If I Fell...

[ludo]

Ludo raised his hands in apology as Mafalda quickly retaliated against his comment. "Sorry, I just...had to ask," Ludo explained not wanting Mafalda to bite his head off as he currently feared. He also didn't want her mad at him. He was doing his best to be a good friend and he was glad she opened up to him, but he was a naturally curious person who sometimes asked the wrong question.

"It only took 5 minutes?" Ludo smiled unable to resist the opportunity. Hanging out with Indigo yesterday seemed to have made him remember his dirty sense of humor. Hopefully Mafalda would find it funny. He didn't see why she wouldn't, after all it was a crude remark towards someone she had just been insulting herself, so now actually seemed like a very good time for that joke. Especially considering the other answers he could have given.

For example he could have mentioned the fact that it probably took more than 5 minutes for them to get drunk. Or he could have called into question the fact that the person who she just said was her friend had now been downgraded scum. Of course Ludo had kind of liked hearing that. Then again such a quick change in opinion hinted at a love/hate relationship which would mean that she actually did like him...at least some of the time.

[britkneeboo]

Mafalda was busy thinking up even more reasons she couldn't stand to be around Regulus, when Ludo chimed in again. This time he said something completely out of place and having almost nothing to do with the conversation in the way she was discussing it, and she couldn't help but pause to stare blankly at him. She hadn't had time to find it funny yet, because she was still putting together what he had meant. The poor girl didn't catch on very quickly to dirty jokes. When she did finally figure out what he was talking about her eyes widened, and she was more sidetracked by the idea of Ludo thinking about her sex-life, or what he seemed to think was a lack of.

"It- well- .....I don't remember," and with that Mafalda smiled and then started to laugh. It was like it all hit her at once. The fact that she couldn't even remember how long it lasted seem to only amplify the humor of the five-minute-joke.

Mafalda stopped laughing long enough to get a few more words out. The smile on Ludo's face was just too much and she couldn't help what she said next. "You act like maybe you could have done better," she said, still smiling. She wasn't meaning it to be taken seriously, although Ludo might. Mafalda was only joking back with him, and had no idea how uncomfortable a comment like that might be if you were speaking to somebody that liked you in a friend-lier way than you liked them.

[ludo]

Ludo couldn't help but start laughing as Mafalda attempted to seriously answer the joke. It was really rather cute as she struggled to try and remember before it finally hit her that he had been joking. It did make Ludo feel a little better that she hadn't even been able to recall how long her encounter with this guy had been, but if she couldn't remember it couldn't have been too long...right?

Ludo smiled raising an eyebrow at Mafalda's next comment. "As a matter of fact I think I could have," he smiled keeping his tone light to make sure Mafalda didn't think he was serious...though he very well could have been. "Too bad you'll never get to find out," he added a bit teasingly drawing it out into more of a joke so Mafalda wouldn't know that he would love the chance to show her that he could do much better than her random, drunken sex partner.

Instead however he had taken the reverse psychology route, telling her she would never have the opportunity, drawing on the desire of wanting what you can't have. It was that same sort of mentality like when you were a kid and one minute you would have no interest in playing with a particular toy until one of the other kids had it, then that toy that you didn't care about seconds before was now the only toy you wanted to play with. Of course reverse psychology was far from guaranteed, and Ludo was pretty sure the chances of success were even slimmer when you used it as part of a joke.

[britkneeboo]

The question hadn't really expected an answer, but part of her was still hoping he would find one to give. Ludo gave some of the funniest and cleverest answers to her dorky questions, that she couldn't help but ask them if only to see what he would say. When he did answer, Mafalda found her self trying very hard not to picture Ludo 'doing better.' It was hard, because just about anything you said, dirty or not, Mafalda had a tendency to automatically picture. This time she managed to get a flash of him with his shirt off before she forced it out of her mind. She had seen Ludovic without a shirt a few times after quidditch practice, and that was as much of his bare skin as she wanted to see, at least for now.

"You underestimate my abilities Mr. Bagman," she said, putting her hands on her hips. Now it was time for 'the tease.' This was nothing new between the two of them, and was actually a fairly regular occurrence. It wasn't unusual for them to start teasing each other over rated-R stuff, but it was usually all in good fun and Mafalda never thought anything else of it. Ludo was one of the schools biggest flirts and charmers, and Mafalda was a dorky unbalanced Hufflepuff. It wasn't possible for anything they did to be taken seriously. There had been a number of times that Ludo would flirt with Mafalda in another girls company, even past girlfriends, and they didn't even care. It was just assumed that Ludovic Bagman and Mafalda Hopkirk would never amount to any more than friends.

"As a matter of fact I do believe that I could have your clothes off you so fast It'd be a feat for the record books," she said, trying her hardest not to break a smile.

[ludo]

"You underestimate my abilities Mr. Bagman,"
"Is that a fact?" Ludo asked smiling. Ah, the joys of harmless flirtation. Ludo was well known for being a flirt and the fact was most of the time he wasn't even trying, it was just what came naturally for him. Of course it was a little more intentional with Mafalda, but this little flirt fest had resulted from an off hand joke that Ludo couldn't keep to himself.


"As a matter of fact I do believe that I could have your clothes off you so fast It'd be a feat for the record books,"
"Well I would certainly like to see that," Ludo said still playing along, but almost daring Mafalda to. Not in a seductive, 'I want you to rip off my clothes' sort of way, but the much more innocent 'I bet you can't' sort of way. The fact was he really would like to see Mafalda set a world record for removing his clothes. On second thought he would prefer if it was her clothes that got removed in record time, but thanks to the flirtatious nature of the conversation Ludo could say what meant, without meaning what he said.

It was hard to explain why he was so attracted to Mafalda, but the fact was that she had a wonderful personality and she was a gorgeous girl. It just seemed that because Mafalda was known for being a bit of klutz and didn't generally go around flaunting her good looks, she was often over looked by the rest of the school...perhaps Ludo wasn't as shallow as people said he was...then again a girl did still have to be at least mildly attractive for him to even consider talking to her, so...maybe not.

[britkneeboo]

Is that a fact?

Mafalda nodded her head, in a way that showed she was confident that what she said had been the truth. She was almost positive Ludo underestimated her abilities. As for what Mafalda thought - as far as Ludo was concerned she was an innocent little angel that had never even had sex, even though she had told him about it twice. She wouldn't have been surprised if he still thought she was a virgin. With that being mentioned, he probably underestimated her experience as well.

Well I would certainly like to see that.

"Well, thank you for giving me even more reason to keep it a mystery. I'm simply too much woman for you," she said, smirking at him, but the smirk quickly turned into a very large grin. It was hard for her not to laugh at the sound of that coming from her own mouth. Mafalda had no idea what was going on inside Ludo's head, and if she had known she probably would have been speechless. There was no way she'd even see that coming and for that it was a good reason she couldn't read minds.

Mafalda spun around and began walking away from Ludo, expecting him to just follow. She turned the corner she had originally intended on turning, and listened for a response.

[ludo]

Perhaps Ludo did underestimate Mafalda, but he liked it that way. It was much nicer to think that his friend had never had sex, didn't drink, and was a sleep by ten o'clock every night...even though he had information that proved all of those were wrong. Ludo was a little immature in that sense, he still liked to believe in the morality of the world. Though he wasn't exactly Mr. Morals himself it was just nice to think that Mafalda was still the clumsy little fifth year who spilled pumpkin juice all over herself.

Ludo was a little shocked hearing the next words from Mafalda's mouth. He also couldn't stop certain images from forming in his head, but he quickly shook them letting out a short awkward laugh as he tried to play off his mild shock. Ludo obediently followed after Mafalda as she disappeared around a corner. Perhaps he really had severely underestimated her.

"They haven't made the woman who's too woman for me," Ludo said catching stride with Mafalda once more as he smirked arrogantly before allowing it to morph into a smile that showed he was kidding. Though he did believe there weren't very many women...at least within the Hogwarts wall that he 'couldn't handle' Though there were certainly plenty that he wouldn't want to.

[britkneeboo]

Mafalda slowed her stride down a little, realizing again that she didn't actually know where she was going. She had no set destination in mind, and so there was no need to rush really. She felt her hand graze against his as he finally fell into place beside her like it sometimes did when she was walking just barely too close to somebody. She moved an inch to the left to keep it from happening again, but she did this all subconsciously and so it wasn't on purpose- just a habit. She had sort of conditioned herself to do little things like that.

Now that she was an inch further from Ludo, she was an inch closer to the wall. She stuck her left arm out and let her fingertips meet with the cold, damp, stone beside her. She ran her fingertips along the wall as they walked, and tingled at the sensation of a sandpaper-like texture on her skin.

"I suppose you'd know, you've had a chance with just about every girl fanciable in this school," she said, trying to recall the girls Ludo had been with just since she'd known him. After their first year as friends the faces of the girls sort of blurred together, and Mafalda forgot who most of them were. "Tell me, Lulu, how do you do it? They say you're smooth and charming, but I just don't see what they mean," she said, smiling. "Come to think of it...you usually spill the beans about who you are wooing by now, what gives? I want details and don't tell me there is nobody, because I know you better than that."

[ludo]

There was a brief instant when Ludo's hand bumped into Mafalda and he fought back the impulse to take hold of her hand. Ludo always like holding a girls hand, actually he liked any touch that involved a girl...you can interpret that however you want. But hold hands was one of his favorites, so simple, yet so meaningful. Ludo loved to play with a girls fingers, and just take in the feeling of her touch and the shape of her hand; the way it fit into his own.

"Well I think that's a bit generous, but I suppose that's true for a good amount of them," Ludo said thinking that sounded about right as a smile crossed his face. He was really known for having numerous female admirers, but he had far fewer girlfriends than one might think...of course there were still quite a few, but most people tended to embellish how many he actually had. And he hadn't slept with nearly as many, but again it wasn't like he was a virgin either.

Ludo smiled hearing Mafalda use the nickname she had created for him. She was probably the only person who could get away with calling him that, and thankfully she was the only one who had ever tried. He laughed at her comment about not seeing him as most of the rest of the female population of the school did. It was odd that he seemed to be closest to the girls who his charms didn't work on...at least they claimed they didn't, but two of the girls he was referring to had in fact dated him, so they must have found something they liked in the young Ravenclaw.

"Sorry love, not much to tell," Ludo said shrugging apologetically. "With quidditch and all I haven't really had time to look," he explained knowing Mafalda would be satisfied unless she had one...perhaps not even then. "Plus I'm running out of possibilities now that I'm a 7th year," he added smirking thinking this was the most feasible reason of all. It was true too he had dated most of the girls he'd wanted to date, and had been hanging out with his exes, specifically Indi and Marls, more often rather than scrapping the bottom of the barrel. Mafalda was one of the few girls left that he wanted to date but hadn't.

[britkneeboo]

Well I think that's a bit generous, but I suppose that's true for a good amount of them.

It was true that Mafalda had exaggerated a little bit, but she knew that she had done it. She was also well aware of Ludo's, all too often exaggerated, reputation for being a charmer of young girls with an arrogance she had once heard described as 'sexy.' She wasn't sure if she'd call his attitude sexy- it was often the one thing about Ludo that got on her nerves. She wouldn't say it was a bad thing either though, because it gave him that confidence that she liked about him.

Mafalda still remembered the holiday break when her and Ludo first started hanging out. She had known who he was before they actually talked, she just hadn't conversed with him. She expected him to try to put his charm to work on her when he sat by her at the table, but he was actually rather reserved...well, except when he jumped at the offer to help Mafalda dry off. He seemed far too eager to start patting her down, and she was sure he had even mentioned something about how the damage was done and the clothes might just have to come off, but when she showed no signs of slapping him, ignoring him, or calling him some rude name, he froze. It was like he hadn't expected her to let him help, and the show he had been putting on fell apart. From then on she knew that he wasn't exactly the boy everyone thought he was, at least not around her.

Mafalda rolled her eyes at him. She believed that the pool of available girls was a lot smaller than it had been since they had started attending Hogwarts, but she didn't believe for a second that he didn't at least have two or three that he was semi-interested in. "Well, it seems to me that with your dwindling pick of girls and my non-existent pick of boys, aside from drunken one-night stands mind you, that we may have to resort to dating each other to keep up our reputations," she said, finally dropping her hand from the wall. The rough stone was starting to cause her fingertips to feel raw. "Minus the kissing, cuddling, baby-talk, and sex of course."

[ludo]

Of course Ludo wasn't completely out of options, but there really hadn't been any girls that caught his eye lately. There was Mafalda of course, but he was beginning to accept the fact that they would probably never be anything more than friends...not that he particularly liked the fact, but he and Mafalda had become such great friends that it hardly seemed worth giving up for two weeks of dating. Of course she could always go the root of Marlene and Indigo and end up staying friends with him, but somehow Ludo felt it wouldn't quite work.

Of course all these thoughts of giving up on dating Malfalda seemed to entirely be canceled by her next words. Of course Ludo quickly realized she was joking...or at least she sounded like she had been, but it was still enough to reignite the fire of hope that burned within his heart. "Well, we need to do what we need to do," Ludo smiled trying not to let on just how much he would enjoy it; how much he wished Mafalda weren't only joking.

"Minus the kissing, cuddling, baby-talk, and sex of course."

"So basically it'd be the same as we have now," Ludo said clarifying Mafalda's words, because really after all her stipulations that's what the would be left with. They would be the same as they currently were except they could refer to the other in conversation as their boyfriend/girlfriend. "Can we hold hands? Or can I at least call you by a ridiculous pet name?" Ludo asked smiling as he tried to add some sort of special privilege to their none existent relationship.

[britkneeboo]

Well, we need to do what we need to do.

Mafalda instantly thought of the question - If you and so-n-so were the last two people on earth, and the existence of the human race rested in your hands, would you have sex with them? Well, we need to do what we need to do sounded like a pretty good answer to that question, and she suddenly realized that was the only way. The only way her and Ludo would be together were if they were the last two people on earth and the fate of all humans was in their hands. It wasn't as if she meant thinking that in a bad way, but she didn't know under what circumstances two best friends would sleep together other than the end of the world. Mafalda would more than willingly sleep with Ludo in that situation, but since it was highly unlikely to happen Ludo wouldn't have to worry about making the same decision - so she thought.

Can we hold hands? Or can I at least call you by a ridiculous pet name?

As soon as Ludo finished his questions Mafalda stuck her right hand out and grabbed hold of Ludo's left, a big smile on her face. "Ludovic Bagman, you don't have to be my boyfriend to hold my hand," she said, continuing to smile. "And as far as pet names go, Lulu is enough for both of us so unless you can think up something more ridiculous than that for me I'd have to say no."

[ludo]

Ludo smiled as Mafalda took his hand, "Good to know," he said as he began to play with Mafalda's fingers a little. That was the problem with holding hands, it could mean so much, or it could mean nothing. There used to be a time when holding hands was a big deal, and if anyone saw you holding hands with someone it was an immediate sign that you were dating. Now anyone could hold hands and it really didn't mean much of anything.

"Hmmm, you do realize you just gave me permission to keep trying random nicknames until I find one ridiculous enough right?" Ludo smirked beginning to swing the hand that was holding Mafalda's back and forth a little as they continued down the corridor. It occurred to Ludo that he had no idea where they were headed...if they were headed anywhere at all, but as long as he was with Mafalda where wasn't a big issue, especially since he had been busy and hadn't seen her in awhile before tonight.

"How bout Faldy?" Ludo asked deciding to let the torment of ridiculous nicknames begin. Okay so it wasn't very a original and didn't quite have the ring that Lulu did, but Ludo was just testing the waters. He actually figured even if he could come up with one, unless it was really good he would forget to use it anyway.

[britkneeboo]

When Ludo began playing with her fingers Mafalda felt an unfamiliar shiver run up her body. She wasn't sure what had caused it, but it made her very uncomfortable and she would have pulled her hand away if she had known that his fingers had caused the shiver. Perhaps if she had known, it wouldn't have been so uncomfortable as she had thought.

Hmmm, you do realize you just gave me permission to keep trying random nicknames until I find one ridiculous enough right?

"You call it permission, I call it a challenge," she said. Mafalda was rather curious as to what Ludo would think up for her. As if Mafalda wasn't a ridiculous enough name in itself. She knew that her name was a Italian Portuguese form of Matilda, but she had no idea what made her mother choose it. Nobody in her family was from those countries that she knew of, but then again there was a whole side of the family she hadn't even met nor did she know anything about. The only other thing she knew about her name was that it meant 'mighty in battle,' something that the girl really didn't live up to. Mafalda didn't do her own name justice.

"Faldy? I think you can do better than that," she said, tugging on his hand a little as if to say Think harder! "I've been called Falda, Mafaldy, and even Fillie before. Maybe you should stay away from the obvious."

[ludo]

Ha, a challenge indeed. Mafalda wasn't exactly a name that lent itself easily to ridiculous nicknames. "I will think of one you know," Ludo smiled making sure Mafalda knew that he would not be deterred by his failed first attempt. He had known it was bad, but it was the first thing he could come up with.

Stay away from the obvious choices...sounded easy enough. It looked like Ludo was going to need to put his Ravenclaw wit to work. Maybe something with her last name? Well her initial were MF which lent it's self to a few creative suggestions, but none Ludo really thought would be fitting. Maybe if he jumbled up the letters of her name...nope nothing there.

"While I'm thinking about you're new name maybe we should take some time to catch up a little...barring last night how've you been?" Ludo asked as they walked, his brain still sifting through possibilities. His hand no longer played around Mafalda's as the area of the brain that would be sending such messages to his hand were sounding out the name Mafalda. Ma-Fal-Da. Da, Dal, Daf. "What if I called you Daff, or Dal only spelt D-a-l," Ludo said souting off a few more ideas.