Closed Common Ground

[Sydney Townsend]

There were worst people to be working on a class project, Sydney supposed. Simon was one of the few people she could stand in their year, not that she'd tell him that to his face, and Aisa Hunter always conveyed a no-nonsense attitude Sydney could get behind, even if she was a Gryffindor.

"I can take the book and read off any relevant information and you take notes," she decided, pulling the large defense text towards her. She was fairly confident she was easily the best authority on the subject sitting around the table, so she didn't expect any objections to her plan. They had a few supplementary books spread around the table, but Sydney was sure the most useful info was going to be in the one she had grabbed.

 

[Aisa Hunter]

While Aisa liked Sully more than any others in her year, it was definitely good not to be paired up with him for a group project. With Simon and Sydney, she had a much better chance of getting a good grade. Simon was alright, she had gotten closer to him over the past year and a bit. Sydney... was a bit strange, but at least seemed to take her schoolwork seriously. Aisa just had to be careful not to bring up Eric Holland or Michael Newton and set her off. Aisa raised her eyebrows a bit when Sydney just decided what they were going to do, but she also didn't care enough to argue it too much. "Sure." She said. "But we'll swap roles in a bit." She added, glancing at her and daring her to argue about that.

 

[Simon Thorne]

Simon would never admit it but he was incredibly relieved when he got paired up with Sydney and Aisa for this stupid project. They were thankfully both what he could possibly consider to be friends even though he wasn’t sure how well they would mix together. He leaned back in his seat and put his hands behind his head as the two of them tried to divide up the work. “I will do whatever you tell me to.” he said with an easy grin on his face, eventually leaning forward to take out some parchment for notes.

 

[Sydney Townsend]

Sydney raised an eyebrow when Aisa suggested they swap roles later, deciding to simply pull the book a bit closer in response. There was no doubt Sydney was the most accomplished in the subject by far out of the three of them, if not the whole class, so she doubted the others would be able to understand the material enough to lead them through the project, but at least it'd be funny to see them try. "Merlin forbid you think for yourself for once," she said to Simon, rolling her eyes derisively, though there was a hint of fondness in her voice. "It's a miracle you can focus at all on class, I've seen you hanging out with that Ravenclaw girl," she added with a sniff, flipping open the book and looking for the chapter they needed first. Nevermind that she'd also being hanging out with a certain Ravenclaw a lot lately, but Sydney knew how to compartmentalize.

 

[Aisa Hunter]

Aisa was a little surprised when Sydney didn't fight her on what she had said, instead she focused on Simon and told him off for not thinking for himself. Though she did it in a fond way, kind of like how Aisa would have said something like that to Sully. But as Sydney went on to talk about a Ravenclaw girl, Aisa almost winced. Her mind immediately went to Adorah, and that hurt was still fresh. Still, she couldn't deny being curious. "Ravenclaw girl?" She asked Simon, raising her eyebrows slightly. She tried her best to think of who Sydney could be talking about, but truthfully Aisa never paid attention to dating rumors or things like that. She tried to remember if Simon had been at the dance with anyone, and then it came back to her. "Not... Juniper?" She asked. Surely her friend wouldn't start dating the sister of her ex-girlfriend right after they had broken up, right? The universe couldn't be that cruel.

 

[Simon Thorne]

Simon shot Sydney a charming yet useless grin and tilted his head to the side. “Aww well why would I start now when you do it for me so well.” he said in an annoyingly sweet voice. But he was momentarily surprised when she brought up Juniper. He shot her a curious look and was almost flattered that she had cared enough to notice who he hung out with. “Ms. Townsend I didn't think you would be one for gossip.” he said in mock surprise but he dropped that act quickly. "Well I've seen you with a particular Ravenclaw as well." he teased back and placed his head in his hands as he leaned towards her. His attention was so focused on bothering Sydney he hadn't noticed Aisa's reaction at all until he glanced over and saw her surprised expression. His posture changed immediately and looked at her more seriously when she said Juniper's name. "Yeah...how did you-" Simon was about to ask how she knew or why she seemed to care as things clicked into place all at once. He had never been good about figuring out who was related to who and now it seemed to have come to bite him. In his defense Aisa had never talked about her relationship to him but he wasn't about to say that. "Oh... So I assume no double date's in our future." he said tentatively trying to lighten the mood.

 

[Sydney Townsend]

Sydney had found a relevant passage in the book, moving her quill to underline it as Simon tried to tease her. "I'm not. I'm also not blind either," she snapped at Simon. Sydney usually didn't pay much mind to dumb things like relationships, though she was admittedly a bit more aware of them now that she tentatively had one of her own. If only to reassure herself that hers was better. That and she didn't have many people she tolerated as much as Simon, she it paid to know who he was wasting his time with. At least Juniper was a competent witch. He could do worse.

Sydney cleared her throat when Simon brought up Emily, torn between wanting to brag and to remind him that it was none of his business. She was thankfully saved when Aisa spoke up instead, glancing between the two of them, trying to follow the conversation. "Oh right, you're with her sister or whatever," she drawled, not paying much mind if she flicked ink around as she motioned to Aisa with her quill.

 

[Aisa Hunter]

Aisa wasn't someone who paid a lot of attention to what other people did, but she was a bit curious when Simon mentioned that Sydney had been hanging out with a Ravenclaw as well. She raised an eyebrow. "Which one?" She asked, eager to get the attention away from her and Adorah. But while it seemed that Simon had heard about the breakup, Sydney clearly hadn't. Aisa kept her gaze firmly on her book, glad that she managed to keep her voice neutral. "We broke up, actually." She said. "Can you not get ink on my books?" She added with a slight frown, though she knew she was really irritated by her question, rather than the ink.

 

[Simon Thorne]

As Simon expected Sydney denied the comment about gossip but he simply grinned. “Sure.” he said lightly but it didn’t go unnoticed that she didn’t confirm or deny her own affiliation to a certain Ravenclaw. "Yes, I can't remember her name? Would you care to enlighten us?" he poked further, hopeful Sydney might be softened enough to at least give them a name. But his more playful mood faltered as Aisa confirmed her break up. Simon had no intention to ask for details and was glad to leave it at that, since he was sure she wouldn’t say anything anyways. It also helped that if he really wanted to know he could probably ask Juniper. ”Watch where you wave that thing.” he sighed and pulled his own parchment closer to him.

 

[Sydney Townsend]

"Wouldn't you like to know," Sydney said haughtily, squinting at Aisa and Simon as they asked for more information about her girlfriend, torn between wanting to brag and wanting to keep all the details to herself. "Emily. Hastings," she finally said, deciding to keep it simple. She trusted Simon well enough, and Aisa didn't seem like a gossip, but the last thing Sydney needed was someone smugly holding something over her if things went poorly with Emily. Exactly like she imagined Aisa was feeling right, after she acknowledged she'd broken up with the other Zumwalt sister.

Sydney had never been in a position to talk about relationships with friends like this. People didn't exactly line up to talk to her about personal issues, let alone frivolous things like who was dating whom, and yet Sydney couldn't help but feel the sudden urge to want to say something to Aisa about Adorah. Some blandly comforting statement about how Aisa was too good for Adorah or something. Instead, Sydney just pursed her lips, using her wand to vanish any wayward ink with a click of her tongue when the other two complained.