This prison

Penny was glad to see the subject quickly turn to other matters, but was a little disappointed that the subject revolved around another girl. Quickly reminding herself that Vivianna was a bit of a shrew with the boys, she chalked up his interest to loyalty to his friends, or the curiosity often accredited to the house of the hard-working.

She looked upwards, pondering her response. "Well, she's a very clever girl. I don't know how much I like her. She's not very open with people. I honestly do not know her very well, so I have some reservations about giving an analysis of her character. I've heard her called jaded, and she's never given me reason to doubt those sources. But, like I said, very clever, very worldly."

Well, that wasn't really helpful, though the jaded comment was interesting. If he could find out what jaded her in the past, he might be able to leverage that to his advantage. Normally he'd be horrified at such a shameless manipulation, but Varnes had earned a special place in his heart. This wasn't some school rivalry, it was realpolitik. He shifted a little on the bed and clicked his tongue, annoyed that she was apparently a closed person. It would be tough for him to get anything on her then without resorting to increasingly dubious methods. Was he just going to wait for her to mess up then? And what was his end game anyway?

Padril "Hmm'd" and shrugged his shoulders for Penny's benefit, not entirely sure where to take the conversation now. There wasn't really any good segue' to make, and he didn't want to question her too closely on Varnes unless he aroused suspicion. "Worldly?" he asked. "I've never been entirely sure what being worldly entails. Would you define yourself as worldly, Penny?" It was an awkwardly asked question, to be sure, but it could lead to an interesting conversation, he hoped.

Padril seemed a bit dissatisfied with her answer, as though he were hoping for something else from her. She once again had to fight off the vicious sting of jealousy. Why should she have any ill will towards the Varnes girl? If anything, Vivianna had proven herself. She seemed against the Dark Followers - of course, Penny could not publicly condone this behavior, as she was one of the Followers. But Padril's interest in the other Slytherin was not promoting good feeling towards her in Penny's mind.

His sudden turn of conversation embarrassed her, she would admit. What was worldly? Street smarts - it was having street smarts. Which Penny definitely did not have. Once again, she was brutally faced with another shortcoming of hers. Still her permanent shade of pink, she said, "Probably not. Worldly means knowledge is present from experience. My experience lies in books."

"Would you like to become worldly?" he asked, pursuing the line of questioning. He caught a glance of himself in the reflection of his window and adjusted his hair semi-consciously, painfully aware of how awkwardly thin he looked in his gown. He began considering how soon he could leave the Hospital Wing; surely he could just stand up, grab his stuff, and leave if he promised to go nap in the the Dormitories. He felt so detached from the world here.

"I don't, but I was considering doing that World Trip everyone does when they graduate," he said, gesticulating with a wrist. "I wanna be street smart, y'know? And it be pretty neat to see Australia again. You want to travel to travel?"

She felt her throat turn dry at his question. For one moment, she thought he was making some sort of pass at her. Her mind began tripping over itself to try and figure out what to do and how to respond. She then realized he had done nothing at all to imply anything suggestive. He wasn't even as focused as he had been just a moment before. She let out a breath and smiled at her foolishness. "I'm not sure what I could do with that. And, there's that old saying - careful what you wish for."

She listened with interest. Of course, most purebloods went on their own little tour of their own, but she was certain she would be going. "Oh, yes I'd like to travel. I want to be the quintessential tourist who takes in every single sight and gets really cranky if the schedule is changed." She smiled.

Merlin, Penny, did you just make a joke?!