Hopes Up (Josh)

Guest

Nobody really came to the Hogs Head these days and Riley didn't really understand it. I was a great little pub in the back of Hogsmeade, out of the way and not really seen. But Riley loved it. She was a frequent visitor and loved the atmosphere. Today, Riley had her sketch book out. She loved coming here and just sketching random objects. There was an old fashioned oil lamp sitting on her table that she was currently drawing. She loved the texture of it, and the detail. She imagined the long life it had, and the colonial family that had taken care of it long ago.

She loved drawing things that had a story to them. Something she could write about. She ran her hands threw her long hair and almost didn't see the owner standing waiting to take her order. She was so lost in her imagination that she didn't even notice the poor guy.

He said, "Doing alright today Ms. Conners?"

Riley smiled and said, "Yes Bill, just a butterbeer for me please."

Bill was a ragged old man who was wise beyond her years. She loved listening to his stories and the adventures he had been on. He was a fascinating man and probably the only thing that was close to a friend. Of course, she would never tell him that. It was rather sad that the only friend she had made was the 150 year old bar tender at Hog's Head.

When Riley had first started talking to Bill, she didn't believe that he was 150 years old. And her being a muggleborn, the man understood why she was so surprised. Riley asked him tons of questions in the beginning and was afraid that she had scared him off, but apparently he was used to muggleborn children coming in here and being surprised about his age.

It was a rainy day outside, so Riley was expecting to be in here by herself until the little pub closed. Which was why she was surprised when she heard the little ding of the door. She turned around and saw an older male student. She turned around and continued to pay a little bit to much close attention to her lamp drawing. Bill brought her her butterbeer and smirked at her which made her blush harder.

She had gone six years without speaking to a soul outside of classes, and now all of the sudden she almost has the chance to speak with two boys in one week? Did she change something about her? Did her hair become less frizzy? She sure she had been using the same product as usual...And she hadn't been using perfume so she knew she probably didn't smell the greatest. Well the boy hadn't came up to her yet, so she shouldn't get her hopes up... It was Riley... Her hopes were always up.

Guest

During his years at Hogwarts, Joshua hadn't spent a lot of time in Hogsmeade. He'd gone with his schoolmates on occasion, sure. But it was almost a fact that the Hufflepuff boy had not been to the village once for his own leisure. It was not that he hadn't had an opportunity to venture out that way as much as it was simply the fact that he wasn't intrigued by Hogsmeade.

Still, the boy had decided that it would be foolish of him to not visit the village before he ended his time at Hogwarts.

It was mid afternoon on one of the first Saturdays of the school year, the sky buzzing with the sounds of bees who had not yet realised that they would soon be in need of refuge over the Winter. Joshua laughed at the thought. Were people as incompetent as the bees were?

He already knew the answer to this question. He'd known people like the bees. Hell, he was one of the bees. Perhaps he was the king of the bees. The king of waiting around in the same place for years on end, thinking that maybe this time will be different. This time was never different, but somehow he could not get that fact engraved far enough into his mind for it to stick.

He knew that his parents would not change their minds about magic simply because he'd remained at Hogwarts longer. If anything, him being at the school longer was probably helping the situation in no way whatsoever, just as the bees refusing to leave for the winter was of no benefit to their hive.

Shaking the visual out of his mind, Joshua made his way to Hogsmeade. The village was quaint, full of small shops and pubs that were overcrowded by overenthusiastic witches and wizards. Every corner was filled by some form of conversation or laughter, though none of the conversations he overheard were of any substance.

There was one couple, a Ravenclaw girl and a Slytherin male. They both appeared to be in their fifth or six years, though the male was more than likely a year or so older than who appeared to be his girlfriend. The girl appeared livid, screaming accusations at the top of her lungs. It seemed that Brad, the girl had mentioned this being his name at some point during her rant, had been using his magic wand with someone else.

Joshua laughed at this, not because what Brad had done was laughable, but because it made no sense as to why this was a conversation that could not be had in private quarters. Why would someone want the rest of the world to know of their partner's infidelity?

Continuing to walk through Hogsmeade, and hoping that Brad's girlfriend had not kicked him in the magic wand, Joshua noticed a pub in the distance that seemed void of public displays of any kind. He'd heard of the Hog's Head, though the wizard had never been there before. It was a small joint, but that was not necessarily a bad thing.

The door chimed as he entered the establishment, which made him feel special because a door had never rung specifically for him before. Perhaps this door just found him more desirable than the other doors did.

There was only one other person in the pub; a young girl with brown hair whom he had never seen before. She appeared to be drawing something, her concentration was unlike any Joshua had seen.

"Hello," He spoke, making his way towards where the girl was sitting. "What are you drawing? Note that the correct answer is, 'You Joshua, because my one goal in life is drawing you posing with nothing but a large leaf.'" He laughed, wondering if the girl understood his special kinf of humour. This would be preferable, seeing as Josh did not feel like being Brad today.

Guest

Riley thought that the boy wouldn't even notice her. That he would just ignore her like everybody else. But it was then she realized that she didn't want to be ignored. She hated being ignored. She was so lost in her drawing and thinking about being ignored, that she didn't notice that the boy had actually came and talked to her. She looked up and did a double take. She ran her hands threw her hair nervously as he asked what he was drawing. She smiled nervously and pointed towards the lamp.

She said, "I like the texture of it. Makes life a little more difficult than it needs to be, and I like to think of it's story. What it's life was like before it became a pub's decoration. History is amazing."

She had said too much. Again.. What was with her giving away apart of her that nobody else knew about? She wasn't used to saying stuff outloud like that. She smiled and looked down.

She said, "Sorry... I um.... You can sit if you want..."

Again... asking a strange man to sit with her in an empty pub? Well, there was Bill, but he was too old to protect her if this man went rouge and started attacking her. But he at least looked old enough to be a Hogwart's student, so that part was good.

She nervously took a sip of her butterbeer. When she first entered the wizarding world she thought that butterbeer was an alcoholic beverage. But when she heard that the strongest thing wizards have to alcohol was Firewhiskey, she calmed down and tried it and it ended up being the best thing she ever tasted.

So when she found this quiet little pub, and found out they had butterbeer, she was thrilled. Every once in a while some straggler would come in, but for the most part, it was deserted. Riley wasn't one for crowds, so this was perfect.

But now the atmosphere had changed when the boy had came and sat next to her. It felt like it was contaminated with a rodent of some kind, but she knew it was just a boy. She was just reading too much into the situation. Not adapting to her surroundings very much.

Then she realized she was being rude. She hadn't stopped drawing, so she put her pencil down. It was time to get out of her reality. She needed to get out of her imagination, and step into reality. It was time to grow up. The only thing was, part of her didn't want too.

Guest

At first glance, the girl who sat at the table was not unlike every other girl whom Joshua had met during his time at Hogwarts. Light skin, brown hair, coloured eyes. She fit the mold of a Hogwarts teenager almost to a T. In fact, the boy almost began to question if talking to her would even be worth his time.

But he was a good guy, not some dick who dissed people based on whether or not he'd spend a night in bed with them. If he'd been looking for that kind of a good time, the Hufflepuff would have gone to the small joint in Knockturn alley where money seemed to rain from the wallets of lonely middle-aged men.

And despite there being nothing special about the girl's appearance, there was something interesting about the overall vibe that she gave off. Her eyes radiated concentration, her focus on nothing but the pencil in her hand and the subject that the pencil was documenting. He almost felt sorry that he'd interrupted her concentration with his presence, but his presence was obviously more desirable than that of a vintage lamp.

He nodded and pretended to care as she explained her interest towards the lamp, throwing in the occasional "uh-huh" and "that makes sense." In reality, he could have cared less about the lamp, but at least the insight was coming from a place of genuity within the girl. He enjoyed seeing the way that people talked of things they cared about, even if it was not something that Joshua personally gave a shit about.

The girl smiled softly, almost as if she were embarrassed by the things that she'd just said. She then informed him that sitting down was an option.

"Oh can I?" he asked her, trying his best to keep a straight face. "Why thank you, keeper of the pub, for allowing me to introduce this chair to my rear end. It really is quite an honour." He knew that he was being a smartass. He knew that he'd not known this girl well enough to know if she'd find this comment entertaining. He knew that she may decide that he was a dick, but did he really care? Not particularly.

Joshua noticed that the girl put her pencil down shortly after he sat down beside her as if she felt like she was not allowed to continue her work and speak to a stranger at the same time.

"Is your pencil afraid of strangers?" he asked her.

Guest

Riley's face got redder. Not because she had been blushing, but the fact that she was really upset with this boy's rudeness. She crossed her arms. Fine.. If he was going to play that way, she could play right back. She had a sister, so she was used to the smart mouths, and fortunately, she could lash right back.

She replied, "I'm sorry. I wasn't aware your ass was special. Maybe Bill here could mount it and hang it above the bar. I'm sure it would look lovely up there."

She puckered up her lips to show how furious she was. Here she was trying to be nice, as they where the only two in the pub, and this jerk had to go and act like he owned the place. She had been the only one who was regularly here, so really, he had no room to talk. And when she put down her pencil to not be rude, she gasped at his next statement.

She said, "Well unlike you, I don't want to be rude. So sorry if I'm trying to make conversation."

She noticed Bill looking over concerned. Seeing if he was needed to help escort this boy out, but she shook her head slightly, and he continued to clean the glasses. She knew he was listening to the conversation in case he did need to step in.

She said, "What brings you here anyways? There are plenty of other pubs with people in them that you can bother."

Riley was seriously pissed. She couldn't believe that a human could be so mean, when all she did was try and be nice. Maybe this was why she didn't make friends. She wasn't mean. Which was funny because she was taught to be respectful, and nice. What if everything she thought was a lie?

Guest

Joshua was caught off guard by the way in which the girl had reacted to his commentary. He hadn't meant to come across as a jackass, though apparently, this person had an inability to take a joke. She went on a tangent about having his ass hung on the wall as a hunter would showcase his game.

Someone named Bill was mentioned? He figured that Bill must have been the man sitting at the bar. Need be, Joshua was partially sure that he could take the guy on. Hopefully, it would not come to that, though.

"Personally, I prefer my ass to be admired from its rightful place on my body," He told the girl. This would usually be the point in which he would come back with a comment about her ass, but this girl was angry enough. He figured that he should let her cool down before trying to joke around again.

But then she called him rude.

"I'm sorry," He said, very obviously not sorry at all. "But I do not remember saying anything that was meant to offend or upset you. It really isn't my fault if you can't take a joke, now is it?"

He looked to the girl, her lips puckered as if she'd just sucked a lemon for way too long. He wondered if she'd ever encountered someone like himself before. Was this reaction perhaps coming from a place of innocence and not one of anger?

"I am here because it is a public pub," he told her. He then held out his hand in front of her, his serious face turning into a grin.

"The name is Abbott," he said. "Joshua Abbott."

» In Hopes of New Friends (OPEN)
» First Impressions Are Never What They Seem (Josh)
» You can take all these letters (Josh)
» Should I stay? Would it be a sin? (Josh)
» We meet again (Josh)