Open Time to Pretend Everything's Fine

[Max Goose]

Two days into the holiday break, Max found himself sitting alone at the Gryffindor table, building a card house with a set of exploding snap cards. It wasn't going very well, as the cards continued to explode halfway through, but he was determined to get at least one card house standing before going back to the common room again. He'd usually do this kind of thing with his sister but since he wasn't going home for the holidays this year he figured he would have to do it by himself for once. He could definitely tell that building a card house with exploding cards was loads easier with his sister's help. He didn't see the point in going home for the holidays now that his parents weren't living together anymore, so he had decided to remain at Hogwarts with his cousin. It just wouldn't be fun to have to spend one half of the break with his Dad and the other half of the break with his Mom. Even the thought of having to celebrate Christmas twice, and therefore getting more presents, didn't sound very appealing to him if the family was going to spend the holidays apart from each other. Why did adult stuff have to be so complicated all the time? Couldn't his parents just make up and be happy again? Urgh! Even though none of the cards had exploded yet, the card house still collapsed with a loud bang. Great, just great.

 

[Savannah Walters]

Savannah was enjoying having nothing to do, and no one she needed to spend time with. She just liked the freedom of school. Being at home sucked, and she could at least be sure that here she wouldn't have to make her own dinner and coax her parents into going to their jobs. She glanced about the great hall at the few people that were still at the school. She noted a boy playing with cards, as it turned out, exploding ones. Though, he hadn't been playing with them correctly. She decided to go over to him, having nothing better to do with herself and thinking a conversation could be okay. ”Aren't you supposed to play with cards…not build with cards?” she said, her tone was perhaps a little sharper than she had wanted, but she punctuated it with a little smile. ​

 

[Max Goose]

Max sighed at the sight of the collapsed card house in front of him and began to gather the cards once they had exploded again. There was no point in starting right before they would go off. He'd been this close to building the perfect card house without the cards exploding, why did he have to go and bang his fist on the table for, anyway? Stupid parents. Well, at least he could start over again and try to attempt to build another one before the cards exploded. He was about to start over when someone he thought looked familiar approached him. ''I know how I'm supposed to play with them,'' the Gryffindor replied. Of course he knew how to play with exploding snap cards, he wasn't stupid. ''It's just more fun this way'' It was also meant to keep his mind distracted from the fact that he was missing his parents and sister but it had obviously failed to do that. ''You know, get a card house done before they explode, see how fast you can do it and all, that's fun,'' he added.

 

[Savannah Walters]

Savannah glanced at the boy with a tight expression as he said he knew how to play with them, she was more than a little doubtful of that fact. Especially as he claimed that this was more fun that playing them the normal way. She was doubtful it was more fun, and just glanced at the boy. "Okay, show me then," and Savannah took a seat next to him and waited to be shown exactly how this was more fun that playing with exploding cards the normal way. She didn't think it would be but she'd give him the benefit of the doubt.​

 

[Max Goose]

Max smiled weakly when the girl sat down next to him. She looked like she didn't believe him so he was pleasantly surprised that she wanted him to show her. Even if she couldn't see the fun of it, he was still going to try and convince her otherwise. So he started building layer upon layer as fast as he could before the whole thing would collapse. It couldn't be long before the cards would explore since they hadn't gone off yet but that was exactly why he was having fun with it. The challenge of getting the timing just right. He was busy building the middle layer of the card house when it collapsed with a loud BANG. ''Ah, well, that's unfortunate timing, isn't it?'' the Gryffindor said, quickly gathering the cards now scattered across the table. He had already built a card house once without the cards exploding, so it didn't surprise him that they exploded while he was in the middle of building the second one. ''Think you can do better?''

Feel free to just ignore whatever this mess is, my brain isn't working

 

[Savannah Walters]

Savannah watched as the boy began doing it. Building up the tower slowly and then after the boy was getting to the middle layer, the thing exploded and it collapsed, it was some fairly good timing, but she had to admit it looked pretty fun. She didn't necessarily understand why they wouldn't just try to play the game as it was supposed to. But when it was handed to her, she wasn't sure she could do better but, she'd be willing to give a try. She took the cards and then began to slowly build it up, going slower than he had, she had never actually built a house of cards. She managed to begin on the second layer when the cards exploded, and it brought a small smile to her face. ”I get it,” ​

 

[Max Goose]

Max smiled encouragingly when she took the cards from him and watched as the girl began to slowly build it up. She wasn't going as fast as him but that wasn't much of a surprise if this was her first time building a card house. He grinned widely when the cards exploded, noticing the small smile on her face, which he took as a good sign. ''And now we race each other, to see who can build a house of cards the fastest before it explodes,'' the Gryffindor said. He leaned sideways and began to rummage through his bag for the second deck of exploding snap cards he had received from his mother as an early Christmas present. His old deck was pretty worn out, so he was actually really happy that she had given him another. ''The winner gets to call themselves the 'Fastest Exploding Card House Builder of Hogwarts'. And obviously, the rules are simple: the first with a four-layer house of cards wins!'' He wasn't sure if the girl wanted to race him for it but it wasn't as if she had something better to do at the moment, why else would she be at the Great Hall when they had the entire school for themselves? ''Unless you want to have another go at it, try it a second time before racing me?''