The Betting Table

Now this was interesting.

Drama.

Keith immediately felt his mind spinning, watching the scene from every angle and trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

The girl was Angelique Pyrites. Slytherin. Seventh year. Reputation of being rather blunt. Blunt was good. Keith could handle blunt. She was rather close to Emmet, who didn't seem all too thrilled that the older girl was making a move. He kind of scooted away from her, towards Keith, but it was useless - if Angelique really wanted to trap him she only needed to take another step or two before he was pinned up against the table.

Normally Keith would let these kinds of things run their course, (he found it was best not to get between older girls and boys when hormones were involved) but he had a buisness to run. If she didn't refocus her attention in the next...20 seconds he was going to have to get rid of her. Or maybe he could charge her for standing there.

"It's nice to see you, too," Angelique agreed, moving closer and placing a hand lightly on the boy's arm.

She casually placed a galleon on the table in front of Keith. There was only one thing that kid ever wanted and right now, there was only one thing Angelique wanted, so it was easier all round if she just paid upfront.

"Took my advice and moved up to Hogsmeade, then?" she asked. "Where're you staying? Maybe I can drop by one weekend or something. Sorry, I never did catch your name?"

The shameless flirting of the girl was thick enough to not go unnoticed by Emmett, even though he was usually fairly blind to such things. Be it the missing years of the social experience of school or something, however his social naivety was balanced out by his wisdom, street smarts, and natural intuition. He blinked a few times, looking back at her with a straight face.

He did not shrug her off but his arm tightened. He was all for loving each other, but this was lust, and he was much too committed to saving humanity to get distracted by one pretty girl. "Actually, I haven't moved. Still bunking in the Leaky Cauldron. But, thanks. And my name is Emmett. Fisher."

Her hand slid off his arm to rest on the small of his back.

"Oh, that's right," she said. "You're the one writing all those fascinating articles in the Daily Prophet. I think it's very sweet that you defended my friend, Naomi, and you're completely right. She would never do anything like what they're accusing her of if she was in her right mind."

Angelique could feel that this guy wasn't the - shall was say - Elijah Krum type. He wasn't going to take advantage of her just because she was there. He wasn't going to invite her home to a conveniently empty flat ostensibly so that he could write a song for her, but really for much more intimate reasons. It only made her more keen to bag him in the end.

She pulled away from him, just far enough to be outside what society would call his personal space, but kept her hand where it was to remind him she was there, and as a warning to everyone else.

"So, what con's Keith trying to pull on you?" she asked.

Again, he did not shrug her off, but he did not welcome her hand on his back. She spoke of his articles and he turned to watch her. He had been disappointed by the public's lack to even address his articles. He wanted either their criticism or their praise so that he at least had something to go off on.

"Really, you knew her?" he asked. He was not eager to spend excessive amounts of time with this girl... Whose name he still did not know. But he did want to do a piece on Miss Greyback. "I'm sorry, what's your name again? It might be nice to discuss her a little. The public has been asking for information on her for awhile now."

She asked what sort of con Keith was running and, thankfully, moved away, though her hand still remained on him. Well, a little at a time then. "He's running a betting table for things that happen during the ball. It's actually a clever idea."

Keith smiled and grabbed the galleon. "Shiny," he said happily, sticking the gold coin in his pocket. Maybe Angelique was alright after all. Emmet was nice, but he'd have to get out of this on his own - Keith shifted so that the couple was no longer blocking his view of the crowd and calmly began shuffling chips again. He heard his name mentioned but wasn't bothered by it...much.