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Post by vivi on Aug 21, 2011 11:08:19 GMT -5
  Benjamin was the sort of person in whom Genevieve had genuine interest, because he really was not like other boys. He was smart, and Vivi wasn’t used to smart boys – they tended to be boring and not worth her precious time. True, her initial interest in him was to see what made him the sort of person her sister fawned over, but now that Vivi had had her own interaction with him, she cared little for that. She enjoyed his company, and though they weren’t equals, Vivi supposed it wouldn’t hurt to almost treat him like one, or at least let him think that they were. She read his note, then folded it up and tucked it into her pocket. Babbling’s back was turned as she was pointing to various runes on the board and giving some sort of explanation for them; this was Vivi’s only shot. She stood up rapidly, knocking her chair back and hearing it clatter to the floor. She doubled over, ducking her head so that it would be difficult for Babbling to see her face, and clasped one hand over her mouth while the other gripped Benjamin’s shoulder. “Oh my god, I’m going to be sick!” she all but shouted, then picked up her bag and fled the classroom, running a short distance down the corridor until she was able to turn a corner. There, she pressed her back against the wall and waited for Benjamin with bated breath. He was smart; he’d be able to figure out his own excuse for leaving. She smiled to herself, immensely pleased that she had convinced him to skip the rest of class with her. With her – not her sister, not Ian, no one else but her. Oh, she didn’t fancy Benjamin. Of course not. He wasn’t the fanciable sort. But he was intriguing. He fascinated her. And despite what she’d said in the note, she did so badly want to break him down just to see all the pieces that made him him. Once she knew exactly how he worked, she could use her knowledge to twist him into doing anything she wanted – and having someone like Benjamin be forever on bended knee for her was such an enticing thought that she allowed herself to smile and give a light, quiet laugh. He was hardly perfect, but that made him better, somehow. It baffled Vivi, that thought, because she had always believed that perfection was above everything. Somehow, Benjamin was proving her theory wrong, and she wondered if he even knew it.
She couldn’t help but wonder what they were going to do with their newfound freedom. Ordinarily when she skipped, she was alone, and would simply head back down to the dungeons to nap or mess around with homework or loot through her dormmates’ belongings to see if there was anything worth taking. She couldn’t do that with Benjamin with her, unfortunately. There was no way they would make a trip to the library – besides, Pince would catch them – and she didn’t want to simply lounge in the Concourse either. There was always the Hole in the Wall, but Vivi didn’t feel like going down there. It really wasn’t all that great of a place, in her opinion. She knew he played Quidditch, so flying with him would have been a good option… if Vivi didn’t detest heights. She, like any sensible person, preferred to keep her feet planted on the ground. But… hm. There was that one room she’d stumbled across a few times. Back in second year, she’d made a wrong turn on her way to a loo, and instead opened a door that led to a lavish bathroom that even had a bidet. She had tried to find that bathroom again out of simple curiosity, but it hadn’t been there. There wasn’t even a door; it was just an empty wall. Later in the year, however, she had stolen a bracelet from one of her dormmates, and needed a place to hide it as the girl was ransacking everyone else’s trunks to find it. She had only happened to be in the same corridor when the door was back, only now it was a different room. It was vast and full to bursting of all sorts of things – broomsticks, books, and other trinkets Vivi didn’t have time to sort through. She’d hidden the bracelet underneath some sort of cloth near the entrance; when she’d gone back for it, the door was gone, and she’d paced the hallway several times in an attempt to find the exact spot where she’d hidden it – and then there it was. The door was back, and she found herself in that room again, and took the bracelet and left. She wondered if maybe the room only appeared in times of need, but didn’t have time to test her theory before school ended and she was sent home. In September of her third year, she decided that she’d find out. Pissing off Filch was easy; running and hiding from him would be harder. She let him and his cat chase her up to that floor, and was a good distance ahead of them when she reached the corridor. It gave her time to find the spot and pace in front of it, saying that she needed a place to hide, and then the door was back and Vivi found herself inside a closet she was able to lock from the inside. Filch and his cat ran right by, and Vivi was safe.
She had no idea that it was actually called the Room of Requirement. As far as Vivi was concerned, no other student currently at Hogwarts knew of its existence, though it must have been discovered in the past as so many things were hidden in one version of the room. Over the course of her third year, she continued to experiment with the room, and found that she could mould it to shape almost anything she desired. There were some things it couldn’t create, like food, but as far as she knew that was because of some magical law or rule or something. Besides, she didn’t need food. Genevieve didn’t have a name for it, either; she simply called it The Room, and didn’t use it as often today. It was risky for a Slytherin to go up there, because there really was no need for it. It was easy to get caught, and she definitely didn’t want anyone else knowing her secret. Today, though… perhaps she could indulge Benjamin. After all, she promised him that she was full of surprises and that it would be worth it. If there was anything she could use to surprise him and appeal to him, it would be The Room. What sort of room would she create for them, though? It had to be something spectacular, something no other room in Hogwarts had. Perhaps… perhaps something like the last club she’d been in during the summer. It had a marvellous dance floor, and colourful, flashing lights and a disco ball and fantastic dance music. The couches had all been brightly-coloured and large and so very easy to sink into. Vivi chuckled to herself; why be in class when they could be having their own private dance party? It was perfect. She had been waiting for a while longer than she expected to, however, and for a moment began to doubt that he was coming. The thought filled her with anger and she had half a mind to hex him the next time she saw him. He had said he’d be joining her, and to leave her hanging like this was nothing short of cruel, and no one treated Genevieve that way, regardless of how ‘interesting’ he was. She clenched her jaw and tightened her hands into fists, and then – lucky for him – there he was. Her expression quickly changed to a smile, and she glanced around to make sure he wasn’t followed before taking his wrist and giving it a tug. “Come with me,” she said lowly, her voice breathy with excitement. “I want to show you something. I promise you’ll like it.” He wasn’t completely predictable to her yet, but she believed he’d follow her. He didn’t have any reason not to, after all.
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Post by Benjamin Burke on Aug 28, 2011 14:13:52 GMT -5
Benjamin wouldn't call himself an expert at skipping classes, not at all. Like he told Genevieve, he's done it before, once or twice. Especially during his first year, but at times that had been because he was genuinely unused to school and hadn't found a problem with it until he'd landed himself in detention several times (it was only when he was threatened with "enough absences, we'll send you to Professor Dumbledore" that he finally realised he couldn't just walk out of class, or not show up, whenever he wanted to). It had been strange, at first, getting used to the school rules, having so much that he was forbidden from doing, because on the streets there were no rules except "don't get greedy and don't get caught", and even those were just sort of unwritten and assumed. Here at Hogwarts, there were lists and lists of rules. He didn't like to abide by the curfew, because it was usually easiest to steal from people at night when it was dark and the victims couldn't get a good look at their faces, so he would wander the halls past curfew and explore the castle - once, he was seen by Mrs. Norris and he'd heard about her telling Filch about it in her own cat-like way, so he'd caught her and locked her in the nearest broom closet before running back to his common room. Later, he realised that, to get the school to function to it's fullest and avoid pandemonium, rules were important. It was just sort of hard to abide by them, but he eventually caught on, with the help of Rose, who often scolded him for getting in trouble, and then apologised when she realised he honestly hadn't meant to do it and thus her reprimand turned into gentle chiding and a guide in the right direction. He hardly got any detentions in his second year, and he improved significantly over the years when it came to following the rules. He'd also never felt the need to really skip class after that, since he found most of them fairly interesting, and the one time he'd skipped as of late was last year and it had been because he'd over-slept after pulling two all-nighters in a row (in other words, he hadn't slept for forty-eight hours). He missed all of his morning classes and barely woke up in time to shovel down some lunch before he went to his afternoon classes. He'd also been responsible enough to ask the Professors what he'd missed, after apologising profusely for missing the lesson. Thankfully, he'd managed to get away with it without getting into any trouble, and Rose eventually believed him when he promised he wouldn't do anything like that again when he told her the reason why he didn't show up to class. He didn't stop pulling all-nighters, but he didn't stay up for two nights in a row again, either.
Still, just because he hadn't purposefully skipped a class in years didn't essentially mean he'd lied to Genevieve about it, did it? He didn't think it did. It just meant he would have to think about how he would leave without getting in trouble. Simply walking out in the middle of class, while probably effective unless the professor locked the door before he could get out, would surely land him a detention, which was not something he wanted. Genevieve had gone for the "Oh I'm going to be sick!" tactic, always an easy one, and although she had gripped his shoulder in a motion that suggested she wanted him to help her out, she'd fled too quickly for him to follow that excuse, and was left staring after her with the rest of the class before Professor Babbling controlled the class once again. He picked up his quill to continue writing notes, although his mind was only half on the task, the other half searching for a way to follow Genevieve out without rousing suspicion. He'd have to be subtle about it - Babbling was almost as strict as Professor McGonogall, so if he told her he needed to use the rest room and then didn't return withing five minutes, she would notice and he'd still get in trouble, and it didn't matter if he was one of the best students, she'd give him a detention anyway. An idea struck him at that moment and he began tapping his foot agitatedly against the ground, loud enough to be heard by her. The student sitting on his other side send him an aggravated glance and he shrugged apologetically, putting a hand on his leg as if he had to force himself to stop the nervous habit, but he started it up again within seconds, following it up with some quill-tapping. And then he began sighing, quietly at first and then more loudly, his brow furrowing into a frown and his gaze darting about. He could see out of the corner of his eyes that Babbling was starting to get irritated by the commotion, but pretended not to notice - as if he wasn't actually doing all of that on purpose. Finally, she seemed to have had enough of his nervous tendencies disrupting her class and she turned to look at him directly, her arms folded crossly. "Just what are you doing, Mr. Burke?" she demanded. He immediately schooled his features into a startled expression, which quickly melted into a sheepish one. "Oh, I apologise, Professor, I didn't realise what I was doing. I'm simply quite concerned for my friend - the one who just left. She looked to be quite sickly to me, and I'm only wondering if she managed to make it to the Hospital Wing," he said, colouring his tone with as much worry as he possibly could. His acting skills were rusty at best, but it was easy to fall back into the pattern; he'd made up enough sob stories to distract people while Jamie slipped his sticky fingers into their pockets that it was fairly easy to fall back into it. Looking abashed, he directed his gaze to the parchment and picked up his quill. Professor Babbling pursed her lips and then returned to the lesson. He waited half a minute and then started up his nervous habits. A girl, Evelyn Townsend, his memory supplied, turned around to glare at him heatedly and the Professor let out an aggravated sigh. "Oh, for Merlin's sake, if you're going to act so anxious, you might as well go see if she's doing all right. I expect you to find out the homework from a classmate, however, and to have it done on time - the same goes to your friend. No exceptions."
It was easy to pretend to be relieved, because there wasn't much pretending. He packed his things up quickly and, after throwing an apologetic glance in the general direction of his professor and fellow peers, he walked out the door. To be honest, he was a little worried he'd taken too long and that Genevieve had gotten fed up and left. It had seemed like the best idea at the time, to have the Professor actually suggest that he leave rather than request to leave. He simply hadn't counted on Professor Babbling's patience. Even so, he hesitated by the door. Was he doing the right thing? Benjamin didn't often question his motives, but in that moment he had to wonder if he was going too far with Genevieve. He knew that his agreement to go to Hogsmeade with her had not been a date - he was fully aware of his feelings for Imogen and he would never do anything with her sister who, while attractive, probably wouldn't be able to hold a torch to Imogen no matter how interesting she proved to be - and so he wasn't worried about anything romantic occurring. He was more worried about this Genevieve character herself. Oh, she might try her best to appear innocent and harmless, but he already knew better. No one who talked the way she did was harmless. If anything, he was certain she was the furthest thing from it. Still, whether she would be a danger to him was still questionable, and either way he wanted to risk it, if only to be able to figure her out completely. Because while he had managed to gather that, yes, she wasn't all that she appeared, it only made her that much more interesting to him. Deciding he was perfectly willing to play with fire and get a little singed while he was at it, Benjamin turned the door knob and rushed through the door, slamming it shut behind him. As soon as he did, the worried mask he'd placed while he'd been leaving slipped from his features to be replaced with a slight smirk. "Hope I didn't keep you waiting too long, my plan took longer than I anticipated," he explained, and had the grace to at least look apologetic. He raised an eyebrow when she grasped his wrist and gave it a quick tug, noting how eager both her actions and her tone was when she told him to come with her. He wanted to tease her, ask her "how do I know I can trust you?", but his curiosity won out and he simply nodded and followed after her. After a few minutes of walking, he couldn't help but comment, "If I ask you where we're going, would you give me an honest answer, or give me another vague 'you'll see, I promise you'll like it'?" He normally didn't like walking in things blindly, and as exciting as the unknown could be, he wasn't anywhere near trusting Genevieve just yet. He figured it was worth a shot to ask her, even if he probably wouldn't get an informative answer.
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Post by vivi on Sept 10, 2011 1:34:40 GMT -5
Genevieve had the ability to be patient when the outcome was worth it; though she believed it would be with Benjamin, she had to admit that waiting for him as long as she did had ridden on her nerves. It was why she tugged a little too hard on his wrist to get him to follow her to The Room, and probably why he seemed a little apprehensive and hesitated on the way. Vivi paused in her steps, then turned to face him, walking backward and hoping she didn’t bump into something. “Where’s the fun in telling you?” she asked coyly, her eyebrows raised. “Besides, if you must know… I’m not entirely certain as to what it will be. It likes to change.” Flashing him her teeth, she turned back and gave his wrist another tug, slipping her fingers down a little to subtly graze his palm. The corridors were mostly deserted, seeing as it was the middle of class; every now and then they passed a student on a free block, but no one seemed too suspicious of them. They were quieter and careful when passing classrooms, though most of them had shut their doors, so they were easy enough to sneak by. She led him up to the seventh floor, down the corridor where The Room was located, and finally released his wrist and told him to wait. “Close your eyes,” she said, not wanting to give away the secret to getting into the room. “Just trust me on this one – I haven’t let you down yet, have I?” She waited until he had obliged before she paced three times in front of where the door should appear, all the while picturing the nightclub in her mind. She knew it wouldn’t be an exact replica, because Hogwarts was incompatible with electricity and it would be smaller and there would not be any alcohol, but it would be close enough. The room was magic; it would figure it out.
When the door appeared, she opened it a crack for a sneak peek. Her face broke into a satisfied grin, and she took Benjamin by the hand and pulled him forward. “All right,” she said, guiding him inside the room, “come with me.” Stepping inside fully, Genevieve was quite pleased with the result. There was no electricity, of course, so the lights weren’t quite as vibrant as they could have been. However, everything was lit almost the way Vivi remembered, and in different colours as well. The room was almost a perfect replica of the disco nightclub in her memory, save for the size; there were the multi-coloured couches, and the egg-shaped chairs, and the stage, and the dancefloor, and the bar (though there weren’t any drinks behind it, to her dismay) and there was a large, magical gramophone on a table on the stage with a collection of records piled beside it. “Welcome to Chez Gen,” she said, spreading her arms. Vivi made her way toward the stage, shedding her school robes along the way and tossing them onto a chair before loosening her tie and unbuttoning the top few buttons of her shirt. Oh, she wasn’t undoing too many – Genevieve had a feeling he would back off if she showed any amount of shadow in her chest area – but just enough that she didn’t feel quite so constricted. The Hogwarts uniforms were rather stuffy and tight, and Genevieve didn’t feel like dancing in clothes she could barely move in. She supposed she could always ask The Room for clothes, but that would be wasting precious time. “Make yourself comfortable,” she called back to Benjamin, stepping up onto the stage and going to the gramophone. Briefly Vivi scanned through the records, then found one she was looking for and pulled it out. It was a popular dance tune in the wizarding world from a band called The Kneazlebeats, and Vivi put it on the gramophone and got it playing, immediately tapping her foot to the upbeat rhythm. She turned up the volume, then faced Benjamin again and grinned.
“Do you dance?” she asked, swaying her body and arms to the music. Frankly, she didn’t care if he did or not; he was going to dance with her, she decided, even if getting him to do so took the rest of the day. “You should, if you don’t. Dancing is good for you. It works your muscles, gets your blood pumping, raises your endorphins…” She grinned at him, twirling around in circles as she approached the edge of the stage. She raised her arms p above her head and twirled in slow circles on the spot, popping her hips dramatically in time with the beat, then brought her arms down slowly over her body before relaxing them at her sides and doing a quick body shake. She grinned widely at him, laughing a little bit, though she knew she had to be careful. This was a boy who willingly spent time with her sister; she had to watch just how forward she was in case he decided that he was a little too uncomfortable with her. Sure, it meant that if he danced with her, she couldn’t dance too close to him or press her body against his the way she would any other bloke, but sacrifices had to be made for the greater good. If it was worth it – and she was sure it would be – she could wait until he was more familiar with her before she began to touch and explore him in other ways in which she was more comfortable. Still, she couldn’t be completely passive in her approach. That way, she would never get anywhere with him. How far she intended to go was still up in the air, as she still wasn’t quite sure what all she wanted to do with Benjamin, but at least she knew that she was working toward something. But by never pushing his limits, she would never be challenging him to go past them, and then they would be stuck forever. Genevieve had decided that that simply would not do; she’d work him in baby steps, and the first… well, the first was getting him here. The next was getting him to dance. “So, Benjamin, I figure you can either get cozy on a couch, or you can get on up here and dance with me.” She reached the edge, still dancing, smiling down at him. Vivi allowed him to consider for a moment before extending her hand to him. “C’mon. What’s the worst that can happen?”
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Post by Benjamin Burke on Oct 16, 2011 16:58:48 GMT -5
Benjamin had to admit, he was intrigued. While she might not have him hook, line and sinker just yet, but he was definitely following the bait she was dangling, and he might just end up biting by the end of this. Genevieve was certainly making it difficult not to at least be interesting; especially with the 'it likes to change' comment. Benjamin had always been positive that Hogwarts was full of secrets, so the fact that a secret or magical room existed was not that much of a surprise; what had him following her was the fact that she actually knew of it. Now, he doubted he would be privy to how she found it, what it was exactly or even how to access it, but he kept his eyes peeled anyway, taking note of exactly where they were going and how to get there so that, afterwards, he would be able to come here by himself - naturally, that would only be if this room Genevieve spoke about met the expectations she'd built up. It would be quite disappointing if they weren't; if she really was all talk. And, while he normally didn't like being quick to judge because he liked to keep an open mind, about people especially, but Gen was in that age where one simply tried too hard, but he figured it might be too harsh to write her off like that too soon and thus Benjamin was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. At the very least, he wanted to see how far she'd go to impress him. He kept a quart of his attention on where they were going, wanting to remember the way in case he decided he did want to venture this way alone, and allowed the remaining three quarters of his attention for her, in case she decided to strike up a conversation (although he was glad they remained quiet for the most part; he was hoping to get through this month detention-free. He wasn't entirely sure whether there was some sort of limit as to how many detentions you can get at Hogwarts over all, although he knew for a fact that the Marauders - or, at least, James Potter and Sirius Black - would have far surpassed it if there was one, and he didn't particularly want to find out.) He wasn't surprised when Gen eventually asked him to close his eyes; he was surprised she'd let him get this far. Still, he had no idea what to expect; as far as he could see, they were in an empty corridor, without any door in sight. Raising his eyebrow at her, he nevertheless complied and sharpened his hearing, listening out for any signs of what she might be doing. She wasn't saying anything, but he thought he could hear her pacing; those were definitely footsteps that he heard, and their pattern suggested that she was, indeed, pacing. Why, he had no idea, and it was ridiculously tempting to sneak a peek, but he didn't want to upset her, so he obediently kept his eyes closed until she told him otherwise.
The sight of the door in front of them was quite a shock. Benjamin wasn't sure what he should be expecting, but he definitely hadn't thought a door would materialise out of seemingly thin air. He was positive there had been a stretch of wall where it currently was and yet, there it was, unmistakably wooden and, well, door-like. He almost wanted to knock on it to make sure that it was, in fact, present and it wasn't some sort of spell that was causing an illusion, but there was no need for that since Gen was tugging on his hand and leading him through the now open door, revealing the room behind it. He was a little embarrassed to admit that his eyes widened enough they might have fallen out of his head. "Wow," he uttered, generally awed. It's not every day you see an entire room which, up till now, you hadn't even been aware existed, simply appear out of thin air. And not just that, but it seemed like the room was in the form of the interior of a disco. Benjamin had to blink a few times to make sure he wasn't imagining things, because it seemed a little hard to believe that Hogwarts would have a secret room that was a disco. He thought back to what Gen had first said; It likes to change. Perhaps the room wasn't always the disco. Perhaps at times it was different; was it possible that it morphed to the users wants? The extent of magic that had to be used in order to create such a room was mind-boggling, however, and, somehow, it seemed easier to believe that it was a disco, even if it didn't make much sense. Baby steps, he figured. Wrap your mind around the fact that there's such a thing as rooms that simply appear when you want them to, and then begin to branch out into considering just what the room entailed and how it worked. He wandered further into the room, reaching out to brush his fingers over one of the couches, half-expecting his hand to slip right through it. When it was obvious that the furniture was completely solid, Benjamin sank down onto it, silently absorbing the rest of the room as it finally began to sink in; the room, and everything in it, was very, very real. "Incredible," he murmured to himself, his voice barely over a decibel. He barely heard Gen telling him to make himself comfortable, already stripping out of his robes and, following her actions, he loosened his silver-and-blue tie and undid the second button; he never did up his first button, since he'd always found it too stifling, ever since Rose had forced him to do it on the first train ride towards Hogwarts. He'd pleaded suffocation and she easily caved in and let him undo it, as long as he hid it behind his tie, and he'd been doing that ever since.
"Dance?" he repeated without thinking, his mind not quite processing the question. He shook his head slightly, forcing himself to focus on her instead of on the room. The strobe lights weren't exactly helping. "I'm not that good of a dancer," he admitted, crossing his leg, ankle-to-knee and stretching out his arms across the back of the couch, watching her sway with raised eyebrows. "Raises my endorphins. Right," he deadpanned with a slight smirk. He said nothing, simply shaking his head a little as she continued to dance alone. He could just hear Rose in the back of his mind, telling him it was rude to leave a girl dancing alone, but he'd been completely honest when he'd said he wasn't much of a dancer. Plus, he figured Gen would drag him off the couch herself if he didn't do so, and he wasn't planning on helping her in that endeavor. And there it was. She never paused in her movements, but now she was looking at him, and not just looking at him but asking him to dance with her (although not in so many words, since she never actually voiced the question). He uncrossed his legs and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and steepling his fingers together as he considered her. He wasn't too worried about stringing her along; he could tell Gen wasn't the type of girl who'd get lost in the fantasies of wanting someone who hadn't shown romantic interest towards her. But that didn't mean she wouldn't try something in the future; she wouldn't have brought him here if she wasn't at least a little interested. Maybe he was flattering himself in thinking that she'd be making this effort because she liked him, but it was just a theory. One that he wasn't, however, planning on confirming through experimentation. Aware or not, Benjamin had been honest in his feelings for Imogen, and he wasn't about to dabble with other girls just because Imogen wasn't interested (he supposed a 'for now' ought to be tacked onto the end of that statement), no matter how attractive Gen might be. "I wasn't aware anything bad could happen anyway," he told her, maintaining a casually teasing tone. Making a show of signing in resignation, Benjamin finally pushed himself off the couch and made his way towards her, stopped when he was about a foot or so in front of her and then shoved his hands into his pockets, already beginning to regret this. "I don't know how to dance," he told her, and this time he absolutely meant it. He'd never had much rhythm to begin with, and all that just-let-the-music-flow-through-you sounded like gibberish to him, because how could he let a sound flow through you and move your muscles for you? Fact of the matter was, Benjamin was simply too damn stiff sometimes to let anything flow through him too easily, much less music.
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Post by vivi on Oct 21, 2011 23:10:53 GMT -5
There were times when Vivi preferred to blend in with others and be “just another face” in the crowd. These times were, namely, when she had done something wrong, something punishable. If she couldn’t be picked from a crowd, she wouldn’t be blamed, and some other unfortunate fool would be at fault. At other times, however, standing out was her speciality. Genevieve knew she looked older than her age. Knight women tended to hit puberty and mature faster. Well, physically, at least. And Genevieve was okay with that. Even as a child, she had played with make-up and had Florence style her hair in all different ways. She’d bought her first real bra when she had barely turned thirteen, despite the fact that it had been the wrong size and it had taken months for her to grow into it. Her first kiss was when she was only twelve; he’d been a third-year Slytherin, and had been so eager for his own first kiss that he’d nearly knocked her over. As inconvenient as it was, it had amused and pleased Vivi to see that she could have such an effect on the opposite sex by the mere promise of a kiss. She wondered what else she could do with her body to get people – namely, males – to do her bidding. She and the boy had several other “lessons” with each other – nothing under the clothes, of course, but there had definitely been other explorations over the course of the year. Innocence was over-rated, in her opinion, thought she could act it if it seemed like a bloke was into that. Even though Vivi had yet to cross the major milestone to fully lose her innocence (or purity, if one preferred) she had definitely done stuff to boys, though she had yet to be on the receiving end of such pleasures. Would Benjamin be the one to change that? Quite honestly, Vivi didn’t think so. She had promised Regulus that she would spend the night with him after the Yule Ball if his surprise was worth it. But if she didn’t, if he found another girl… Well, it would be quite fun to make this Benjamin Burke her plaything, wouldn’t it? Genevieve could be patient for an exceptional outcome. Wrapping Benji here around her little finger would certainly be one.
“No one really knows how to dance,” she said, moving around him. “Not unless they’re ballerinas or something, and I hardly think you qualify – no offense. The trick to dancing, for blokes, is to move as little as possible.” She smirked. “In my experience, the more a guy moves, the more ridiculous he looks. Here, may I?” It was a question, though Vivi wasn’t going to wait for his permission. She placed her hands under his wrists to push his arms up, bending them at the elbows and placing them closer to his sides. “Now follow me. Mirror what I do.” She stepped out with her left foot, planted it, then slid her right foot over to touch it against the left. After a beat, she moved her right foot back to where it was, planted it, and slid her left over to touch it. She continued this movement in rhythm to the music, leading Benjamin and watching his feet. “There you go. It’s pretty simple. Just try to break the dancing down into numbers. No matter what the beat is, you can almost always break it down into eight, and once you have the numbers down, moving is easy.” She listened for a movement, counting in her head until she got the beat. “Five, six, seven, eight, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight…” She continued to mouth the numbers as she moved with him. “And then you can add some more movement, relax a little more…” As they continued to step, she moved her arms out in a gliding motion away from her body in time with the music. “Like that. Try it.” She offered him an encouraging smile, moving her eyes down to his feet to ensure that he was still following her, but taking her time in doing so. Seeing that his feet were still following hers, she slowly brought her eyes back up to his. Yeah, Vivi was checking him out; she figured she’d been subtle enough about it, though, that he wouldn’t notice, or mind. Perhaps he’d even like it.
“Dancing is all… equations. First you have the counts… three, four, five, six, seven, eight… and then you have the simplest step, your feet, and you keep adding on steps to get an outcome. All you have to do is break everything down piece-by-piece; so long as it all fits into the beat, you’ll be fine. Just keep doing what you’re doing and it’ll just… come to you.” She took a small step back from him, swaying and bouncing on her knees as she tried to move into her own steps. She popped her hips out to the left as he stepped to his right, then popped her hips to the right as he stepped to his left, mirroring his actions with her own. As she stepped, she ran her hands up her body to behind her neck, holding her hair up for a moment and letting out a small laugh, before lowering her hands back down her front to rest them daintily on her thighs. This time when she stepped, she moved out to the side so that she was partially around Benjamin. “Follow where I go,” she encouraged. “Keep stepping the way you are, just… add direction.” She continued to move around him, continuing with the same simple motion, sometimes turning while she stepped so that she was facing away from him and looked back over her shoulder. It was hardly flattering to do any sort of proper dancing in a Hogwarts uniform, though she had heard of blokes who actually liked the outfit. Well, weird people had their weird kinks, she supposed. She wondered what Benjamin liked. She turned to face him again just as the song ended, changing to a much slower melody. She looked up at him and raised her eyebrows. “I’m assuming you know how to slow dance, yes?” she teased lightly. It was possible he didn’t – a surprising amount of blokes still stomped on toes – but it was also possible that even if he did, he would refuse to do so. Perhaps he would think he’d be ‘betraying Imogen’s trust’, though in Vivi’s opinion, it’d be a stupid thing to worry about. She fancied so many boys that Benjamin was probably nothing to her; with that in mind, Vivi put on her best innocent-face and raised her arms so that her hands could go behind his neck. Still, just in case, she waited for him to move toward her.
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Post by Benjamin Burke on Dec 6, 2011 15:38:16 GMT -5
The way that she described it, so methodical and in step-form (like an equation) made it sound so simple and easy that Benjamin almost felt embarrassed for performing so poorly. Fact of the matter was, he didn't seem to have the feet-to-rhythm coordenation required for it. But he managed to keep up with her fairly well anyway, even though he had to glance down at his feet often to see where they were going. At least he didn't trip over his own feet, which would have been mortifying, to say the least. Especially since he was almost positive Gen would tease him something awful about it, and he quite disliked looking bad in front of people in general. "You're a pretty good teacher," he stated, once he'd gotten the hang of it enough that he didn't have to keep glancing at his feet and could look directly at her instead, a sincere smile lifting one corner of his lips because, despite his previous doubts, he was actually having a pretty stellar time. He would've thought that he'd spend most of the time worrying about the class he had skipped, but he hadn't even given it a thought since he'd stepped out of the room. Gen had that way about her - something that made one's attention focus solely on her. He hesitated to say that it was the way she looked because, while he wouldn't argue about her evident physical beauty, there was just something else. Something deeper. A twinkle in her eye that was almost wicked, a hint of something beneath that guiless smile. There was just something there Benjamin had yet to discover, that would take, perhaps, a bit more prodding, a bit more exploration and watching to completely decipher before he figured out if this Gen character was all that she appeared to be. Or, rather, he'd first have to figure out what it was exactly that she "appeared" to be before he delved deeper into her psych. Either way, she'd both captured and maintained his attention so far.
When the tempo switched to a slower song, Benjamin took a tiny step backwards and cocked his head to the side, regarding her with something akin to amusement. "I do know, yes," he replied, and then paused for a beat, his gaze flickering from her deceptively innocent face to her hands and back. He wasn't certain if she meant it that way, but it almost felt like a challenge. What did she know about him that made it that way? Raising an eyebrow, he smirked and stepped forward, taking the opportunity to pull her hands around his neck before his own settled on her waist and he began swaying to the music, keeping them comfortably close, but still at a "friendly" distance rather than an overly intimate one. Whatever test she had just presented him, he hoped he'd passed it.
ooc: welp this suck but i has to sleep and i just wanted to post this and fkdgldf sorry.
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Post by vivi on Dec 6, 2011 22:13:30 GMT -5
It was as though an invisible ribbon was trailing elegantly behind Genevieve as she danced, and it was wrapping tighter and tighter around Benjamin’s body with the more she twirled around him. The urge to test him, to push his limits even further, was strong. She could touch him – his arms, his chest – or “fall” into him to force him into touching her, but all of those seemed as though they wouldn’t go over very well with him. He was smart – not as clever as Vivi, of course, though few were – and was probably intelligent enough to know when she wanted his attention a certain way. She settled for simply dancing around him until the song changed, but she couldn’t help but grin almost wickedly when he stepped into her hands to dance. He was careful to maintain a distance, and so Vivi kept hers, but kept her gaze locked on his. She had a feeling that, were it not for her sister’s crush on him, she would not have found Benjamin Burke so intriguing. But, now that she was spending time alone with him, she was starting to understand why Imogen had such a fascination with him. He didn’t say much, but when he did, he was smart and witty. Judging by his dancing, he was a pretty quick learner. And the fact that he had been willing to trust Vivi and accompany her to the Room, despite his “loyalty” to Imogen, was also quite an intriguing matter. It was rather odd, wasn’t it? For being “such good friends” with her sister, he was willing to go behind her back and spend time with Vivi. It certainly gave a stroke to Vivi’s ego. Again, she couldn’t help but smile to herself.
The song ended abruptly, but Vivi held on for another few moments, simply looking up at him inquisitively. Finally she stepped back, running her fingers down his arms and over his hands before dropping them to her sides. “It’s been fun, Mr. Burke,” she said softly, “but I have places to be, and I think you do, too.” She drew her bottom lip up under her teeth for a moment, the corners of her mouth twitching upward, then let out a small giggle and batted her eyelashes. “Thank you for the dance.” As she moved past him toward the exit, grabbing her robes and bag on the way out, she made sure to move her hips a little more dramatically than usual.
She was sure he was watching.
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