Ying & Yang

Leda Layton

hates secrets 👑 THREE?! | upturned lion editor
Messages
1,972
OOC First Name
Pheeb
Blood Status
Muggleborn
Relationship Status
Married
Sexual Orientation
Asexual (Mervyn)
Wand
Straight 14 1/2 Inch Rigid Dogwood Wand with Unicorn Tail Hair Core
Age
2/2033 (26)
Leda had just found out about her new position on the Quidditch team, but the only person she thought of telling wasn't exactly speaking to her right now. Things hadn't been the same since the day that Leda and Mervyn had tried to help out some wildlife, and while the Slytherin had been doing her best to keep her head held high, she missed her best friend. They'd spent over two years around one another and to go as long as they had without speaking was making her feel a bit strange.

Not wanting to leave it any longer, she had dragged herself up from the common room, purposely avoiding Olive as she knew that if she could tell Mervyn first it would have made her feel better. Professor Layton would obviously be pleased too, considering she once played seeker on the Gryffindor team in Scotland, and now it was as though Leda was following in her elder sisters footsteps. The redhead wanted her best friend back though and feeling as though it could well be an ice breaking, she pushed herself towards the table as she caught site of him. Approaching from behind, careful in case her presence scared him off (Not that she expected it would be after he'd run away from her at their last encounter she couldn't be sure) and cleared her throat loudly. "Mervyn." She said briefly and with a blank face, "It's September Mervyn." As though that sentence alone was meant to trigger a memory in the Gryffindor that they were both in tune with.
 
So much for the good feeling Mervyn had had at the start of term. Not one thing so far had gone right: he'd fallen off his broom during Quidditch tryouts; been tricked by Solomon and sent to the hospital wing; been mocked on at least three separate occasions for his accent; and embarrassed himself in front of Sapphire. The worst thing that had happened, though, was that he had fallen out with Leda. No longer did he have anybody to share his concerns and troubles with - or at least, nobody he really trusted. Sapphire had been understanding about the things he'd told her, but he'd been on edge ever since, afraid she might be silently judging him, or that she would tell someone, and then suddenly the entire school would know.

Resting his elbow on the table and his chin in his hand, Mervyn nudged his food around with his fork. He wasn't hungry - hadn't been for days. He startled, but didn't turn around, when he heard Leda behind him. There was an expectancy in her voice, as if her remark was supposed to mean something to him. "And?" he said, twisting his fork back and forth in a mound of scrambled eggs. Much as he'd missed Leda, he just wasn't in the mood.
 
The Slytherin stared at the back of the boys head, waiting for his attention that never fully came. She paused for a moment, thinking how he could have possibly forgotten their tradition. Argument or not, this would have been the third year that had a school event to attend and Leda still didn't plan on going by herself. "Halloween Mervyn. Obviously." September was their planning month, a chance for them to combine their brain power and no doubt come up with something extraordinary. The third year didn't wait for an invitation as she took a seat beside the boy, and pulling her bag that hung over her shoulder she took out a sheet of parchment. "I've already put together a few things." She said, before running through the ideas she'd had in the last couple of days. Once she was finished, she helped herself to a piece of toast that seemed to lay forgotten on his plate, taking a bite out of it as she glanced up to await his opinion. Leda wasn't good at talking about feelings if they were her own, and even though she felt bad that there seemed to be a rift between them right now, she didn't know what to say or how to fix it, preferring instead to act as if nothing was wrong at all.
 
Oh, right. Halloween. Mervyn was supposed to be excited about that, even though it was still over a month away. Truth be told, he'd not given it a second thought. Without Leda, what were holidays? Dull, and a bit lonely. He listened without looking as she went over her ideas. Some of them were admittedly pretty good, though he'd already thought of a way to make them better. He was reminded in that moment of what a team they were, and how, though they were great by themselves, combined, they were unstoppable. But he still didn't feel better. Setting down his fork, he pushed the plate toward Leda. "I ain't goin'," he told her simply. He was almost too embarrassed to be seen out of his dormitory at all - no way was he going to the Halloween feast. Besides, he'd only bring everybody down with his miserableness, or entertain them with his stupid accent.
 
Not going? Of course he was going. Only Leda was caught off guard by his comment, and was struck by the tone of helplessness in the boys voice. Clearly something had upset him, although she hadn't thought she'd done anything that bad in Olives classroom except raise her voice a bit. Shed sent a note recently to the Gryffindor in the hopes that if Onyx was right about he and Sapphire then at least he would have had another friend to talk to even if it wasn't her. Leda had never seen him with anyone else before and while she could talk to Zennon and Uno in the common room she did feel a bit bad sometimes too that Mervyn couldnt always join them. Perhaps it had been the wrong thing to do, setting them up like that, although even she didn't have the words to ask how that had gone. Finishing off the piece of toast and brushing her hands down her robes, she tried to focus on the parchment in front of her, deciding that her news about Quidditch could probably wait. As she tripped over her own thoughts in her mind, she was sketching additional parts to their costumes, with each one adding small notes to help them later. It was easier to do that than try to pry out answers from him even if she did eventually work out where to start.
 
Mervyn thought Leda might ask him why not, or press him, or plead with him, or get angry, and he had a number of defensive remarks already prepared for whichever method she chose. But she did none of those things. Surprised by the silence, Mervyn finally looked at her. She was adding something to her notes - a sketch of what appeared to be one of the costumes. Mervyn twitched as he tried to resist the temptation to offer his opinion. You're not going. You're not going. You're not going. "Give us it 'ere," he said, practically yanking the pencil from Leda's hand and leaning over to add a little extra 'wow' to the costume. He took his time, biting his lip in concentration, then grinned as he slapped the pencil down and sat back. "There. Much be'er, see?"
 
As Mervyn grabbed the pencil from her hand, disrupting her thoughts of how she was going to break the ice, her blue eyes watched her friend make amendments to their costume. "You're going to have to do better than that if you want to convince yourself you're not going, not to mention me," she grinned back, peering down to see what he'd added. Sure, it did look a little more impressive now and it was one of the reasons they'd chosen to work together in the past, for both Halloween and their extra curriculum activities. She picked the pencil up once more, and added a few extra bits of flair, thinking it was definitely something they could do if they got started in time. "You know, we might actually have to be in the same room if we want to pull this off." she stated, not daring to glance up at him in case he was suddenly against the idea, but perhaps she would be able to gauge whether his mood really was just down to her past behaviour.
 
Mervyn had missed Leda. Not just Leda, but he'd missed himself when he was with Leda. Suddenly, the bullying and the Quidditch blunder and everything with Sapphire seemed unimportant. He was comforted to know that Leda wouldn't grill him about his bad mood, and he suspected that, in time, he might open up to her; but today, all he wanted to do was plan costumes and have fun. "All right, all right, keep yer wig on, sweet'eart," he said, as if Leda were in hysterics. "I know you can't keep away from me. It's that effect - I 'ave it on people. " He grinned, leaning instinctively away in case she smacked him. "You miss me?"
 
If Leda was still eating the slice of toast, she would have probably choked on it as she heard his remark, thick in his cockney accent. "Excuse me?!" her eyebrows practically raising to the roof, but as were the edges of her mouth. She laid down her pencil, turning properly to face the boy, the shock of his words causing her to laugh a little. Without thinking or with much regard to his own personal space, she lent forward and threw her arms round the boys neck, squeezing him like she was holding on to dear life. She was tempted to make some sort of remark about how she didn't seem to be the only Slytherin that wasn't able to keep away, but given the break their friendship had just taken, it didn't feel right to make such a joke. "Not at all. I love being one half of a team." she commented sarcastically, eventually letting him breath again and resuming her original position but with a rare genuine smile flashed in his direction. Of course she'd missed him. There were many people in this castle but not everyone was suitable to be a recipient of her stories, and besides the Gryffindor had an energy that matched her own, only making her days more exciting. "Now of course, I know life must have been very boring for you these last few weeks. But please, tell me you've been doing more than just eating slightly soggy eggs in your free time," she added, curious to know whether he'd felt as aimless as she.
 
Leda's reaction pleased Mervyn to no end. He was in the middle of gloating when suddenly she flung his arms around his neck. Stunned, but happy, he squeezed her back, wincing at the painful angle she was forcing his neck into. Why was everybody so touchy-feely all of a sudden? Mervyn sure hoped Leda wasn't ever going to try to kiss him. He smiled as she pulled away, feeling slightly dazed. It was nice to see her smiling back. "I made a new friend, actually," he said, pulling the plate back over to finish his eggs. "'Is name's Tibby. 'E's in your 'ouse, just transferred this year. Wot about you?" Plenty more had happened than that, but Mervyn wasn't in the mood to talk about it right now. If Leda teased him, even only playfully, he knew he'd start to blush - and anyway, he still wasn't sure how he was feeling.
 
So far, in all their time at Hogwarts, it appeared that their friends were in Slytherin. Leda didn't talk to many but those she did all came from the same house, and it wasn't a surprise when she heard that Mervyn's new friend was a Slytherin too. "In our year?" she asked, not yet sure whether or not she's seen this Tibby guy around. She of course made very little acknowledgement of new faces, she had no reason to, but she was curious about anyone that tried to take away the friendship that Leda and Mervyn had, and a spark of jealousy found itself in her stomach for a second before she realised that would never happen, she was too good. "I let Mr Prickles go. Like Olive said. A bit stupid really that he couldn't say but," she shrugged, at least he seemed more chirpy back in the grass. "Zennon helped me. And Uno." she added, wondering if Mervyn had had a chance to talk to the younger girl yet that seemed to be attached to one of their new friends. Keeping track of everyone already seemed exhausting, and she wondered why they couldn't just be happy with one another as they'd always been.
 

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