefully these will help though? I'm not sure but Aria - you know Aria Matthews, right? - well, she leant them to me and said they should give us an idea on how to approach this whole assignment."

[Jake Gullane]

Jake noticed her eyes fall on the knife, and hastily put it away, but by that time it was too late and she was already horrified. He sighed to himself; he knew that to most people at Hogwarts, carrying a knife was a terrible idea, but he didn't see the big deal... She was still talking though, and Jake liked to think that he was at home with anyone and in any situation, but he had to admit that she was losing him a little bit. Why was she rambling about pasta? All he knew was that somehow, this was still about his knife...

"It's no worse than carrying a wand," he pointed out, "You can kill someone with that just as easily. Anyway, they don't know I've got it," he added simply, as if this statement made everything alright. He didn't quite know how to deal with someone like Grace; Jake's natural way was to make a joke of everything, but she was so... so... good, he felt like that would only make things worse.

"Witch hunts, right," he went on hastily, looking with dismay at the large books she'd brought. Was he going to have to read one of them? For a Ravenclaw, Jake wasn't really big on books... He grinned, partly out of pure surprise, when she said she wasn't interested in History of Magic - he'd thought she was the kind of girl who was interested in everything, or if not then she would pretend to be. "Me neither," he agreed, though he brightened when she mentioned Aria. He'd forgotten they were friends; unlikely friends, it seemed to him, as Aria was a very different kind of person. She and Jake got on pretty well; he wasn't sure he trusted her when it came to History of Magic though...

"Is she good at this shit?" he asked suspiciously, and then wondered why he even cared; it was only an assignment...

[Grace Longbottom]

Grace watched carefully as Jake tucked his knife away and bit her lip as he made his point. "You still shouldn't have it.... and you actually have to say the words and flick your wand a bit to actually kill someone," she told him, sounding ridiculously meek because what was she doing? She could have just agreed and left it out. Why was she trying to start an argument? "I mean... nevermind."

"I-I think it was to do with them... and, um, their effect on the current wizarding world.... which is just a plain silly assignment when you think about it because this doesn't really help us with spells or anything," she said quietly, mostly beneath her breath as she reached over to the books and flipped it open to the index, running her fingers down a list of alphabetised names until she found 'Witch Hunts'. "Here we go!"

Grace's eyes widened and her head lifted quickly as he swore which made her blush right down to her bones. She wasn't sure why but swearing... well, it wasn't something she ever liked hearing. Ever. Of course, it was a natural part of human life - saying words you weren't meant to - but it still made her cringe. However, she didn't think Jake Gullane would take very well to her aversion of swearing.

"Um... yes. Yes, she's very good at this kind of stuff," she answered, biting her lip. "She's always useful when it comes to assignments and everything because she can actually find stuff and does them sometimes. Not that she's only useful because of that! She's my best friend as well. She's completely and totally lovely. Have you ever spoken to her?" She didn't give him a chance to answer as she sent him a bright smile. "I bet you have. You're the sort of person Aria would like, I think. Well... actually, she likes most people in the school. Except for Kale Lestrange - she doesn't like him at all which is silly because I don't think she's ever really spoken to him and you should never judge a book by it's cover."

[Jake Gullane]

"Well, you actually have to stab it into someone in the right place to actually kill someone with a knife," Jake pointed out reasonably, "It's no different." He didn't bother to argue with the point that he shouldn't have it, which was blatantly and obviously true.

He sighed as she explained their assignment, fully agreeing with her judgement that is was just 'plain silly'. "Yeah, exactly!" he agreed with feeling, "And anyway, it makes no sense - like, why would witch hunts in 4000BC or whenever it was affect us now? I mean, it's not like most people in the Muggle world give a crap about it any more. I think the Statute of Secrey's bullshit," he announced, "Maybe if we weren't still obsessed with how Muggles tried to kill witches like hundred of years ago, we could all just get along..." he broke off, realising he had ranted slightly, which wasn't like him, but Wizarding-Muggle relations was something that was a bit of an issue for Jake, given how many friends he still had in the Muggle world.

He gave her a funny look at her reaction to his swearing, not having a clue what she was reacting to, since it was such second nature to him that he wasn't even aware that he was doing it. "Are you okay?" he questioned, puzzled.

"Well then, she can come and write this essay for us," he answered, as she went on about Aria, then grinned, "Yeah, I've spoken to her - she's pretty cool. And Lestrange is a dick, so I don't blame her for that," he added casually, leaning over to her so that he could look over her shoulder at the page she was reading. "God, that looks boring," he commented, without actually reading more than about two words, then reached over to grab a different book, which he opened at random. He scanned down the page, and brightened a little. "Hey, this is better! This is about the Inquisition - does our essay have to be on British history, or can we write about this?"

[Grace Longbottom]

Grace turned her attention back to her bracelet again, fiddling with it as he decided to make his point which made her cheeks flush with colour as he was right. Of course he was. She never could come up with a reasonable argument because in the end, she either didn't make the right one or gave up because the attention was way too embarrassing. That's why most people just ended up labelling her a pushover.

She remained quiet as he went off into somewhat of a tangent which left her with the impression that he came from the Muggle world himself, somewhere she only visited with her mum for dancing and singing and occasionally drama lessons. She winced yet again as he let out another curse. "I'm not disagreeing with you, at all, but don't the Ministry have reasons other than that? I mean, they have to, right? Because living in peace with Muggles surely can't be based on that one reason... right?" she asked meekly.

She only became even more embarrassed as he gave her a weird look before coming to the realisation that her mum was right - people weren't mind-readers so you have to tell them what's the matter so the problem can be solved. Taking a deep breath and hoping it wasn't too obvious, she told him softly, "I... I really don't like swearing. I know it's silly and everyone does it and that's fine but I'd prefer it if... if you wouldn't s-swear in front of me... please? I mean, if it's not too much trouble... please."

"Oh, no. I think she's busy with other stuff," she said quickly, eyes widening because she wouldn't want to have to ask Aria to do this paper for them because it just seemed so rude and she'd never request that of anyone in a thousand years. As Jake leaned over her shoulder unexpectedly, she shrunk about a centimetre or two out of pure discomfort, squirming in her seat. She let out a breath of relief as he sat back in his seat however. "I-I-I think the Inquisition would be alright? I mean, maybe. They didn't say we specifically had to do British history. Just about the Wizarding world. S-so I suppose that would be... be okay?"

[Jake Gullane]

She blushed kind of a lot, Jake noticed, wondering if he was somehow inadvertently behaving in a way that was wrong... as far as he was aware, he'd been completely normal and friendly towards her, but she seemed to be uncomfortable somehow... She didn't argue anyway, but he wondered whether it was because she thought he was right, or because she just didn't want to argue...

"I dunno," he shrugged off the idea that the Ministry must have sensible reasons for things. He had put the knife away, as it made her so uncomfortable, but Jake never felt right without something to fiddle with in his hands, and so without really being aware of what he was doing, he had pulled his cigarette lighter out of his pocket and was turning it over in his fingers. "But it seems stupid that the only part of history we get taught that includes witches and wizards and Muggles is how the Muggles tried to kill the witches... No wonder some Purebloods don't like Muggles and Muggleborns. Why would they?" he shrugged, flicking his lighter on and watching the small flame. It would probably have surprised his teachers that Jake Gullane was capable of that level of thinking, but the truth was that Jake did quite a lot of thinking, which he never showed in his lessons. And some of the strange - and inaccurate - attitudes the Wizarding World had to the Muggle one was something he'd thought quite a lot about.

He glanced up in surprise as she explained about the swearing, letting the flame shut off. For a moment, he simply stared at her. He didn't think he'd ever met anyone who was that offended by swearing, at least not anyone his own age - his Grandma was a different matter... Kieran didn't swear that much, it was true, but he wasn't offended by it. "Oh... Okay," he said simply at last, "Sorry. I'll try - I don't always know I'm doing it though..." He might not understand why she didn't like it, but Jake wasn't in the way of judging people for their preferences; he accepted people as they came, with all their differences. "Just... you know... hit me or something if I forget," he added with a grin.

He wasn't too surprised as she declined his suggestion to ask Aria; he'd been more or less joking after all. Instead, he tried to focus on the book in front of him. "There's nothing about the ways they tortured people," he remarked in disappointed tones, "It's pretty interesting though... This is about a group of witches and wizards in Italy who tried to protect the Muggles from dark magic, but then the Inquisition got hold of them and said they were all heretics and killed them... At least I think that's what happened. It says the Muggles nowadays reckon they were all on drugs. Medieval Acid party! Sounds awesome!" he grinned, and then sighed, "I don't get how this shi- stuff affects us now though..."

[Grace Longbottom]

As Jake packed away the knife, Grace felt a sense of relief rush over her - that was, until he pulled out a cigarette lighter... which, surprisingly enough, didn't bother her quite as much. Probably because she was so used to Rosa playing with fire around her, or maybe because when she was little, there was always fire around her in her mum's kitchens. It didn't frighten her as much as a knife did for some reason. "You're... you've got a point there," she said softly. "I do dancing out in the Muggle world in the holidays and music lessons and drama lessons occasionally and they're just the same as us but without magic, really... and more inventive ways to do stuff."

As Jake just seemed to stare at her, she bit her lip nervously. Some people, like Bow Wood for example, generally didn't like being told not to swear. She'd learnt that when Rosa punched him for her in the shoulder one lesson when he was swearing every second word after noticing it had bothered her. "Thank... thank you. Very much. For, well, for toning it down at least?" she said unsurely, offering him a bit of a smile. She let out a surprised giggle when he told her to hit him. "I-I'm not a very hard puncher so it probably wouldn't do anything. You'd probably think it was just a gust of wind or something."

Forcing herself to push past his disappointment about the whole non-torturing thing, Grace simply hummed in what could have been taken as agreement or non-agreement before jumping at his sudden exclamation. "Oh, um... well... maybe..." she thought hard for a moment, her nose wrinkling up in concentration before she just frowned. "I don't get it either. It makes no sense. We could always ask Kieran though, maybe? He'd know, right? I mean, he's done this assignment by now... he was paired with Aria and she already said they were done."

[Jake Gullane]

"Yeah, exactly!" Jake agreed enthusiastically, at her words about the inventiveness of Muggles, "I mean, computers, TV, aeroplanes... what's the Wizarding World got that's as good as that? Like, we have magic - why the f- why are we still sending letters by owl when Muggles can send emails that get there in about a second?" he hardly skipped a beat as he corrected the fact that he had almost sworn - it was so automatic in his speech that it was difficult not to let it slip out, even when he was thinking about it, but hopefully she hadn't noticed. "You do dancing in the Muggle world?" he added interestedly, "That's cool. Whereabouts?" He had no idea where she lived, but probably not in a Muggle area, so he wondered how she got to dance classes. But probably her Mum and Dad took her - having parents who could Apparate would definitely be useful, he had to admit, although he didn't think his Mum would be any happier about Apparating to pick him up from various places than she was about driving to do it...

He grinned at her description of her punching abilities. "Well, a gust of wind's better than nothing," he commented. He couldn't really imagine Grace Longbottom hitting anyone - she wasn't that kind of person, and he kind of liked that. Jake would fight if he had to, and he could fight well (where he'd grown up, you either became a fighter or a victim), but he wasn't like some of the kids he knew back home, who enjoyed violence for the sake of violence. It was slightly unnerving hanging out with someone like Grace, but she was nice, and surprisingly easier to talk to than he had ever imagined.

"Kieran'll just be a smart-arse about it," Jake dismissed this idea at once, having no wish to appear less clever than his best friend, and went on encouragingly, "Come on, we can crack this..." He frowned slightly, looking down at the book, "Hey... maybe we should write about it differently. Maybe we should write about the stuff we were just saying, you know, about how all the history stuff's stopped us seeing that Muggles are the same as us..."

[Grace Longbottom]

Grace gave him a bright grin, tucking her hair behind her ear as she agreed, "Exactly! I mean, I don't know what any of those things you just listed are really. Aria's tried to explain them to me before but I've never really paid attention... anyways, magic hasn't really made that many advances in the last 100 years! It would be so much easier if we could like wave our wands at our letters and have them appear exactly in front of the person we're writing to within minutes!" As Grace got more enthusiastic, the less she was blushing or paying too close attention to just how she was acting around him.

"Yep! I do classical and jazz sometimes. But I like classical much better," she admitted with a sheepish shrug. "I do it at a studios in the Covent Garden in London. My mum usually ends up apparating there since it's not too far from the Leaky Cauldron." She realised a moment later that Jake was probably wondering what the pub had to do with it. "Oh! Um, my mum's the landlady there. If you've ever visited, you've probably met her. She's a taller than me, blonde hair. She's usually doing something around there whether it be showing people to their rooms or cleaning up or whatever."

Another giggle escaped her before she could stop it and she nodded along with him. "I guess so. I'm pretty quick on my feet though, I guess, so maybe if I blow hard enough then I'll be able to send someone falling to the ground," she joked, feeling slightly more at ease than she had beforehand. He was much nicer than she had expected - not that she had thought he'd be horribly mean or whatever but he was just a lot different than what she had gathered he'd be like from his reputation.

Deciding to let the word 'smart-arse' slip, because it wasn't nearly as bad as the other curses she'd heard boys from their years come out with, Grace looked at Jake curiously. "But Kieran's always so nice. I don't think he'd be that bad if we asked for help, would he?" Besides, it would probably give her a bit of an opportunity to hang out with him outside of lessons... "That'd be good! I like that idea. I've got really neat writing so if you tell me what to write, I can do it? I mean, if you want to write it, that's fine as well! I'm sure your writing's really neat as well. I'm sure it's really lovely, actually. More than lovely - stunning. I'm sure you have stunning writing."