More Than You Know

[Asaiah Murphy]

He didn't know how it happened but over the summer holidays he had developed a crush on his best friend. Of course he had been thinking of the girl in that way for some time but to actually start dating her was something he did not think he'd be doing. Ever. However, the sixteen-year-old was not going to complain about the fact that he and his best friend were a thing now because he did really like the girl a lot. As he waited for Marisol to arrive he let his owl nibble on his ear affectionately while he listened to the howler his aunt and uncle had send him for choosing to stay at his friend's girlfriend's and therefore ignoring the fact that according to the law he was supposed to be staying with either them or one of his siblings. Even though the plan was for him to keep using the spare bedroom because he did not want to move in with family yet Asaiah had been thinking of something he did not know if he should tell his friends as he was sure that they would disapprove of it - to be frank, he thought that everyone he knew would disapprove of it if they would know what he had been thinking of doing recently.

 

[Marisol Woods]

Marisol felt nervous to go see Asaiah up in the owlery where he'd asked her to meet, but this time it was a happy sort of nervous, with butterflies in her stomach. It had been weird at first for her to admit that she had developed a crush on her best friend, but after spending almost all of the break with him she couldn't deny it anymore and she was glad the feeling was mutual. She knew it would be weird at first to adjust to going from best friends to boyfriend and girlfriend but wasn't the fun in dating a best friend that you already knew each other? Wyatt hadn't exactly been too receptive of the news which she hadn't even planned on telling him, but it was better that it happened sooner rather than keep it from him and have them try to hide anything. Once Marisol reached the owlery she saw Asaiah standing there with his owl and smiled at the sight. "Hey," she announced her presence and walked over to him with a happy grin on her face.
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[Asaiah Murphy]

He smiled at his now girlfriend and stood up to walk towards the girl. ''Hey you,'' Asaiah said to Marisol, not really sure if he should give her a kiss on the cheek or a hug like they always did when meeting up with each other. He hadn't told his best pal that they were sort of together now since he had told him that he had been looking forward to the two of them being single again back when he was helping Wyatt move into his new apartment. He wondered if he should be the one telling him or if it was better for him and Marisol to do this together but whatever it was going to be, didn't want to think about it right now since he didn't even know where his pal was at the moment. Asaiah eventually decided to kiss the girl on the cheek as a way of greeting her and smiled at her once again, chuckling slightly at the fact that he gave her a kiss. '' I wonder how long it is going to take me to get used to all of this,'' the sixteen-year-old told Marisol.

 

[Marisol Woods]

Marisol chuckled lightly as Asaiah gave her a kiss on the cheek since it was still taking them a while to adjust to the transition from best friends to boyfriend and girlfriend. Although they had developed romantic feelings for each other over the break, they had been maintaining their boundaries because Asaiah was staying with her family and she didn't want to jeopardize that in any way. But now that they were free from her parent's supervision, they were free to do whatever they wanted together in the castle so it was something they weren't used to yet. Marisol laughed and nodded her head in agreement at his statement but felt it natural to reach down and hold his hand. "We just have to hang out the way we normally do! Except now I can do this," she said, leaning in to kiss him on the cheek as a demonstration, and smiled afterward. "Although, I did sort of tell Wyatt about us already," she added guiltily, indicating that perhaps they wouldn't be able to kiss each other so freely after all. "I didn't mean to, it just sort of came up and I didn't want to be lying to him," she said quickly, with a shake of her head. She was sure perhaps Asaiah would have wanted to talk about how to break the news to their friend together or maybe bro to bro, but Asaiah had been the sole subject of her and Wyatt's conversation so she couldn't ignore the opportunity that was presenting itself at the time.
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[Asaiah Murphy]

He grinned when she kissed him on the cheek and said, ''Well, we can do a lot more than that,'' and was about to lean in for a kiss when she said something that made him panic a bit. Asaiah looked back up at his girlfriend and gave her a look that said 'are you serious' because he wanted to talk to her about how they were going to bring it to his bro soon. All he could think of now was that he hoped that his best friend wasn't upset with him or anything as he could vaguely remember Wyatt telling the Slytherin that he had a crush on the girl standing in front of him. He made a mental note to seek out his friend later today so he could explain the whole situation to him. Asaiah frowned when she said that it had sort of come up and wondered what they would have been talking about though didn't dare asked why since he wasn't sure if it was something he was supposed to know about - with all the secrets the three had kept from each other he was not sure as to what he could tell them and what not. ''You are an idiot,'' he said, shaking his head slightly when she finished talking though smiled to let her know that he wasn't upset with her for telling their friend about them. ''How did he react?'' Asaiah asked.

 

[Marisol Woods]

Marisol smiled but then pouted frustratedly when the subject of Wyatt stopped her from being able to kiss her boyfriend. She would rather do that than discuss Wyatt's behavior but because they were all friends it was something they'd have to talk about no matter what. She laughed when Asaiah called her an idiot and ran her fingers through her hair as she recalled the conversation. "Hmmm he reacted like you would expect Wyatt to react, Marisol said with a hopeless smile, hoping he would understand what he meant. "You might have better luck talking to him, since you guys are bros or whatever," Marisol said, still upset over the comment the Gryffindor had made, but she shrugged afterward. "Maybe we should've just kept it a secret, got any time turners?" she joked, shaking her head afterward, feeling bad about the whole thing.
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[Asaiah Murphy]

He nodded his head as he listened to Marisol and sighed deeply when she told him that his pal had reacted just like he thought he would, though knew that there was a perfectly good reason as to why he would have reacted the way he did and said reason just so happened to be standing in front of him. Asaiah could have figured that the conversation between his two best friends would have gone that way as it usually did whenever one of them said something the other person did not like. He had a feeling that she left out the part where she was being her usual cranky self and thought that she was probably the one who didn't like what his bro had said to her but didn't say anything about it because he did not want to have to deal with Marisol being upset with him, too. He chuckled at what his girlfriend said next and shook his head slightly. ''Look, don't mind him, okay? He means well - you know that.'' He tucked a lock of the girl's brown hair behind her ear and smiled at her biting his lower lip while looking into her eyes. ''It is going to be all right,'' Asaiah told her. ''I'll talk to him later.''

 

[Marisol Woods]

Marisol nodded her head understandingly when Asaiah reassured her about Wyatt. Even if she didn't like how Wyatt expressed his concerns at times, she knew they were valid and he was never mean for the sake of being mean. Whatever Wyatt was uncomfortable with about he clearly wanted to talk to Asaiah about it and not her so she was okay with letting him deal with it. She smiled at the gesture of comfort he made by tucking her hair behind her ear and said, "Thanks." She leaned in to give him a kiss on the lips and let it linger now that they had complete freedom to do so. Once she pulled back she grinned at him happily and said, "Okay, enough about Wyatt, what did you want to meet up here for?" She knew Asaiah well enough to know there was something on his mind before she had interrupted his thoughts momentarily.
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[Asaiah Murphy]

Asaiah was glad that she was going to let him take care of the situation. Of the three of them, he considered himself the most sensible at times when things began to heat up in the group. So naturally, he wanted to make sure that everyone would behave like their normal selves again so that nothing would turn awkward the moment the three of them would hang out with each other again. His smile didn't leave his face as she leaned in to kiss him on the lips. He was still overjoyed with happiness that what he was feeling for the girl was mutual though had a hard time believing that he was actually kissing his best friend and that he enjoyed it a lot. Asaiah grinned back at Marisol when she pulled back and shrugged her question off, not sure if he should tell his girlfriend that he had been thinking of dropping out of school after this year so he could focus on what was really important to him, which was doing what he knew he would love to do while also search for a cure for his friend's condition since he still hadn't given up on that even though people told him that there was no such a thing as a cure for Lycanthropy. ''Uh... I just thought that this would be a good spot for us to make out,'' the Beater said, quickly thinking of a reason as to why he had asked Marisol to come up here.

 

[Marisol Woods]

Marisol mirrored the smile that Asaiah gave her after they kissed, still trying to get used to the freedom they now had to act on the feelings they had developed over the summer break. At her house they rarely kissed because they couldn't risk getting caught by her parents and jeopardize Asaiah staying with them since he wasn't ready to be with his family, so it didn't surprise her that Asaiah said he only invited her here to make out. Marisol laughed and placed her arms around his neck as she gave him a kiss on the lips once more. "Well, I'm not opposed to that plan," she said, laughing lightly and kissing him freely again. "But it seemed like you had something on your mind earlier when I got here," she prompted with a questioning tone, wondering if there was anything more to this visit. She worried for a second if maybe he was having second thoughts about them and now that they were at the castle he thought they shouldn't be together.
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[Asaiah Murphy]

Asaiah had never been really good at lying to his family or friends so for Marisol to once again question him did not surprise the teenager much. ''If there were indeed something on my mind, you would be the first person I'd go tell it to, Marisol,'' he said after a brief moment of thinking what to say to Marisol exactly. He didn't want his best friend to worry about him even more, as she had already done enough of that over the summer holidays so instead wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed the girl to reassure her that nothing too important had been on his mind before she had arrived. Asaiah smiled at her once more when he pulled back from the kiss and chuckled at the thought of finally having the freedom to do what the two of them hadn't been able to do back at her place. ''Just so you know,'' the teen said with a grin, not letting go of his girlfriend because he kind of enjoyed being this close to the girl. ''Us dating does not give you a free pass for Quidditch.'' He never had to send a bludger towards Marisol before but since the Slytherin team hadn't been at their best the past two years, wouldn't hesitate to do so now if it would stop the girl from scoring a goal for her team.

 

[Marisol Woods]

Marisol smiled and nodded in acceptance when Asaiah insisted there was nothing on his mind. Over the summer she'd gotten into the habit of checking to see if he was okay so she was still in observant mode. Now that they were back at the castle and he wouldn't only have her to rely on for company, she could let loose a little and stop worrying over him so much. Marisol smiled at him reassuringly once more to let him know she believed him, and settled in his arms happily, content to be this close to him. She laughed when he brought up Quidditch and shook her head in amusement. "If I recall correctly, you've never managed to hit me before, even when we weren't dating," she said, looking at him with a small smirk. Though now it just occurred to her that maybe he had never targeted her because they were always friends. "But don't worry, you don't have to go easy on me because my team is better than yours anyway," she said with a laugh, sticking her tongue out at him playfully.
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[Asaiah Murphy]

The Slytherin chuckled at what she said. The only reason why Asaiah had never targeted his best friend was because he didn't think that she was important enough during the match for him to spend bludgers on. Sure she was an excellent chaser but his job was to make sure that the opposing team would not win the match so to take out the seeker together with the other beater on his team was their priority number one. If she did want him to target her too then he'd happily do so next time, as Slytherin needed to keep the opposing team's points as low as possible. ''Just watch your back, Woods,'' he teased. He would have to discuss this tactic with Odette first but didn't think that she would have much of a problem with it as he was sure that she wanted Slytherin to win the Quidditch cup just as bad as him. ''It's a new season, I guess we'll just have to wait and see whoever wins.'' He was aware that their first match was against the Gryffindor team so hoped that if they would win that match, they would hopefully win the rest of the reason too.

 

[Marisol Woods]

Marisol laughed and rolled her eyes playfully as she said, "Alright, alright sure," at his warning, even though she knew he could back up his claim easily. Chasers were never a priority to beaters because the seeker almost always won the game, but now she was amused at the possibility that she had just painted a target on her back by her own boyfriend. "It's a good thing I don't play Seeker after all," she commented, thinking back to the position she had originally wanted when she first learned over the flying sport. "I've seen the damage you and the other beater can do to them," she said with equal parts fear and admiration at his skill. At first she had wanted to be a Seeker but since then being a Chaser had really grown on her as she improved and it was definitely less damaging to her, especially since sometimes she didn't play at peak condition since games fell after a full moon, though thankfully she wouldn't have to worry about that for their first game. "Care to make a bet as to who will win the first game?" the Gryffindor asked with a smirk.
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[Asaiah Murphy]

Asaiah had to admit to himself that he was glad that she hadn't chosen to play the position of Seeker after all because he wouldn't know what to do if she had been the Gryffindor Seeker. He did not know if he could ever hit his best friend with a bludger as he knew how much those bastards hurt but if she would ever come too close to scoring the winning goal during the final match then he knew what he had to do, though doubted that what happened with Hufflepuff and Slytherin two years ago would happen again this year. He smiled proudly at Marisol's comment. ''If I'll continue playing like this, I might have a real chance at being scouted by the Macaws,'' he told her. He nodded his head and said, ''Sure,'' though hoped that he hadn't just jinxed Slytherin's chances of winning the first match since he had lost every bet he had made with his best friend so far. ''I am obviously going to say that the winner of the first match of the new season will be Slytherin House.'' In comparison to the other houses, his one had the least amount of lost matches so felt confident enough to say that they would this one easily.

 

[Marisol Woods]

Marisol was pleasantly surprised to hear Asaiah talk about being scouted by his favorite Quidditch team. "Is that something you want to do professionally?" she asked with a smile. She had always known Asaiah was an avid Quidditch fan and especially loved the Macaws, but she didn't think he had ever wanted to pursue it professionally because he'd told her a few years ago that he wanted to be a Curse Breaker. But maybe he'd been thinking about his future more lately, just like she had since they were now in their sixth year so graduation was creeping up on them faster than they expected. Either way she knew he would be a good potential team member for the Macaws if he decided to go that route. When they were on the subject of their bet, Marisol laughed and rolled her eyes playfully as if to say 'duh' when Asaiah declared Slytherin would win. "And obviously I say Gryffindor will win the first match," she said proudly. "But the real question is what do I get when I win?" she said confidently, leaning in to give him a quick kiss.
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[Asaiah Murphy]

From a young age his dream had been to eventually play Quidditch professionally as a Beater for his favourite team but since a few year ago another profession had caught his attention which he thought would suit him better because he would get to do stuff with the school subject he liked the most. ''At some point, I think I do,'' Asaiah told her. Because he had already decided that he wanted to become a Curse-Breaker first, didn't know when he would eventually try to have a go at playing for a team on a professional level, but definitely wasn't ruling it out. He grinned at Marisol when she said that Gryffindor would win the match and nodded his head while trying to think of something they could bet on. ''My undivided attention?'' the Slytherin joked. ''I don't know... I've already done enough of your homework through bets so I'm not going to do that again. If you win I will do whatever you want me to do for an hour. If I win, you will do the same for me.'' Already he was hoping that Lestat would catch the Snitch quicker than Cade would.

 

[Marisol Woods]

Marisol smiled when Asaiah mentioned he was considering playing Quidditch professionally, she thought it was a good idea for him since he'd always loved Quidditch and was rather good at it. "I've thought about it too, but I don't know," she confessed, shaking her head. "I just don't know what I want to do once we graduate," she sighed, somewhat frustrated and worried about their impending future. It didn't help that she still felt like she didn't know too much about the wizarding world so how was she supposed to know what professions were out there? After the werewolf meet up she'd gone to she saw that a lot of them were in werewolf related fields, but she didn't want her lycanthropy to be her entire life, as it is now she tried so hard to ignore it. But she tried not to dwell on that as the subject of their bet was at stake. Marisol threw her head back and laughed at Asaiah's suggestions. "Are you sure you want that to be the prize? You'll be subject to whatever I decide when I win," she said cheekily, so confident in her team that she already knew winning would be a sure thing for her. Then without waiting for a response she shrugged and said, "It's a deal!" just so Asaiah couldn't take it back. Now she just had to think of something for him to do when the time came.
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[Asaiah Murphy]

Asaiah couldn't help to feel a little guilty when she told him that she didn't know what to do after graduation yet. He was supposed to help her find a job that she would like doing a couple of years ago but had totally forgotten about that once they had returned to school again. ''You'd be an awesome Chaser,'' he told the girl truthfully. In his fantasies, the three friends would all join the same team and play Quidditch professionally together but doubted that this fantasy would ever happen since both Wyatt and he were quite serious about which team was better than the other team and which would be better to join were they going to participate in try-outs. (of course the Macaws were the best, his bro just couldn't see that yet) ''Wy and I can always help you if you need help choosing something,'' he added. Asaiah was starting to doubt the deal he had just made with his girlfriend. Doing whatever she wanted him to do for an hour wasn't something he was really looking forward to as it would probably be something really nasty and disgusting. ''I'm going to regret this if so much if Slytherin loses,'' the Beater said.

 

[Marisol Woods]

"You mean when Slytherin loses," Marisol said cheekily, already planning to gloat in his face after the first game. She'd need to start brainstorming ideas for his punishment soon but at the moment her mind was preoccupied with the thought of their futures. Marisol had smiled wanly when Asaiah assured her earlier that she'd be an awesome Chaser. It had been on her mind for a while now, and while she did worry whether she was even good enough to play professionally, her main concern was the time commitment she might not be able to honor because the toll a full moon took on her each month. It was a concern for any possible job she wanted to apply for in the future, not just a professional Quidditch player.

She looked around to make sure they were still alone and leaned closer to Asaiah as she confessed something to him. "Umm, over the break I met up with a bunch of werewolves. It was kind of scary actually, but they seemed...nice I guess," Marisol said uneasily, still unsure how she felt about werewolves. She was trying to disassociate them with beasts and she thought meeting them in human form might have helped that, but it was still hard for her to get over imagining what her life might have been like if she hadn't been bitten by one of them. "And they sort of implied that keeping a job is kinda hard for..for people like me," she said, biting her lip with worry. "Some of them are pretty open about it and say their employers don't care or whatever, but others say they can't stay in one job for too long before their co-workers or bosses start to pick up on the fact that they're missing every full moon and they leave before they become targets...for hunting I guess." Marisol had been holding onto this new, troubling information for a while now, but she hadn't been able to find the right time to talk to her friends about it because they had each been dealing with their own set of problems. But it was a bit of a relief being able to finally express her fear that she might not be able to keep a job, or worse, she might be hunted as soon as she left the safety of the castle after graduation.
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[Asaiah Murphy]

Feeling a little betrayed that she had not asked him to come with her to the werewolf meeting, especially since he had been staying at hers over the break, Asaiah listened attentively. He thought that it was unfair of people to treat werewolves like that - it wasn't there fault that they got bitten was it? Besides they would harm other employee's right? If the other werewolves were anything like Marisol (super careful) then surely they wouldn't be around anyone during a full moon? ''Well,'' the Slytherin began, ''I could have told you that too if you had asked me about it,'' Asaiah kind of saw himself as her go-to person whenever she had a question about the whole werewolf thing so it made him feel a little bitter that she hadn't told him about all this earlier. ''If you will really have a problem with getting a job, you can always come join me as a Curse-Breaker,'' he told his best friend, offering a solution to the problem. ''Goblins don't care what you are as long as you bring them back gold,'' Asaiah added. It'd be cool to have one of his friends travelling the world together with him in search for ancient treasures.

 

[Marisol Woods]

Marisol could tell it bothered Asaiah that she hadn't told him about all this sooner, but since he had been dealing with his family's deaths, she hadn't wanted to burden him with any of her own issues. Plus there was no way in hell she was going to drag a human to a meeting full of werewolves and make him a potential target. Sure they were all in human form, but still, Marisol didn't trust any of them. Some chose not to take Wolfsbane after all, so she would rather be safe than sorry for her friends' sake. Marisol laughed lightly at Asaiah's response. "How was I supposed to ask if I didn't even know it was a problem to begin with?" Her laugh sounded light and playful as if it was no big deal to her, but really she was feeling dumb and naive. She'd finally gotten so used to dealing with her lycanthropy, she'd only began to worry about normal future problems like which NEWTs she'd pass or where she'd apply for a job. She actually forgot to think of how a full moon could affect her future career because no one else had to. She smiled at Asaiah when he suggested being a Curse Breaker along her, chuckling at his comment about goblins. "That's actually not a bad idea, Murphy," she considered. If the job entailed traveling a lot then her whereabouts during a full moon might not even be noticed in the first place.
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