sleep until the sun goes down

The Slytherin paused when he hovered over the Hufflepuff table. Something about it attracted him like opposite poles of a magnet, and he had a lack of explanation for this. Whatever. He might as well just plop down and pretend that he was in complte control of his actions.

He found an empty plate, and nonchalantly he piled chicken wings and sausages and toad in the hole, and eggs and all sorts of ordinary, extraordinary things on top of his plate. Soon, his plate was taller than a fully-fledged owl. Timothy's appetite was growing, his stomach rumbling, and he began to ate his lunch without much resistance.

It was lunchtime, and all was well.

Sitting down at the Hufflepuff table, the young girl eyed up the food set out. She was hungry. Really, really hungry now that she was looking at all the oh-so tempting stuff that was in front of her. But could she touch it? No, of course not. Because, for some stupid reason, she still managed to keep at the strict "no big meals for lunch" policy that her parents had forced upon her. Ugh.

Picking up an apple and shining it on the sleeve of her woolen jumper, Ellie looked up and down the table. The regulars, really, except... No, it couldn't have been. The boy from the library, who Ellie had been convinced was insane. But it was.

"Oi, Slytherin!" she hissed as loud as she dared to without bringing attention upon herself unnecessarily. "What the hell are you doing here?! And slow down, you'll eat yourself stupid!"

The Slytherin began to munch on his third chicken wing before a familiar voice bellowed at him to slow down on his eating. Timothy tilted his head slightly so he can see who it was out of his peripheral vision. Once he'd identified her, the boy smirked, his eyes growing with humour.

"Ellie, dearest!" he exclaimed, taking a huge chunk of his meat. He then wiped his lips and fingers with a piece of cloth that was sitting next to him. "You never told me you sat at that end of the Hufflepuff table! Now why on earth are you sitting at that end, huh?"

Being a Hufflepuff prefect, Florence glared at him from the other side of the table, though there was a hint of sadness in her gaze. For a moment, the Slytherin felt sad too until he looked back at Ellie. "I won't eat myself stupid!" he retorted. He threw a chicken wing in her direction. "Here! Have some food!"

Standing up, the Hufflepuff edged her way towards the younger boy. Timothy probably wouldn't get into trouble for sitting at the wrong table; she'd seen plenty of people do it before. But the way he seemed so chilled about it irked her slightly. The way he was just stuffing himself full of chicken made her want to get up and... Embarrass the living daylights out of the boy.

"Oh, Timothy dearest," she smirked and ruffled his hair. "How long it's been since we had a decent conversation!" she chirped and pinched his right cheek hard, making sure it left a red mark.

"I'd love to eat, but you know me. Always watching my shape." Taking a small nibble from her apple, she watched him with an innocent, but teasing smile so that she looked as though she were about to burst into a fit of giggles. Which, truth be told, she probably was.

Timothy felt his cheeks reddening from Ellie's pinch. "Oh sweetheart!" he exclaimed, "that's very, very kind of you!" He brushed his cheek to dampen the reddened part until it was a healthy shade of peach once again. Maybe Ellie wasn't such a weakling after all.

The Slytherin took a perverse glance at the Hufflepuff's body, before clearing his throat. Clearly, she was out to humiliate him. Now, he had a plan too. One that if she said yes, be humiliated about consorting with a third year, but if she said no meant a big bully.

Who cared if it backfired?

"Ellie Perdice," he announced, making sure everyone on the Hufflepuff table and beyond was looking, "will you go out with me?"

"Aww, sorry kiddo. Didn't mean to hurt you, you're just so cute," Ellie giggled, ruffling his hair again and making sure it stood up at awkward angles. "What can I say? I'm just a sweet, innocent little Hufflepuff who cares about her little Slytherin friend," she said with a bright smile, pouring herself a glass of pumpkin juice and holding it daintily in both her hands.

The girl saw him looking at her body and a slight blush graced her cheeks, but it faded when he looked away. For some reason, she hated people doing that. But he was a boy, and she was far from ugly.

It was easy to tell that in that brain of his, he was plotting something. She could see it in his eyes. And so, when she took a sip of pumpkin juice and he asked her out, she did a perfect spit-take across the table.

"Tiny Slytherin boy say WHAT NOW?!" she shrieked, coughing like a madwoman.

"Friend?" gasped the Slytherin, "but Ellie, dearest! I thought... I thought we were going to be so, so much more than that! And here I've been saying we were getting along so well!" He glanced down at himself, "Oi! You better take that back, Ellie! I am not that little!"

He glanced up at his hair, mussing it back up so that it looked dashing once more. Merlin, he was going to need his comb to completely cure it, but that was a necessity he somehow did not seem to possess at that moment. Mentally, he began to groan.

Although he had to admit, the attention he was getting from the blonde was satisfying.

Most people around him gasped, and Timothy merely nodded, "Oh Ellie! I've been waiting to ask you for years!" Well, they had only known each other for a few months, but it didn't matter; Ellie couldn't interject in front of the public eye, could she? He strode towards her, and once he was close enough he took her hand and knelt down on one knee in front of her. "Do you accept this offer?" he asked again, gentler than before.

Ellie sat there and suppressed a giggling fit as she heard him talk about how they were getting along. She sort of tuned it out and just sat, looking at him for a while, telling herself that he was actually kind of tall. "You're shorter than me, and thusly, you're little," she grinned, trying to clear her throat. She hated choking on drinks. Her throat was going to hurt for a good three or four days now. Excellent.

It was tempting to ruffle the boy's hair up again, since he had just fixed it and was probably likely to throw a hissy fit if it was messy again. But still, he'd just asked her out, and while she was in shock from the experience, her face was burning up.

On one hand, there was the fact that he was far from unattractive and that he was a proper laugh. But then there was that he was a Slytherin, and that might just get her attacked by a few of her housemates. But... Oh, heck it.

"Wait, I swear we've only known each other for- Uh, never mind," she said with a light half-smile, knowing that by now her face would be a brighter shade of red than a firetruck. It was almost instinct to take her hand away and slap him right across the cheek, but that would be rude. Instead, she let him hold it and looked down at him as he got on one knee.

"I-I... I uh.. You're not- But... So, you're being serious?" she stammered, throat suddenly dry.

The Slytherin found himself nodding at Ellie. Somehow, it had turned from a nefarious plot to humiliate the Hufflepuff, to a sincere question that he wanted to ask. It was too soon for them to even contemplate being in a relationship... but Ellie had been the subject of his mind whenever he thought about a girl nowadays. There was Flo, Robin, and maybe even Valerie... but Ellie seemed the most concrete of them all.

"I'm serious," grinned the boy, and he slowly stood up. He still grasped Ellie's hand in his palm. He gazed into her polished fingernails, his other hand brushing the tops of her wrist in a gentle manner. "Please?"

(ooc: short because I CANNOT.)

Try as she might, it was near impossible to wipe the sightly stupid grin that had crossed her face, let alone the still mad blush. Did they even know each other well enough to be in a relationship? Well, she knew he was ever so slightly insane; his flailing in the library had proved that much. But she also knew that, heck it she had to admit it to herself at one point, she may have had a small crush on him since their library run-in. And she also knew that he was really quite cute.

"So... If you actually mean this... An you're not going to burst out laughing when I say this," she took a hitched breath andd scuffed her shoe against the floor. "Then yes, Timothy. I will..."

(ooc: the Tellie feels!)

Though he'd vowed to himself not to, the blond let out a loud laugh as soon as she had uttered the magic word. "Seriously?" he grinned, his voice a mouse's squeak. "Did y-you... oh Merlin!" His eyes widened in euphoria, and he flung his arms around Ellie. "W-Well then! I, Timothy McQueen, am dating the hottest girl in Hufflepuff - not to mention the entire castle of Hogwarts - Ellie Perdice!"

Tim leaned in towards her, though unlike previous times he only searche gently for her lips.

When he laughed, Elllie felt a twang of pain across her chest. "He didn't mean it" she thought, and drew her hand back, ready to slap him across the face. But, at his next words, she lowered her hand and smiled at the floor, lost for what to say. What was there to be said? She was dating the cutest (and funniest, and everything else-est) boy in Slytherin. Well. In Hogwarts, now she took a look around the Great Hall. "Yes, seriously, you idiot," she grinned and wrapped her arms around his neck.

The Hufflepuff's breath hitched in her throat as he leaned in towards her. She wasn't sure what she expected, but sure enough she didn't expect herself to be leaning in towards him and pressing her lips gently against his. And she certainly didn't expect to feel herself getting butterflies, either.

(ooc: SOBBING. And sorry, wind knocked out my internet. But I'e got my phone, so I could post et tell you;D)

As they kissed, Timothy ran one of his fingers through her luscious blonde locks, placing it gently in front of her shoulders. He pulled back, away from her, taking his time to properly breathe. They were practically wrapped around each other at this point, and any closer... well, he wouldn't know what to do if they were any closer.

"Well... do we go on some victory parade or something or..." asked the Slytherin, "I've never dated anyone... uh, before. Just snogged."

Ellie smiled into the kiss just as he pulled away, and she made a slight sound of indignation in the back of her throat. She bit her bottom lip and looked at him with smiling eyes. 'Best kiss I've had in my life' she thought and felt the blush creep up onto her cheeks at the thought. She wouldn't tell him of course, for she might have to deflate his head with all the boasting he was likely to do.

"Well, we could do that, if you wanted. Though people might throw rocks at you. Since, you know, I'm so beautiful and that," she teased, reaching to take his hand in hers gently. "And hey, I'll show you the ropes kiddo."

The Slytherin laughed, and linked his arm with hers. "Okay then, Queen McQueen," he decreed, "victory parade it is!" He began to walk towards the end of the Great Hall, lifting his arm and waving very much like the Queen as he had seen on the telly.

For now, he was quite possibly the happiest boy in the world.

Giggling, Ellie linked her arm through his with a distinctive sparkle in her eyes. She'd gone to the great hall in search of something to do, someone to talk to. And she was about to leave with a boyfriend. Success. "Queen McQueen? Does that make you a king then?" she asked, still giggling. Not hysterically, but in a... In a cute way.

"You've got to be the most insane person I know, do you realize that?" she asked, leaning down to kiss him lightly on the cheek. "But you're still amazing."