Closed Opposing Seekers

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie had signed up for the blind dating, she hadn’t really wanted to go to the yuleball alone, not with everything else that had happened. But, she was beginning to think it might’ve been preferable to go alone than with Blake. At least she hadn’t been paired up with Noel, that would’ve been awkward. She felt somewhat reassured that Hattie was going with him, and she wasn’t at all jealous. She’d broken up with Noel, she couldn’t take that back. She shouldn’t. But Blake of all people. He was just going to rub his victory in her face, he was just the better player, the better captain she was just Minnie, she wasn’t good at anything. She couldn’t do anything well. She was studying more than ever, even without exams in this semester because her luck was just going to result with her getting awful OWL grades and what would her parents say then. She knew that it wouldn’t go well, she was dreading going home, her mother hadn’t written once, her father had not once put her mum’s name at the bottom of his letters, and those themselves had been few and far between. Comparatively with the letters she’d been getting before. She had hoped her at school would’ve mellowed them out, but she was beginning to realise that it probably wasn’t. However, Minnie pushed all of that aside as she walked to the great hall. She had told Blake the exact time she would be at the hall and she arrived perfectly to time. She had of course made an effort for Blake, she couldn’t not. Minnie tried to not look for Noel in the crowd, or even Eric, though she doubted she would see the latter, perhaps that was good, he wouldn’t see her here with Blake. This was a mistake.​

 

[Blake van Houten]

There was still time to run outside and go for a nice long swim in the lake, Blake considered as he made his way agonisingly slowly to the Great Hall. Being eaten by an eel couldn't be all that bad. On the surface, signing up to this blind dates thing had seemed like a great idea. He'd have a girl to take to the dance so Jenna wouldn't think anything she shouldn't, and it'd just be some random girl he didn't really know or care about. Unfortunately, the girl he had been paired with had been anything but random. Minnie was Lars' co-captain, and he knew he needed to watch how he acted here. Blake wasn't ignorant to the fact that the other Quidditch teams all hated him, but here it actually mattered. And that didn't even get to the heart of things.

When he had signed up for this, Blake had been totally focused on Jenna seeing him dancing with someone, on the rest of the school seeing Blakesness as usual, no gay thoughts to be found here. But now that the day had come, the only person Blake could think about seeing him was Lars. Lars was going to see this. He knew that Lars understood... he did... understand, Blake hoped, but actually seeing him on a date with someone else... Blake hated everything about how this felt. He tried to push down the painful cocktail of regret and fear driving him to consider taking a late night dip as he approached the Great Hall, slipping on what he hoped was his usual cocky smile. Minnie was easy to find, and of course her dress was beautiful and eye catching. There was no chance they would be able to slide under the radar. "Well, it looks like I'm the luckiest guy in the Brotherhood." The words slipped out before Blake had even really thought about them, lying to Minnie came as easily as lying to Alice had. Another thought that hurt. Blake didn't want to be that guy anymore. But he was in this now, and there was no easy way to back out. He offered Minnie an elbow, giving what he hoped was a charming smile. "Shall we?"

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie wasn't sure what Blake would be like, she admittedly didn't know him very well outside of what she knew from quidditch, but if that was anything to go by this wouldn't be that fun. She just had to do this and it would be bearable, maybe he wouldn't be that bad. Hadn't she seen Lars around him? Had she imagined that..She wasn't sure what this would bring. She glanced at the boy as he approached her and she had to roll her eyes at him. It was such a cliche thing to say, it wasn't the same with Noel, he had always complimented her but it felt different from him. Less genuine, was she just jaded? She did take his arm as it was offered, she was wearing heels after all and couldn't really justify not getting a little help to walk. ​

​

Minnie looked around the room and was surprised when she spotted Eric with a girl from heta girl, the secretary or something. She frowned slightly....why didn't Eric mention this girl...why didn't he tell her? Was it because she hadn't really mentioned when she'd started dating Noel....Minnie turned her attention away from him and looked back at Blake. "So...how was your semester?" she didn't know what else to say to him, or what conversation to make, she could've talked about quidditch if she didn't feel so bitter and saddened by it. She reached with a hand to lightly touch her snitch necklace for a moment before just letting go. ​

 

[Blake van Houten]

Even trying his hardest to keep up the charismatic facade he had hidden behind for most of his life, Blake felt himself deflate slightly as Minnie rolled her eyes at him. Lines like that had worked so well on Alice, why had it failed him now? Maybe their Quidditch rivalry made it easier for her to see through him, or maybe his heart just wasn't in it anymore. One way or another, this didn't feel right, and Blake didn't really know what to do with himself.

He had been telling himself for days that he wasn't going to look for Lars once he got to the ball. Even if it wouldn't be suspicious, he didn't know how he would cope, having to see Lars' face seeing him on a date with a girl, a girl Lars knew very well. He was just going to ignore the Ravenclaw entirely, act as if he didn't exist and stay focused on his date for the evening. But the second they set foot in the Great Hall Blake felt his eyes wandering, desperately unable to avoid looking for the boy who consumed his thoughts. It didn't take long before he spotted Lars by the snack table, and Blake felt his heart launching into somersaults as a million thoughts rushed through his head. Above all, he couldn't stop thinking about what a bad idea this was. What had he been thinking, coming here with Minnie?! He should have cancelled the moment the blind dates were announced. He tore his eyes away from Lars and looked back at his date, taking a moment to even process her question. "What?" Blake stammered out before shaking his head, trying to collect himself. "Sorry, I... yeah, it was fine, just, uh, normal stuff, you know." Blake shrugged awkwardly. "Do you, uh... do you wanna dance or something?" He asked too quickly, trying to steer Minnie away from the food tables.

((godmod of lars approved))

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

The silence which followed after Minnie's question gave her enough time to glance around, finding herself looking towards Eric again for a little moment, she was quite surprised he was here and wearing a suit. She would've never thought to invite him to such a thing, even as a friend. This wasn't his scene, but she looked away as it seemed that he had looked towards her and she just followed where Blake was looking, finding it oddly towards Lars. It seemed then that he clocked onto her question, but the answer didn't really give much away, nor was it that great for continuing conversation. "Sure, let's dance," Minnie agreed, letting herself steer them towards the dance floor. She moved to stand in front of him and thought of what she could say. She would keep her eyes away from Eric from now on, she wouldn't look for Noel in the crowd, she would focus on her date and hopefully the date would be over soon enough. "So....are you friends with Lars?" since he'd been looking in that direction, perhaps they were friends.​

 

[Blake van Houten]

Blake only really realised his mistake when Minnie agreed to dance. He had never been any good at dancing, not a graceful bone in his body when both feet were on the ground, but it was definitely too late to back out now. He forced a smile as he led Minnie onto the dance floor, hoping he could get away with just stepping from one foot to the other and calling it dancing. As much of a relief as it had been to temporarily worry about something other than Lars however, Blake's worst fears were quickly realised as his date asked almost the worst thing she possibly could have. "What? No." Blake said too quickly, putting his hands on her waist and starting to step side to side, now hoping his terrible dancing would distract Minnie. "I wasn't looking at him, he was staring at us. I think he likes you or something. So weird." Blake lied, cursing himself for the stupid lie the second it left his mouth. Lars couldn't have been much more blatant about being gay, and there was no way someone who had to spend as much time with him as Minnie did wouldn't see through his lie. Maybe Blake could just trip over and set Minnie's dress on fire or something. That would be much less disasterous than the current trajectory of this conversation.

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie moved to put her hand on his waist so that they could start dancing. She was a little surprised by his reaction to her statement, it was certainly a reaction, a quick reaction to what he'd said. She frowned at what he said, Lars didn't like her, not like that, not at all. As far as she knew he wasn't interested in girls at all but it also wasn't for her to be telling others about it. She knew Lars was fairly open with her about it but it didn't mean he was open with others, "He definitely doesn't, we're friends but nothing more, trust me," She glanced towards him and gave a little wave in case he'd spotted her. She liked lars, he didn't know what was going on in her life but she was thankful for his presence during quidditch. Grounding her in a way that some like him could, even if he didn't know. "He's a good captain," she then said almost absentmindedly. She knew Lars and Blake were also in the same year. She noted as they danced that Blake wasn't a very good dancer, "Don't you know how to dance?"​

 

[Blake van Houten]

Blake had known his lie wasn't going to work, but he was disappointed nonetheless when Minnie refuted it. Of course she knew Lars was gay. It definitely wasn't a secret, and Blake had no idea what he had been thinking trying to get away with that. "Oh." He said awkwardly, trying to shrug the whole subject off. "Well, whatever." He said quickly, hoping Minnie wouldn't assume Lars had been staring at Blake. He shrugged when Minnie said Lars was a good captain, looking anywhere but at Lars or his date. "I guess." He said idly, trying not to look interested. He did look back at Minnie when she commented on his dancing though, frowning. "No?! I'm not a girl." He grumbled, frowning.

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie wasn't willing to make assumptions about Blake and why he was looking towards Lars, in her mind they could just be friends and if they were otherwise it wasn't her business. Perhaps he lars just knew Blake better than most and got him like others didn't. She rolled her eyes a little at his I guess about Lars' leadership, she wanted to retort about it, tell him he was good at being a captain, her feelings towards this situation, her frustration with this date, with seeing Noel and Hattie, with how Eric was here fuelling that but she decided against it. She shouldn't have bothered. It was made worse at his statement about dancing, "What has being a girl got to do with being able to dance, specifically dancing at a ball with dates?" she responded, her own dancing slowing slightly, her tone sharp. ​

 

[Blake van Houten]

As much as he had hoped for a distraction, now that one had actually come Blake was fairly sure he had been better off without it. He slowed down his side to side steps in time with Minnie, shrugging awkwardly. "I mean, dancing's girls stuff." He said plainly, giving her a look. "Girls do dancing and.... gymnastics or whatever, guys do real sports." He shrugged. "My dad runs a gym, I know this stuff."

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie’s frown at him deepened. She was almost surprised that someone who had been a captain with a girl, who had girls on his team would ever say such a thing. ”So what’s quidditch, a real sport or a girl sport?” she said. Minnie had completely stopped dancing and let go of him entirely. If Lars was friends with this guy she couldn’t help but want to warn him that he didn’t seem all that nice. She was sure that was the outsider perspective for some on Eric but he was actually nice, he was actually a good person, unlike Blake who was clearly just the worst sort of person. Perhaps she was being a little quick to judge. She wasn’t moving, wasn’t hiding her frustration with him, just so visibly annoyed by Blake and his words, which was topping off an evening that just like everything else in her life currently was going entirely wrong. ​

 

[Blake van Houten]

Blake had never really made his feelings about girls in sports known before, and though he wasn't nearly as militant about it as he had been when he was young, it still made sense to him. It was his dad's whole job to know stuff about sports, why would he be wrong about this one? But if Minnie's reaction was anything to go by, it was a far more controversial take than he had expected. "Quidditch is a real sport." He said firmly, withdrawing his hands as Minnie stopped dancing. It felt weird to keep touching her while they were arguing. "There are girls who are good at it, but it's designed for men. It's just biology, we're stronger and faster, we have tougher bones, girls would never design a sport with bludgers. I'm not saying girls can't play, guys are just naturally better, and girls are naturally better at stuff like dancing and horse riding and whatever. It's biology."

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Of course this date would just get worse, what had she been thinking. Her time would’ve been better served studying in the library or even just coming alone but after Halloween, the quidditch loss, the prefect position, after breaking up with Noel she had just wanted one good evening. Of course like everything else in her life this was just going to go wrong, of course she was going to get a date with a guy who was just so incredibly rude. He didn’t even backtrack his statement, he just rationalised. It couldn’t possible be not a real sport because then what was he doing, but it had girls, so there had to be a way that it didn’t suit girls. But hearing him say it. Hearing him claim biology, she could bet he didn’t know the first thing about biology. But even if he did the statement was just so wrong. She could feel her hand curl into a fist, she knew fighting wasn’t the way to deal with this, there were professors all over the place. Still, Minnie held Blake gaze looking for any evidence that he was joking as he finished speaking leaving a heavy silence, ”We’re done here,” she muttered after a moment and with one solid motion moved to punch Blake straight on the nose, all of her frustrations, disappointment and anger fuelling this punch. She’d likely regret doing that in a moment but for once she didn’t care about the consequences, he had deserved it. Maybe Eric had been right to indulge his anger all along, it was the easiest way to deal with anger.​

 

[Blake van Houten]

Blake hadn't expected his opinion to be hugely popular with someone like Minnie, but he also hadn't expected her reaction to be so extreme. Blake barely had time to react before her fist was flying towards him, striking him hard in the nose. Blake stumbled back, blinking back tears that sprung to his eyes as his hands flew to his nose, clutching it as blood began to drip down his face. In the shock and confusion he couldn't even summon the words to object, completely knocked off guard by the punch. Minnie had punched him.

 

[Professor Kahurangi Josephs]

Chaperoning the Yule Ball somehow managed to be one of the easiest duties at Hogwarts, in Kahurangi's opinion. Less mischief to break up than Halloween, less reminding teens to keep their hands to themselves than Valentines. It was nice to just dress up and go to a dance, get some snacks and enjoy the energy. Patrolling the hall, she spotted some of her colleagues chatting and was tempted to go join them for a bit when her attention was sharply drawn to the dancefloor by an unmistakeable sound. Though she hadn't actually seen the punch happen, the boy clutching a bloody nose made it all too clear what had happened. "MISS CALIDA!" Kahurangi said firmly, drawing her wand as she worked her way through the crowd over to the pair. "What on earth are you doing?!" She asked, looking around as she did to see if any of the school nurses were chaparoneing. She had seen enough broken noses in her time to know that was going to need some magical assistance to heal, without a doubt.

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie immediately felt her satisfaction rising as she noted the blood spurt from Blake’s nose, her hand throbbed lightly but her anger had been pushed away. She had no idea how or why but she suddenly felt lighter..that was until she heard Professor Josephs’ unmistakeable voice. She felt her cheeks redden and her nervousness peak. She was in the right, perhaps not the right way to go about it but she was right to do something. Minnie had to very much force herself to meet Professor Josephs’ gaze but she did and held firm. ”Professor Josephs, I apologise for my outburst, I know it is not becoming conduct of a ravenclaw...however,” Minnie’s tone was apologetic and she was trying her best to be respectful. Minnie’s gaze moved towards Blake, ”Blake, do you want to repeat what you just said to me in regards to girls being biologically less designed for quidditch?” Minnie couldn’t help her tone filling with some anger slightly as she asked him that, knowing that at the very least Professor Josephs would figure a little what had brought the punch on. She was also betting on the professor to trust that Minnie wasn’t lying. Minnie could never lie to a professor in reality and she definitely wasn’t going to lie about this. ”Or shall I tell her?”​

 

[Blake van Houten]

Blake was still blinking back tears when he saw Minnie's Head of House arrive, relieved that a teacher was going to take care of this. His nose felt wrong, and he was fairly sure he would need to spend the rest of the evening in the hospital wing. Definitely not how he had pictured this date going. Any relief Blake had felt evaporated though, as Minnie switched demeanour quick as lightning, and explained what had happened. Oh no. Blake didn't really know anything about the Ravenclaw Head of House, but she definitely didn't seem like the kind of woman who would agree with what he had said. "Uh..." he said blankly, still clutching his nose as he fumbled for a way to explain this. His head was still spinning from the punch, and Minnie had him completely backed into a corner. "I bean... id's nod a big deal..." He mumbled, shoulders hunched as he tried to look anywhere but at Minnie or Professor Josephs. "Jusd like... biology and sduff..." It sounded lame even to him, but there really wasn't a way out of this. Blake had always taken his dad's word as gospel when it came to athletics, but being confronted with the consequences of those words... they felt like they held less and less water. Half his own Quidditch team were girls and they were undisputedly champions. Minnie had just about inverted his face, and he had no doubt that if she wanted to, Professor Josephs could mash him into a paste. The punch had.... flipped some switch in his mind, and Blake knew he had to... actually really think critically about the things his dad had told him for the first time. "....Sorry. Id's just... whad my dad always says."

 

[Professor Kahurangi Josephs]

Minnie had never struck Kahurangi as the violent type, and it was strangely jarring to see the girl revert to her usual formality as soon as there was a teacher present. Kahurangi wasn't so foolish as to think the faces students presented to her were even remotely accurate to how they acted without teachers around, but it was surprising to see such a sudden shift in behaviour. Far more interesting, though, was what Minnie was saying. Kahurangi never would have expected Minnie to hit someone without good reason, and the reason she was presenting definitely sounded like a good one. It was more of a surprise when Blake didn't move to dispute her, agreeing with the explanation Minnie had given of the situation. "I see." Kahurangi said gravely, giving the Slytherin a pointed look before turning to Minnie. "Miss Calida, I'll see you in my office for detention at the beginning of next semester." She said firmly. "However justified it may feel, physical violence is never an appropriate way to solve issues with a schoolmate." Kahurangi gave the girl a pointed look before turning her attention to the Slytherin. "Mr. Irons, I would advise you to head to the Hospital Wing, and take that time to really think about the apologies you owe to Miss Calida, and the young women on your own Quidditch team. They deserve better from their captain."

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie felt somewhat pleased when Blake didn’t even lie about it, she realise he must deeply believe what he was saying and she felt bad, not for hitting him, but for the girls on his team, for Leda, for that other girl he’d been a captain with. Her hand which she had used to punch him moved to lightly touch the necklace that Leda had given her after the slytherin victory. She had been a captain, Blake was no captain. She could’n’t imagine thinking such a thing about her players. They didn’t win like Slytherin did, but all of them were amazing, driven players. Blake’s last statement was the only part she could also believe, since until her life had fallen apart this semester she too had often blindly parroted her parents. She only knew a little better now. But still inexcusable. She looked back at the professor, standing rigidly straight, her hands dropping to her sides, knowing she was going to get into trouble for this. She nodded at the punishment. Detention. ​

​

”Yes Professor,” she replied instantly with a nod. She hoped Professor Josephs wouldn’t tell her parents about the detention, the situation for her at home was hanging by a thread, if they found out she’d hit someone and gotten detention, she might as well pack her bags and find a new family. But she couldn’t ask the professor to not, she wasn’t really in a position to make demands. ”I’m sorry for punching you Blake, and Professor again, I’m sorry about my outburst,” she looked to both people as she spoke before she began walking out of the hall. Despite what had just happened her head was raised high and she walked with purpose across the hall and out the room. Aside from the thread of her parents finding out about the detention, she didn’t at all regret what she’d done.​

 

[Blake van Houten]

Blake's ego felt as bruised as his nose and he hung his head quietly, trying to avoid the gaze of the rest of the ball attendees. Yule Ball dates had never gone well for him, why had he thought this was a good idea?! This one might even top the disastrous date with Alice. He nodded quietly at the admonishment from Professor Josephs, barely even thinking about what the teacher had said to Minnie. He was frankly surprised he had gotten off so lightly, since it was pretty clear Professor Josephs didn't approve. He had always just trusted his dad on the subject, it was his job to know how human bodies and exercise worked. But... the more he thought about what he had said, the more stupid Blake felt. He knew girls could be good at Quidditch. He had seen it time and again. Why was he still holding onto something he had seen evidence against? His shoulders slumped as he shuffled out of the ball to go to the hospital wing, blood dripping through his fingers as he exited the ball.