Quote:
Originally Posted by
amadshade 
It took a looong time for Snake to answer her. What had he been thinking about? She couldn't see his face hidden in his book, so she invented her own Snake train of thought.Oh no. What will I do? That comment was so good, I can't even think up a response. Maybe if I pretend like I'm reading and ignore her she'll go away. Or not. Now she looming over me! What will I do?! Ok. Breathe Snake. Breathe. Turn the page, that's it! Just ignore the big bad Tora Gallaway-
She stopped here. Not because Snake-boy had come up with an answer for her yet, but because she had just called herself big and bad. She chewed her lip slightly before quickly stopping just in case the Slytherin below her decided to actually follow her advice and be more observant. He would certainly have some cutting remark to say about that.
Tora didn't want to be a bully, really she didn't. It was just that she couldn't stand a bully, and Snake was definitely a bully, in all forms of the word. She scowled to herself, this would probably keep her up all night. Didn't she start this one? Wasn't she the one who tripped over his feet? He had probably put them there in the first place to make her trip, but she had been reading and walking....
She let her eyes wander around the sunny room, avoiding the figure in the chair purposefully ignoring her, and finally settled on looking at the book where she had placed it on the table. Ok, now she felt a little bad. But only a little. Snake had definitely been a bully the other night, so even if he was only defending himself now, he was still mean. Speaking of which, he finally answered her comment.
Oh bravo. Little Snake, since you're so unobservant, you have to know that I don't care about beauty. Not that you're much of a looker either. Tora thought as she gave a little 'heh' noise in response.
"If you insist," she replied smiling a little, determined to be nicer this time. "You're not reading fiction. So you're in here to study, which means that you're probably either behind or aren't where you would want to be in schooling or some particular subject." She couldn't quite read the spine since he had the book on his lap so she couldn't tell what subject. Ok. Im done now, Snake. I was nice and now it's your turn, let's see what you come up with.
Though she doubted it would be any less mocking than anything else he had said. On any rational person, a calm, honest remark would've been read and reacted to as such. On Cutty Mordaunt Tora's logical response pushed terrible buttons within the boy.
What manner of reverse psychology witchcraft was this?! She was at least doing a good job of hiding the suffering of having just been called old and ugly as invariably every witch Cutty had met thus far had been more than a little concerned about her looks. Or maybe that's what she wanted. As a bully that
WOULD be considered an asset.
From his reclined position on his lounge chair, Cutty could feel his expression change to a burgeoning frown and side-glance towards Tora. He allowed his book to flop spine-down against his lap all drama-Slyth-like. Who said he wasn't reading fiction? Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard, which he had picked for the title, might just as well have been though Cutty had found use of in it's utterly hopeless passive aggression.
She had been right, of course. He wasn't anywhere near where he wanted to be with his magical education by now. He was impatient for perfection. But this, he gathered was merely a case of a 50/50 chance of getting it wrong. Fiction or non-fiction. Tora Gallaway was not observant enough for that. Not from what he'd seen. He wanted to ask her what sort of potions she needed to take for her particular type of mental disorder and had she forgotten to take them that day, but that might start a conversation with this wildebeast and he would just as soon not. So what he said was, "
Yerokay." Which was as good as
Shut up.