Bad News

She had actually thought she had shaken him, because she had made her way inside and down an aisle, stopping to pick up some enchanted spoons that- according the tag- had somehow stabbed the muggleowner when she had let them rust. Fun stuff. That was when Damien's voice suddenly sounded behind her and she nearly lept out of her skin.

The spoon clattered to the table and the clerk appeared, disgruntled. She held up an apologetic hand and then wheeled around to glare at Damien once he had moved on. "It's none of your business, and I'm beginning to think I chose the creepier of you and that nasty perv on the street," she snapped at him. She turned back around in a huff, concentrating on the artifacts before her.

He continued on and she realized he must have figured she was on that familiar path to becoming a Death Eater- Piper had no alliance to anyone but herself. She turned back around, sighing. No use for subtlety in Knockturn Alley. "Not every evil person is a Death Eater, y'know. And if you think that's how the world is divided, you are more obstinate than even I guessed." She turned back around, picking up a doily and wondering how that had been a Dark object..

Earlier, Damien had been amused. He fought to keep a chuckle and merely smirked when he had managed to alarm Piper. Now though, his face turned into a scowl. The girl had called him obstinate. And no, he was not happy about that at all. Damien had never given much thought to an alliance just with oneself. He never thought that to be possible. How can a battle be won without many in it? Then again, he had always been a fan of mass showdowns. He believes them to be the peaks of a Deatheater's life. The exhilaration and thrill of it. Besides, if he could only do better and find himself at the top of the foodchain when he is older, then perhaps he could call some shots on his own and have others do some bidding. That would do well for his ego.

"I like this divide just fine," Damien started, his tone a little too much like that of a child throwing some tantrums. "Why are you so angry anyway?!" He had raised his voice a little louder than he intended, with his patience running a little too low. Perhaps a little frustration from the mark of dirt earlier had added to this cumulation. Damien stopped and collected himself, hoping to maintain some sense of civility despite ... what had she called him? The boy shook his head to shake that memory off, before deciding to be a little more gentle. "I mean ... I was just wondering", he began in a voice that sounded too controlled.

He was not going to give up. That much was clear. And now he felt offended because she had not somehow been convinced that he was worth her time or her attention. She stared forward as determinedly as possible, thinking maybe she could ignore him. She felt her anger building though and suddenly she threw down the doily, which turned into a mouth and began to gnaw on the spoons. She wheeled around, eyes blazing.

"Why are you so persistent?" she replied back, her voice rising in pitch, before she brought it back down to a low snarl. "Have I not made it painstaking clear to you? You ran into me. I accidentally moved closer to you to escape a slimeball- it was not me saying I wanted to become your friend, it was not expressing interest in you, it was me avoiding being dragged off by a creep who wanted to feel me up just like everyone else. Got it?" Her death glare was fully blazing.

Hmm.. She had said quite a bit more than she had wanted to. She had really not meant to admit how she had a bit of a problem with that. She felt a blush threatening to creep into her cheeks but she forced it down, turning sharply and pulling the doily away from the spoon. It snapped out and bit her, causing microscopic bite marks. She cursed under her breath and wiped the blood off on her pants, before reaching for the spoons again.

Damien's eyes went big and round when Piper raised her voice at him, as if he expected that only he alone could dish out a temper. He wished he could block out her long tirade after that, hating to be at the receiving end of it. But he did not really have a choice. Nothing else was present to distract them, or him. The boy merely waited for her to finish, squinting a little at the fact that someone at their side had noticed the disagreement, glad that the someone did not look like anyone important.

At Piper's last sentence, though, she got Damien's attention. He stopped trying to draw away from her tirade when he realized what she had just said. During that moment's realization, he was left on his own. The girl had turned back to this dolly she had seemed interested in, and of which had now revealed why it belongs to Knockturn Alley.

Damien let a couple of moments pass, looking at what ensued with the dolly and the spoons, and trying to understand what Piper had said. It had made the situation a little awkward. He was sure he had touched a nerve that made her reveal what was truthfully bothering her, and which is the reason for her seemingly permanent anger.

Gently, the boy walked a few steps to where Piper now stands. This time, not wanting to alarm her, he merely stood by her side and watch her fool with the displays in the shop. Very soon though, he cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck absent-mindedly.

"I had no intentions of feeling you up," he started. True story. Lorcan D'eath, serial womaniser. Damien D'eath ... who? Damien had taken a long while to get over that girl who broke his heart when he was thirteen-going-on-fourteen. Besides that, he has no other romantic experiences to speak of. Of course he has needs as similar to boys in Slytherin and almost everywhere else. He just never really knew how to meet them. Besides, that first love was with an older girl, who had basically taught him the little he knows about relationships. He does, however, puts on an act. Too many times, Damien finds himself acting to cope with moulding his own identity.

"I like boys," he continued, trying to sound as solemn as he can. It sounded lame coming out of his mouth. Damien had intended to lighten the situation, but he wondered, to what effect?

There was an awkward pause and Piper mentally kicked herself over and over, thinking about how stupid she was. She was usually so good with her filter. She knew how to hide the parts of her life and herself that she did not want others to be privy to. She wanted to be a shell, just the exterior of what people wanted so they had no reason to pry. Eventually she would escape- for now she would cope.

She knew he was watching her, staring, making his judgments, assuming what had happened to her, trying to fill in the gaps, the little she had left. She could not bring herself to look at him and see those things unfolding behind his eyes. She hated that she could see when people were coming up with judgments- it was the worse expression once could see in another.

When he finally spoke, she could tell she had made him uncomfortable- good. It was about time that she was the one making someone feel uncomfortable. It was the universe finally beginning to balance things out- for once, she was catching someone off guard. At his words, she could not help but scoff, rolling her eyes. "Uh huh, okay," she said.

But balance never remained, and suddenly, she was off guard again. She froze and slowly turned to face him. "What?" she repeated, not sure she had heard him right. People did not open up to her. He had to be kidding. He could not actually imparting some hidden truth to her. Could he?

Now that's a slightly better tone of voice, he thought. Better curious because it meant even a minute level of interest, than pure anger directed at Merlin knows what. Smirking at that effect, Damien launched into a playful chuckle. "I like them pretty, lanky, with good hands ..." He winked at Piper as his voice trailed off, in an effort to make her imagine more that he wanted to say. He had never thought about liking boys before, although it never bothered him. He had heard rumors about other boys being found in unexplainable situations with other boys in their dorms. Rare though, the rumors. But there was nothing wrong about it, not to Damien.

"I don't feel them up though," Damien continued. "I am very respectful. But ... above all, I'm a gentleman". With a smug look on his face, the boy nodded and smiled, observing Piper's impending reaction.

Piper listened carefully to what he said. If he was not lying, then he was not a threat. Not to her. Guys only had one thing on their mind. Girls seemed intimidated by her, thinking that all the rumors boys spread about her were not only true, but because Piper was some sort of mega-skank, rather than actually the victim of over-ancy teenage boys. Maybe Damien was the exception.

She was not sure she could believe it, though, she was simply too used to being ostracized and alone, so used to not being able to trust or rely on anyone but herself. To think that might not be true.. Well she could not think it. It was simply unbelievable to her, a foreign concept, something incomprehensible. She might be able to have a friendship?

She stared down at the spoons. "So.." She was not sure how to go about this, so she looked up and just blurted it. "You're gay then?"

He didn't think that the girl would actually believe him. It started out as a lie. But now it seems as if she became less guarded upon the possibility that he likes boys instead. Damien pondered his options. He could go on lying and make a friend, but lose her later if she finds out about his lie. Or ... he could just lose a companion now, not a very fancy option to spend the day alone. Damien chewed on his lower lip as he thought about those options, then he settled on one.

"... Yeeeaaahhh. Urm. Boys are cute. Don't you think?" He began, hoping that sounded convincing. Damien never felt bad about lying. One could not be if one is a Slytherin. The boy is just worried about Piper's possible anger, should she learn the truth later. But later is later. Later can wait. Perhaps she will find him sufficiently charming for forgiveness in the future.

She felt a little flood of relief. Someone she could trust. Finally. She did not know why him being gay made it okay, but it had to be with that whole not a threat thing. It somehow made him impartial. She realized this was the first time ever really talking to him, but he was a safer bet to trust than most of the people she knew anyway. Perhaps she could actually relax around him if she knew he was not just after her as a piece of meat.

She visibly relaxed. "Oh," she said, reaching up to brush a strand of hair out of her eyes. "Sorry, I just get.. uptight. I'm sort of used to all guys, y'know... mauling me." She shuddered. "After all that, I would not mind pretending boys don't exist for awhile, y'know?" She smiled lightly. She had not even given anything away, but she already felt like a small wight had been lifted, as though had been able to drop some of the burdens constantly bogging her down. It was a small mercy, having this one person to be able to relax just a little bit.

((Well, their plot just got more interesting xD ))

Damien saw that Piper had obviously relaxed in his presence. Like magic, he thought to himself in a cheesy way. Smirking in delight, the boy felt like giving himself a thump of approval. It seems as if the day could only get better and better. Damien nodded, as if trying to relate to what Piper was saying about boys.

"I'm sorry you don't like the mauling part though ... I do." As soon as he spoke those words, Damien had to surpress a big bout of laughter. As mentioned, he never thought that liking boys was wrong. He just never saw himself with one. Then again, the future can hold anything. Just ... not now, he thought to himself, feeling very odd at a visual image of it. What was worse was that he imagined mauling Kendall, and Kendall mounting him. Oof, he thought. A shudder ran down his spine. A bad one. Maybe Kendall's the wrong guy. But whatever. Damien pulled himself back from that foreign train of thought. He had always been a very visual person, and it certainly did not help if he could imagine certain things.

"Sorry for the overshare," Damien proceeded quickly, exhaling deeply a few times to keep from laughing.