Unimpressed (for Hunter)

Seren huffed haughtily as she stepped out of the ice cream parlor. Truly, she had never been so insulted in her life! When Hunter had asked Seren if he could take her to Hogsmeade, Seren had readily said yes. Because Seren thought that Hunter actually WANTED to take HER to Hogsmeade. But NO, HUNTER VANDERBERG THE COMPLETE ARSE was obviously still obsessed with the sheep freak (who Seren for some reason couldn't bring herself to insult even in her mind at the moment). Well Seren was NOT the type of girl to let ANYONE take advantage of her PERFECT BEAUTY just to get the attention of someone ELSE!

Seren could have waited right outside the shop for Hunter. BUT HE DIDN'T DESERVE IT! So instead Seren took off at a brisk walk down the lane. Hunter would find her. She was confident that he wasn't so rude as to leave Hogsmeade without her. Seren eventually found herself leaning against the wooden fence that overlooked the Shrieking Shack below. There were ALL KINDS of ghost stories about the building. It looked boring and dirty to Seren.

Seren took a lick of her ice cream and thought about what had just happened. How was it that she had so much PITY for the Sheep Maniac Aoife O'Donnell? The girl was a COMPLETE PSYCHOPATH, and deserved everything she was getting for pulling Seren's hair in first year! But Seren knew that in reality, Aoife O'Donnell was hurt by what Hunter had done. Seren didn't believe in kicking people while they were down. You could kick people while they were standing and able to kick you back. But not when they were helpless. That was just bad manners, then. It wasn't Seren's problem though. So she just continued with her ice cream and waited impatiently for Hunter to turn up. He would eventually.

Once Hunter had escaped the confines of Florean's, and a solid door stood between him and the redhead on the other side, Hunter leaned against the building and let his head fall back against the wall. Maybe if he slammed it against the brick hard enough, it would knock some sense into him - not that he was actually desperate enough to try. What had even just happened? Hunter closed his eyes and tried to process everything.

But he couldn't. The only thing he could see when he closed his eyes was Aoife's face, completely hurt and confused at the sight of him. Aoife - hurt. It didn't make any sense. Aoife didn't let things like this bother her. She wasn't like that. But then what was that all about? And then Hunter was really forgetting the most important question.

What the hell was wrong with him?

What kind of person did what he had just done? In his defense, he hadn't expected that type of reaction from Aoife. He'd expected anger - irritation, maybe - but not that. He opened his eyes and looked around - he'd almost forgotten that he was still standing right outside of the ice cream shop, only a wall between them. And as he looked around, he'd almost forgotten that he hadn't come alone. Where was Seren?

His stomach sank a little more as he remembered that he hadn't just hurt Aoife. He'd used Seren to do it. And now he had to find her - at least he could apologize to one of them. So, desperate for something to focus on, he took off at a jog down the road. Hogsmeade wasn't that big, and he could easily do a lap before taking the road back to Hogwarts to see if she'd gone back to the castle. But she hadn't gone back to the castle. Hunter slowed to a walk as he caught sight of her, leaning casually against a railing near that one haunted building that was blocked off.

Taking a breath to calm himself, he approached her. He had no idea what she would do - Seren had never been angry at him before. He stepped up next to her, his arm brushing hers, and put both elbows on the top railing of the fence. He stood in silence for a minute, trying to figure out how he could play this one off - but he realized quickly that he couldn't. So he just settled on, "Seren, I'm really sorry." They were the exact words that he'd almost said to Aoife. It lightened his chest a little bit to be able to say them to someone. "I shouldn't have done that to you." Unsure of what else to say, Hunter just let out a sigh and stared out at the Shrieking Shack, waiting for her to tell him that she hated him and leave him standing there. Or slap him, or whatever she wanted to do. He figured that either way, he'd deserve it.

Seren knew that Hunter would turn up, and she ignored him completely when he joined her. BECAUSE HE DIDN'T DESERVE SEREN'S ATTENTION! At least not until he apologized for being SUCH AN IDIOT. And even then, he didn't deserve it, but Seren would at least be able to tell him off then instead of ignore him. It took Hunter a while to say something, but at least when he did it was an apology. THAT WAS SEREN'S CUE!

Seren turned a sharp gaze on Hunter, her eyes flashing. "That is the first thing that you've said all day that hasn't made you sound like a COMPLETE jerk!" she retorted, putting a hand on her hip and glaring up at him. She hadn't ever been angry at Hunter before but then again she had never been USED by Hunter before either. "Do you think that I'm STUPID?!" Seren continued. "Did you really think you could get away with that WITHOUT ME NOTICING?" No WONDER Hunter wasn't put into Ravenclaw if he'd been unable to reason that much out on his own.

Though Seren didn't drop her glare, she did take Hunter's expression into consideration. He seemed confused and stressed, and Seren felt badly about that. BUT THAT WAS NO EXCUSE! "And it's not just me you shouldn't have done that to," Seren said to him coldly. "It's no secret that I'm no member of the Aoife O'Donnell fanclub, but REALLY!" Hunter had used to seem so nice. Now, for some reason, when he finally SEEMED to take an interest in Seren, he wasn't nice anymore, but an arse. And Seren WOULDN'T STAND FOR IT! "Didn't you SEE her face? And you HAD TO keep going! EVEN I FELT BAD FOR HER!" And Seren feeling badly for Aoife O'Donnell was no small feat. "That was just cruel." Crueler than the things Seren did, at least.

Hunter had expected Seren's outburst, and he knew that he deserved it, but that didn't stop him from looking up to the sky in irritation when she started shouting at him. "Look, I said I was sorry," he snapped, dropping his head into one of his hands rather than meeting her eyes. But then, he realized that he didn't exactly have the right to snap at her. Not right now, so he sighed and turned his head to look at her. "And I am sorry," he added, his tone less confrontational this time. "Of course I don't think you're stupid." No, Hunter was the stupid one. And the least he could do was not take it out on Seren, who hadn't done anything wrong.

His gaze hardened as she continued, finally bringing Aoife into the conversation. "You're right, you've never been a fan of her," he retorted, his voice taking on an edge again despite his earlier resolution to not get upset with Seren - but that was before she'd brought Aoife up. "In fact, it's you who always insults her every chance you get - but when I do it, suddenly you care about her feelings?" Hunter scoffed, an incredulous sound rising in his tone.

But then, once again, Hunter fell silent, trying to actually take in Seren's words rather than retaliate to them - it wasn't easy, because the simplest way to release his frustration was to fight back. But Seren had asked if he saw her face. Of course he'd seen it - he couldn't get it out of his mind. "I didn't think she'd react that way," he admitted in a quieter voice, turning to face Seren more completely. "I've - I've never seen her like that before. I didn't even know she could be like that." It was strange, to see a part of Aoife he didn't know - he thought he knew her better than anybody. But Hunter had been wrong about a lot of things in the past two weeks, so he really shouldn't be surprised that he was wrong again.

Seren turned toward Hunter and glared up at him when he snapped at her. Honestly,  WHO DID HE THINK HE WAS?! "And I suppose you think that's enough to fix all of this, saying you're sorry?" Seren said haughtily. Serena ignored Hunter when he apologized again more sincerely. If he was really sorry, he'd keep his temper in check instead of snapping at Seren for HIS STUPIDITY. He had no right to be temperamental right now. But Seren had every right, and she planned on taking full advantage of it.

Seren crossed her arms angrily when Hunter accused her of doing the same thing to Aoife that he had. "It's DIFFERENT. I'm a GIRL, first of all," Seren said paronizingly to him. "And she already HATES me, so she doesn't CARE what I think of her." Honestly, was Hunter really that stupid? Apparently, he was.

Seren huffed dramatically when Hunter voiced his confusion. "Can't you see?" Seren scoffed even though it was obvious that Hunter couldn't see anything. "She cares what YOU think. She LIKES you. So of COURSE she acted like that!" Boys were such idiots. So was Aoife. "You took that too far," Seren said finally, holding her glare on him.

It was a little strange to be talking to Hunter about Aoife. Hunter didn't talk about her. Ever. Not since they'd stopped being friends. Seren didn't really care about his troubles at this point though because Hunter was an arse. Maybe tomorrow Seren would be more sympathetic but probably not, since sympathy wasn't her strong point

"No, of course not," Hunter replied when Seren said saying he was sorry didn't fix anything. But the trouble was, apologizing potentially could fix everything, if he could swallow his pride and do it. He and Aoife could be friends again - he knew that he could make it happen. He was just too stubborn to be the first to say that he was sorry. And since he knew that Aoife wouldn't be the first either, they were pretty much doomed to never talk again.

Hunter frowned when Seren pointed out that it was different when she did it - that sounded like a bad excuse to him. But she continued to point out that Aoife didn't care what Seren thought of her, considering that they always hated each other. And in a way, Hunter could see her point. Aoife had never hesitated to stand up for herself when Seren was fighting with her - in fact, Hunter realized that she reacted the same way to Blake. And she usually even retaliated with a bit of humor in her tone, as though the situation wasn't a problem at all - not really, at least. Because she didn't care about either of them, just like Seren had said.

So what Seren was saying made sense, really. He'd never seen her like that because he'd never seen her conflict with anyone who mattered to her. Sure, he and Aoife had little fights and banters before, but never anything as serious as this. And she reacted differently - because she cared what he thought? Even though she'd thrown a chair at him? When Seren said that Aoife liked him, Hunter shook his head. "No, she doesn't," he replied with a tone of finality. "Not at all, and definitely not like that." Not enough, by any rate.

But Seren did. Seren enjoyed spending time with him and had said yes when Hunter asked her to come to Hogsmeade, and was still speaking to him even though he'd treated her like a complete git. Well, maybe she was yelling at him, not speaking to him, but he deserved that, didn't he? And while Hunter watched her talk, he realized that she really was very pretty - every bit as pretty as Aoife, though with completely different features. It was like the difference between fire and ice. And the thought came to Hunter that maybe the best idea wasn't to use someone to try and make Aoife jealous - maybe it was a better idea to simply replace her completely, and try to move on. After all, what better to destroy fire than ice?

So, driven by his new thought process, or maybe his stupidity - it seemed to be his most outstanding trait lately - Hunter ignored whatever it was that Seren was saying and took a step closer. Without even thinking twice about it, he lowered his head and pressed his lips to hers. It was a little awkward, because Hunter didn't have a clue what to do with his arms - or his mouth, really - so he just didn't do anything with either. And he didn't really think to close his eyes all the way. But hey, he had to start somewhere, right?

Seren could see Hunter processing what she'd said in his head. For a second, Seren wondered why she was even bothering to give him her ABSOLUTELY AMAZING advice. Because neither he or Sheep Freak deserved Seren's help! Honestly, why had Seren even wasted her time being so nice to Hunter if all he wanted with her was to catch the attention of his stupid sheep loving wannabe-girlfriend? It didn't matter as Hunter didn't seem to be understanding anyway.

It was a shame really, because Seren had really liked Hunter before (not to mention how nice looking he was.) But Seren refused to stand for her presence being used for such PREPOSTEROUS things. "And here I actually thought you asked me with you because you LIKED ME," Seren said coldly. But before she could continue, Hunter cut her off completely. And not in a typical way.

Seren was completely caught off guard when Hunter kissed her, but her eyes fluttered closed naturally. Seren leaned into the contact between them, kissing him back. Seren had kissed a boy before, but it was long ago and only a second long peck. This was different, though Hunter didn't seem to know exactly what to do. That was because he was illiterate. Seren on the other hand had read lots of books where people kiss, so she was basically an expert. But it was only a moment until her brain caught up with the situation, and she pulled away quickly when it did.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" Seren exclaimed, slapping Hunter on the arm angrily. She tried to rid her face of the flush that had risen in it and glared up at Hunter. "First you USE me and then you KISS me?" Seren asked indignantly,  putting a hand on her hip.  "You don't just KISS someone out of nowhere,  especially when they're already ANGRY at you!" Seren said, huffing in irritation. And then, just to be dramatic, she turned on her heel and stormed off in the direction of the castle.

Kissing was really awkward - and boring. Why did older people like this so much? What was Hunter even supposed to do? Maybe he should have thought about that before he decided to try it - why did he even decide to try it, anyway? He'd never really thought much about it before. Not even when he'd asked Aoife out - he'd just known that he wanted to be something more than friends. So what had possessed him to kiss Seren? She would probably just yell at him some more. Sometimes, Hunter was really not sure whether he'd gotten into Gryffindor based on his bravery, or just his stupidity, which allowed him to look really brave when really, he was just unafraid to make really unintelligent decisions.

But then, Seren was kissing him back, and Hunter was surprised to find that it wasn't actually as bad as he thought. He couldn't help the hint of a grin that tugged at the corners of his mouth as her lips responded to his. It was still stupid and weird, the whole thing, but he felt like he'd won something by getting her to kiss him back. And he even thought for half a second that he might like the feeling enough to try it again sometime, despite it's weirdness.

That feeling didn't last long, though, because it didn't take long for Seren to pull away and hit him on his arm. Hunter just watched her slap him without reacting, unsure of what to do. She was yelling at him then, and storming away. And Hunter stared after her for a second, wondering how he was supposed to respond. But then, after a second, he took off after her, a smug grin forming on his lips. When he caught up to Seren, he turned around to walk backwards in front of her, facing her.

"But you kissed me back," he pointed out with a shrug, excitement evident in his voice. He didn't even bother to hide his smirk. "So you can't be that angry." Even though Seren was saying she was mad at him, Hunter felt like what he'd just done was a pretty big accomplishment, and he was proud of himself. "You're saying you didn't like it?" Again, his stupidity was pushing him to say whatever he felt like without thinking about the consequences. But what did it matter? He'd already won today, in his opinion, no matter what Seren said now.

Unfortunately it seemed that putting Hunter VanDerberg in his place wasn't the easiest thing to do. Naturally he came running after Seren, but when he reached her she found that it wasn't to beg her forgiveness. In fact the boy was actually SMIRKING! Didn't he realize that she'd just yelled at him? So Seren couldn't understand why he had the look of a little kid who'd just been given a ton of candy.

"Yes, well, you caught me off guard!" she said quickly, but a flush rose again to her cheeks at Hunter's statement. Yes she had kissed him back. Yes she'd wanted to. But seren still had PRIORITIES. "That doesn't mean that I'm not angry with you," Seren said haughtily, crossing her arms while she walked and not making any effort to slow down for Hunter to talk.

"Hunter!" Seren said indignantly as Hunter asked if she'd liked it or not. In truth Seren found Hunter's obvious enthusiasm endearing. It was the first time that it seemed to actually be for her and not forAoife. And hadn't he kissed Seren when nobody that mattered was even watching? So he probably hadn't done it to bother Aoife.

In light of this revelation, Seren decided to CONSIDER answering his question seriously. Had she liked it? Once Hunter had relaxed it wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as the first few seconds. And her racing heartbeat was hard to deny. "No, I'm not saying that I didn't like it," she said in the end. "But you definitely didn't DESERVE it." That much was true at least. He'd hardly done one good thing that day. "Next time, you'll have to actually EARN it."

Hunter grinned in amusement when Seren blushed. He wasn't sure why he was feeling so excited all of a sudden, but he wasn't about to question it. Her excuse was that he'd caught her off guard. "Oh, is that it?" Hunter asked her skeptically. When he'd caught Aoife off guard, she threw a chair at him. Seren had reacted much more pleasantly. "Well, I'm glad I did, then," he said with a nonchalant shrug, turning to walk beside her.

He kept his eyes on her face, just so that he could see her expression. And also maybe because he'd never realized how pretty her eyes were before that day, and he wanted to see them. They were a really sharp, icy blue, and Hunter wasn't sure how he'd failed to take notice of them in the past. Really, he'd never looked at Seren. But he was looking now, and he kind of wanted to smack himself for not paying attention before.

He just stared at Seren expectantly when she reacted to his question with surprise. But then she answered him. And admitted that she'd liked it. Well, technically, she just said that she didn't not like it, but it was the same thing. "Yeah, that's what I thought," he said, a smug tone to his voice. It was a really strange feeling, really - he wasn't sure if he was just proud of himself for kissing Seren at all, or if he was actually happy that she'd kissed him back. It shouldn't be the last one, because he didn't think he liked Seren like that - but then, what else would explain his reaction?

What? He didn't deserve it? "Yeah, I guess you have a point," Hunter said, nodding in agreement. "I thought you'd hit me harder than that, actually," he added as an afterthought. "But it was worth it." Definitely worth it. Because his mood had improved nearly a hundred percent. He'd have to earn it next time, though, according to Seren. "Oh, so there will be a next time?" he replied in a mock-suggestive tone, flashing her a smile. "I wasn't planning on that, but if you insist..."

Seren wasn't sure how to react to Hunter. His ego was certainly too big for him. But at the same time, Seren was happy that his positive attention was directed at her. After all, he seemed very excited about kissing her. Not that Seren could blame him, because of how PERFECT she was. "Yes, that IS it," she said, keeping her voice even. "I wasn't exactly expecting it. I was right in the middle of YELLING at you. I wasn't THINKING..."

Seren faltered when Hunter said he was glad he'd surprised her, blushing. How could he be so much of a git one moment, and then say something nice the next? At least Seren was ALWAYS full of herself. "Of course you are," she retorted, her voice taking on a haughty tone once more. She thought for a moment that maybe they were suited for each other after all, because Seren was certainly as vain as Hunter was egotistical. But of course, Seren was BETTER.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Seren asked irritably when she realized that Hunter was staring at her. Was there something wrong with her makeup? Maybe she had something in her hair! Wait, what had he said? "Oh, you did NOT just say that!" Seren exclaimed, glaring at him. "Has anybody told you that you're a git? If not, let me be the first." But he was an attractive git, so Seren would continue to put up with him for the moment.

Then Hunter was saying something cute again, about how kissing her had been worth it even though Seren had hit him and stormed away. "I should have hexed you," Seren said plainly, letting her hair fall over her face to hide the redness in her cheeks that simply wouldn't go away. The cuteness did NOT last for long though, and git Hunter returned. "There WON'T be a next time EVER if you don't watch yourself," Seren said sharply, swinging her hand out to hit Hunter in the chest. Seren wanted to be angry with him, but his smile was nice. So she just flipped her hair over her shoulder and allowed him to keep walking beside her.

Hunter couldn't hold back his grin as he listened to Seren talk. Her excuse was that she wasn't thinking. "Exactly," he said. "Usually, when people aren't thinking, it's easy to see what they really want." That was a bit deep for Hunter, but he wasn't even sure if it made that much sense. So it was fine. And he was pretty sure that Seren would understand it - or at least make something out of it.

When Seren asked him why he was looking at her, Hunter shrugged. "You're just really pretty, that's all," he told her. Why bother acting as though it was something else? He raised an eyebrow at her when she called him a git. "Yeah, I get that a lot," he said, laughing. He tried not to think about the fact that it was usually Aoife who had called him that. But others had too, at least.

"But you didn't hex me," Hunter pointed out. Seren was threatening him then, saying there wouldn't be a next time. "Relax, I'm only kidding," he said, rolling his eyes. Then, his smirk dropping into a less conceited smile, he reached for her hand for the second time that day. "Come on," he said, his fingers linking with hers. "I'll buy you a butterbeer."

This is going to be my last post in this thread if that's okay! You can reply if you want, or not, doesn't matter to me!! I'm just trying to end some of Hunter's threads before summer!

Seren pursed her lips while Hunter continued to make his point. Unfortunately, he was right. Seren just stared at him thoughtfully for a moment, slightly impressed that he'd managed to say something as intelligent as that. "Well," Seren said slowly. "I suppose I can't argue with that logic, can I?" What was the point of arguing with it, anyway?

Seren couldn't hold back the smile on her face when Hunter called her pretty. Of COURSE Seren was pretty. She knew that already. But one could never be told that they are pretty too many times. And Hunter had never said that to Seren before. Seren almost replied by saying that she knew that, but then thought better of it and said, "Thank you!" It was always good to know that you were being stared at for a good reason and not a bad one.

Seren glared at Hunter, even when he said that he was just joking. His jokes were hardly funny. Still, when he offered to buy her a butterbeer Seren couldn't exactly say no. FREE BUTTERBEER! Who would say no to that? Seren would take free butterbeer from anyone, even someone that she hated. So Hunter buying Seren butterbeer was simply too good to pass up. "If you insist," Seren said. Seren smirked a little when Hunter took her hand and followed him to the Three Broomsticks.