Curious Returns

Scotland.

Tolerable place. People called it chilly at times, but it was nothing compared to the freezing snows of Bulgaria in winter. Reid allowed a scowl to stretch across his face. Nasty, blasted place. His school had unfortunately polluted and prejudiced his views against the country, which was otherwise a beautiful place. His only good memories of the country was sneaking out from school, spending the weekends wandering the streets of Sofia, watching the peak of Mount Vitosha at night. Inspite of being undeniably urban, there was a peace to be found in the city, in the loitering crowds filled with people who didn't give two cents about anyone else. Peace was a rare commodity these days.

Reid tilted his head back, watching the clear Scottish spring sky. He didn't delude himself. He had missed English weather, English rains, even the annoying high British accent which he himself had been unable to jerk off in spite of spending five years abroad. In spite of the memories that dwelt here, the Isles still smelt of home.

A strong wind, and the branch Reid was currently lying down on, creaked heavily. Reid tossed a glance down, to the ground more than thirty feet below. Re-inforced the Cushioning Charm. Placed his arms beneath his head, hooked the right ankle above the left, and closed his eyes. The topmost branch of a dead tree, outside the most haunted place in Wizarding Britain, was turning out to be a most comfortable resting spot.

Vivianna had just gotten out of work. Cracking her knuckles viciously, the witch decided that there was no way she was going back to school yet. Today had been one of those days where the shop was buzzing with activity, and of course she was left to deal with most of it. Everything had been going fine until about an hour ago, when three idiotic patrons walked in almost simultaneously and demanded to be seen. As if that wasn't enough, her old manager stormed in insisting that he must speak to Mr. Marcheti, as he wanted his job back. It was a mess, and took all of the teenager's self-control not to hex them all into submission. She'd refrained, but now the girl was in a very irritable mood.

Hogwarts wouldn't help her mood at all right now, because knowing her luck she'd just run into someone she disliked. Granted, that was a decent percentage of the student population, but it wasn't like she could help it. Immediately seeking heights, one of the only things that was certain to calm her down, the female began to head towards the Shrieking Shack. The Shack was surrounded by decently sized trees, and Vivianna had been a climbing pro before she'd even had a decent vocabulary.

As the Slytherin got closer, she noticed a figure perched in the highest tree. Straining her eyes, she deduced that the figure was male, and not someone she recognized. Curiosity piqued, the witch decided to enter that very tree herself. Without a word to the tree's other occupant, she began to climb. Vivianna found herself quite glad that she wasn't in her school robes, aware that the blasted things always got in the way. Pulling herself from one branch to another like she'd been born to do it, the redhead finally settled two branches below the other teen. Back against the trunk, she looked upwards to survey the dark-haired male. She'd never seen him before, but she'd peg him to be around her age. This fascinated her, for what would a teenager be doing in Hogsmeade, if they didn't attend Hogwarts?

Relaxing further into her spot, the girl soaked in the pleasure that being up high brought her. If she believed in such things, Vivianna would have sworn she'd been a bird in a past life. A bird of prey, of course.

Someone was climbing his tree.

Of course, it was a bit presumptuous to claim it as his tree, but he had spent a decent half-hour on it, enjoying the environment. Relaxing in the environment rather, Reid didn't recall the last time he had particularly enjoyed anything. Still, in the ridiculously intrusive society that he lived in, solitude was rare, and until the appearance of this mystery tree-climber, he had been in his own highly personal bubble. And he was loathe to let the bubble pop.

Not to mention that the person was ridiculously noisy. Creak. Creak. Creeak. Reid found irritation climbing instantaneously, and he had to exhale thrice to stop the mercury rise. Asshole. Couldn't the idiot simply used a convenient Levitation charm? Did they have to literally climb the tree?

Reid half-mindedly contemplated a future course of action. He could throw out a few words to the air, let them drift down to the person apparently perched on the branch underneath him. A polite request, a few choice insults. Tell them to sod off. But then again that would take up time. And Reid did abhor wasting time, specially on strangers incapable of casting basic charms.

He withdrew his wand. Gave it a brisk flick, jabbing it at the branch beneath him. A threatening creak, then the audible snap of the branch breaking. Unless the person knew how to fly without brooms, their pricey butt would be hitting the ground right about.....now.

Reid put his wand in.

Vivianna had been minding her own business, her back leaning against the tree's trunk, and one arm casually placed on a branch about half a foot above her head. She'd only gotten a split second warning, before the branch she was sitting on had broken from right under her. It was only pure instinct and the fact that if she couldn't live in the Hogwarts potion labs, she'd live in the Hogwarts trees, that saved the student. Hand tightening on the branch above her, the witch had pushed away from the trunk with one leg, and grabbed the same branch with her other palm. It was a bit of a strain to pull herself up, but nothing the teen couldn't handle.

Once safe, the girl's first thought was, that branch was completely capable of holding my weight. Following a moment later, her second was that bastard! Glancing at the male who could have just killed her, the witch's eyes narrowed. Her perch was only about a foot below his now, and Vivianna automatically found herself reaching for another limb as a possible safety net. Just incase the idiot tried it again.

"Do you make a habit of attempting to kill tree-climbing girls, or am I just special?" the Slytherin hissed at the unrecognizable teenager. Her right hand had automatically gone to her hip, where her wand was strapped due to lack of pockets.

One thing was certain, his boy had nerve. And all things considered, that could be a good thing, or a very, very bad thing.

Reid had his eyes closed in relative peace for five seconds, when the obnoxious creaking started again. Someone was breathing heavily, he could hear rattling breaths of surprise and sudden physical exertion. And he hadn't heard the tell-tale thump of someone hitting the ground either.

His jaw flexed. Figured that he'd have a monkey to spoil his day.

An over-dramatic monkey, on top of that. Reid hadn't realised it was possible to roll his eyes with them still closed, but that was exactly what he was doing right now. His voice floated down, the epitome of boredom. "You were at a maximum of thirty feet above the ground. A thirty feet fall kills no one. Do try to tone down the melodrama." Then a contemptuous mutter. "Girls."

But the back of his head acknowledged the fact that not everyone would have been able to pull themselves to safety like that. This was not the stereotypical, crying-over-a-hangnail sort of girl. Which was ultimately annoying again, in a different way. This was probably the feminist, righteous sort of girl, which meant that she would direct a fifteen minute lecture his way on mending the error of his actions. A Silencio would probably be good right about now.

Or.....nah. He had wasted enough of his thoughts on this specimen of the female species anyway. Let her blab whatever she wanted to blab.

Who was this boy? Vivianna had never before met someone who knew how to deal with her when she was pissed off, that wouldn't get them killed or disregarded. Yet somehow, this strange boy she'd never met had said the exactly right thing. She wouldn't hurt him now, she was too curious, and she couldn't disregard him as a brainless idiot for his response. Odd. Perhaps... no, she refused to believe that she'd met her match.

"No, but it would have put me out of commission for a while you gormless twit," the Slythern threw back, words factual. If anger wouldn't work on this git, she'd just have to try a different approach. It took some restraint not to scream at him, he whom had the gall to call her melodramatic. Vivianna knew melodramatic, she lived with melodramatic, and she was certainly not melodramatic.

Of course, the dark haired mystery just had to drive the stake in further by adding a muttered girls. The redhead wasn't a feminist, but sexism angered her almost as much as anti-Slytherin propaganda. She didn't need to hear sexist comments from the other teenager, she got enough of that from her father thank-you-very-much. Vivianna didn't say a word though, aware that he might just be trying to push her buttons.

So the Slytherin did was she did best. She watched, and waited.

Gormless twit. This girl probably learned how to insult from her great, great grandma. Gormless twit. Reid hadn't been called a gormless twit in.......well, ever. He had to give her points for trying.

And now his relative peace was absolutely shattered.

She was probably trying very, very hard to control her temper. He could hear the strain in the relatively calm voice. She wasn't lecturing him, though. Or ranting on the nobility, virtue etcetera etcetera. No, she seemed quite content to insult him right back. Curse it all. To the tune of which boring drone was he supposed to fall asleep now? Hogwarts girls were proving to be even more aggravating than Durmstrang, and that was quite an achievement. The Bulgarian bimbos were quite content to giggle flightily, wink, and hit on him now and then. English lasses seemed inclined to defy all stereotypes, and butt their way into his free time by hook or by crook.

Nothing else to do but reciprocate. "And I'm sure the world would have thanked me for it." There was no trace of interest in his voice, injecting some would shift the balance of power in her hands. Girls hated nothing more than to be ignored, especially when they were angry. Reid didn't quite care to analyze why he bothered, but he made sure to yawn a bit louder than usual. "Since that ended in failure, I would have loved to leave the tree and your delightful company but......." Another stifled yawn. "Ladies first."

"Probably," the Slytherin responded back, no emotion in her tone. The girl wasn't oblivious, she knew that most people she met hated her. In fact, she could probably count the people who truly gave a shite about her on her fingers. Salazar knows that neither of her parents would mind. She could only hope that her response would throw the male a little off guard. After all, how many people would honestly admit that the majority of the world loathed their very existence?

It had taken her a while to peg him down, but Vivianna was pretty sure she had him now. The other teenager wanted her to loose her cool, it was all a power play. One came across those often enough within the Dungeons. The redhead herself practically always won them, simply because there was very little her house could use against her. She had good grades, but not perfect. She was intelligent, but not a bookworm. She had parents, but didn't care for them. The only thing that could be used was her impure blood, but all the girl had to do was pull out inbreeding statistics and they hushed right up. Of course, she was involved in more than one thing that wasn't exactly legal, but the Slytherin knew how to be careful.

He was going out of his way to act bored, that bugged her. But when the male used the age-old "chivalrous" saying, Vivianna cocked her head to the side. "What are you waiting for then?" was her innocent response. It wasn't the best come-back, but it was the only think she could come up with that didn't require a powerful emotion behind it. With the knowledge that such was what he wanted from her, the teenager knew she couldn't let him win.

Reid's eyebrows shot up, high into his hairline at the throwaway comment. She didn't care that the world apparently hated her? A girl, a teenager didn't care about people's opinions? And he had thought he was one of a kind. His logic (and ego) rebelled at the thought. Just because some nancy-pancy girl spouted a few radical ideals, didn't mean she was any different from the rest of the human race. She could be a chip off the old block, yes. Reid had no problem admitting that he was a new block altogether.

She was trying her level best to thwart him though. He couldn't even catch that faint strain of anger in her voice anymore. But Reid was more perceptive than most. And he could recognize people like him. She was trying to show a facade of calm, of composure, to purposely aggravate him. Of course, that would've meant Reid naturally going off to sleep then and there, he didn't live on people's reactions. But he had invested himself the moment he had drawn the wand. And somehow, retreating now seemed like surrendering whatever game they had going here. And he didn't lose.

He withdrew his wand again. Reinforced the Cushioning Charm, with an extra spell for balance on his feet, even though he didn't truly need it. Hooked his knees around the tree branch securely. And then swung down, balanced perfectly, hanging by his knees upside down. His nose was inches away from the girl's face.

She was moderately attactive, with a chin that hinted to stubbornness, and shrewd eyes. He regarded her expressionlessly. "Look. I've been plagued by idiots my whole life. I like my peace, and sanity. You're utterly ruining it." Or livening it up, but Reid didn't care to voice that. "You don't seem to be completely unintelligent. So you could get off this tree now. Or I could get down. After hexing your nose six ways to Sunday."

The female watched as the other occupant of the tree drew his wand and cast two spells. Vivianna didn't quite catch what the first one was, but the second was definitely a balancing charm. The Slytherin couldn't help but find that a bit pathetic. What was this teenager even doing in a tree if he needed spells to help him balance? Her unasked question was answered as the male swung upside down by his knees. Ah, so he wanted to show off then. Not that she was impressed, she wasn't, the redhead herself was capable of doing that without the spells if she so wished.

When the other teen spoke, Vivianna found the left corner of her mouth lifting upwards slightly. The result was an odd combination of a smile and a sneer. When it can down to it, the girl herself wasn't exactly sure which expression would be more appropriate. Leaning back a bit, because he was right in her face, and that was starting to bother her, the witch rolled her shoulders back languidly.

"I don't know how special you think you are, but you're not the only one who's spent their life dealing with idiots. And while I'm flattered by your complement about my intelligence, I find myself incredibly comfortable right here. So, if you really feel that you must, go ahead and try to hex me," Vivianna said, face carefully blank of any true emotion.

Perhaps egging him on hadn't been the best of ideas, but the Hogwarts student had been holding her wand in hand before she'd even finished talking. So she'd be alright. Probably.