Infatuation

[Eleanor Hope]

Eleanor quite enjoyed her time during the holidays. It was definitely a well-deserved break after her OWL exams, and even though she had received an E in everything but one subject, the girl thought she did pretty well. After all, she wasn't really one for studying and found herself getting distracted quite easily. This year the girl had chosen to drop some subjects to lighten the amount of work she had to do and she was quite happy with this decision. It meant that she had lots of time to do other things like working in the garden for the Wild Patch and spending time with her friends and she couldn't think of anything better.

The Queen of Flowers was making her way to the grounds to spend some time in the garden. It was the beginning of spring and so that was the perfect time to start planting some new crops. It was fun for Eleanor to just sit in the dirt and feel it build up underneath her nails, despite what anyone else thought. It was relaxing for the Hufflepuff and she felt a smile on her face as she made her way joyfully through the castle. But Ellie had soon become distracted when she spotted a familiar face passing by. She had to look twice before she realised exactly who it was. She had of course seen Jerara during the holidays, had shared candy with him, and she felt delighted to be able to see him again. It gave her butterflies and she tried not to make this seem obvious as she called his name. "Jerara!" she exclaimed, feeling an unusual warmth inside of her as soon as she said it.

 

[Jerara Tapsell]

Jerara during the holidays had spent a lot of time with Ellie, they had ended up spending a lot of time together, just in the way their two schedules had lined up. It had been nice, it had been good. Spending time with a friend, a good friend. Admittedly Jerara couldn’t hide that their time together had increased his appreciation for her, that he care more for her now than he had ever before. He liked her, liked liked her. It had been an odd realisation upon the train ride into school that he’d come to the conclusion that he did in fact really like her. Just thinking of candy and her made him smile. His work had never felt so good. It hadn’t ever been as good a talking point as it was currently. The teen didn’t however have as much time to spare right now, being back at school. He had a very heavy time table, doing all the electives during his OWL years was proving hard.

The boy had been heading out the school, to study when he heard his name being called, by the very person whom his mind couldn’t help think about. The smile on his face grew, ”Eleanor,” he said with a warmth in his tone. He had wondered about asking her out, his mind had said it might be the time to. He didn’t know if she was seeing anyone else, or if she even liked him in the same way he liked her, but he’d sent along a little message to his boss about him taking an early shift on the next weekend, so that he could have that time to take Eleanor out. ”How are you settling back in?” he asked, opting to ask that rather than the one he actually wanted to ask her. He felt too nervous to, the time he’d been confident had been that first yuleball where they had met and he had asked her to dance. ”I was heading to the lakefront if you want to walk with me?”
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[Eleanor Hope]

Jerara seemed happy to talk to Eleanor, and the Hufflepuff smiled as she watched him approach her. The butterflies were definitely still there and she felt her face turn a shade of pink as he spoke, but she looked to the ground, opting for him not to notice. She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and looked up when she was sure her cheeks weren't as pink before answering his question. "Good! I'm kind of glad that OWLs are over. Now I just have to prepare for my NEWTs." she told him, hoping it wasn't going to be so bad. She was just another step closer to leaving the school and was excited to see what would be ahead of her. "Of course I do!" Eleanor exclaimed as she proceeded to walk in the direction of the lakefront with him. She was happy to spend her time with him again and decided she would go to the gardens some other time so she could be with him now. "How were the rest of your holidays?" she asked as she walked next to him.

 

[Jerara Tapsell]

Jerara couldn’t help but smile as she spoke, ”I have all the magic of the OWLs to look forward to, maybe I shouldn’t have taken all the classes,” he laughed lightly, since when he thought about it, it was rather silly that he’d taken all of them, the workload had been huge so far and it was only going to get worse for him. But, he was sure that Ellie would do well in her NEWTs, ”You’ll do well, I’m sure,” he assured her, just thinking that she would of course do well. From what he’d learned about Ellie was that she was smart, she certainly worked hard and hard work always paid off. Jerara smiled softly when she agreed to come to the lake front with him, he wondered at what point to ask, but really he just couldn’t find the point to say anything, when he’d been about to ask, Ellie got to it first and asked him about his holidays. Jerara couldn’t help but be a little pleased for the out. ”Yeah, busy, worked for most of the time,” the boy replied, maybe this was the time to say something, ”Actually, I wanted to ask, I’m hoping to get some time off during the next brightstone weekend, if I get it, do you want to go out?” he spoke quietly, avoiding making too much eye contact with her. ”Like on a date?” Jerara felt his cheeks redden, if she said no, this would be even more embarrassing, and he’d hope that he hadn’t made it so awkward that she wouldn’t want to hang out with him, or just think he was some small child reminding her that he was younger.
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[Eleanor Hope]

Eleanor chuckled as Jerara mentioned that he shouldn't have taken all of the classes. Ellie had taken all of them too and that probably explained why she didn't do so well in the exams. She wasn't usually stressed out about it however and so wasn't surprised with the grades she ended up with. However, her NEWT grades seemed much more serious and so she intended to do well in them. "Thanks." she replied to Jerara's encouragement with a smile. "I'm sure you'll do well too." Eleanor could tell that Jerara was smart. After all, he was sorted into Ravenclaw which was the smartest house of them all and she believed he could do really good. Eleanor nodded as he answered her question, figuring that having a job on top of school could definitely be challenging. She was just about to ask him more until he wanted to ask her something else first. Ellie chuckled when she noticed Jerara's cheeks redden at asking her to go on a date with him. She couldn't help but think it was cute and quickly nodded. "Of course I will." she replied, her cheeks also turning red as she did so. She quickly tried to cover it up however. "Where would you want to go?"