Consequences (Agnes)

There was nothing like the feeling Hunter got after winning a Quidditch match! The cheering stands, the excitement of his team! Though, it was more exciting when they destroyed the Slytherins - they'd only beaten Hufflepuff this time, which wasn't all that much of an accomplishment. Still, nobody was going to turn down an excuse to celebrate over Butterbeer, so as usual, the Gryffindor team headed to Hogsmeade after the match, making plenty of noise along the way. In a plenty good mood due to their win, Hunter laughed along with them, and regretfully bought a bottle of firewhiskey on his way out. It wasn't nearly as much fun as stealing it, but now that he was seventeen he figured he didn't have much excuse to steal it when he could pay for it. Besides, he owed the Three Broomsticks plenty for all that he'd taken from them in the past, so after getting what he payed for, he left a few extra sickles on the counter.

The sun was only just beginning to lower as they headed back to the castle - snow hadn't fallen yet that year, but Hunter imagined it probably would soon. The air was brisk - almost biting - but his Quidditch sweater more or less kept the cold from his skin. It didn't take long for them to make it back to Hogwarts, and before long they were stepping through the portrait hole into the Common Room, still more or less shouting to each other excitedly as they did so. "Slytherin doesn't stand a chance next week," Hunter announced as he, too, crawled into the common room. He opened his mouth to continue speaking, but as he looked around the room, he quickly closed it. The room was clearly empty before they'd arrived. Aside from one person - Agnes. Hunter glanced uneasily at his teammates, who hadn't even seemed to notice her, and followed them toward the staircases, where everyone was headed so that they could escape their sweat-covered quidditch uniforms.

"Go on, I'll be right there," he called to Blake when his friend turned to see if he was coming. And then he retreated to the couch where Agnes was sitting. He wouldn't normally approach her during the day - they just didn't really interact that way. But Hunter would be lying to himself if he wasn't the slightest bit concerned - or confused. By the time term had started this year, he and Agnes were relatively close. In the stay up late at night and talk and/or hook up kind of way. They were friends - just not typical friends. But they had always been there when they needed each other, in whatever way they needed each other. But Hunter hadn't talked to Agnes in weeks - or rather, she hadn't spoken to him in weeks. And Hunter didn't understand what had caused the change. At first, he'd thought it was because they'd decided to end the physical relationship between them - but that didn't make sense. Because that was all there ever was between them. No feelings. No confusion. Just sex. So removing it shouldn't have caused such a severe reaction. When he did see Agnes, she tended to seem distant or angry or both. But he hadn't gotten the chance to talk to her about whatever was going on - she'd made sure of that.

"Hey," he said slowly, approaching her and sitting down in the chair across from her. His half-sweat covered Quidditch uniform still clung to his back, and he hadn't even taken his shin-guards off, but he'd worry about that later. Because he was sure that if he'd gone upstairs to change first, Agnes wouldn't be here when he returned. He ran a hand through his hair, unsure of how to even go about this. He didn't normally talk to her during the day. Or act concerned about her life. But she'd been too distant. "Did you go to the match?" he asked, shooting her one of his usual half-grins, his voice casual. But after a moment, he sighed and frowned, deciding to just get to the point. "Alright, look, are you okay? You're avoiding me."

Reeeeead this:

Due to her state, Agnes hadn't gotten out of the Common Room much. She'd been to classes and gone down for dinner, but days of wandering mindlessly around Hogwarts grounds were over. She was simply too tired. She'd been taking her time for herself, photographing random people at Hogwarts and looking over old photographs, particularly those of her family. Agnes missed them, Ansel mostly. She just needed to know that they weren't going to disown her for being stupid, and that they wouldn't make her cancel the fetus. Agnes wasn't big into her other options, but she knew that one had never even been one of them. The alien was going to live, regardless of who kicked her for being insanely dumb. So, she sat in the Common Room once again, having missed the match against Hufflepuff for one major reason - Hunter. She'd been purposely avoiding him, because she had not yet come up with a lie as to why she was fat and why she was moody and why she always wanted to eat everything but nothing at all. And now, she had to come up with a lie as to why she'd been avoiding him. Going to the match would mean she'd see some of his friends, particularly his girlfriend - whom Agnes was scared of. The game seemed like a terrible idea in every angle she looked at it.

Her fingers tapped the cover of the book she was reading, or the one she appeared to be reading, which was her Charms textbook. Between the pages of the old book was the first ultrasound she'd ever had. It had been taken at her request, because even after seeing all the symptoms she couldn't bring herself to believe it. She'd gone to the Head Healer around two weeks before to demand physical proof of her supposed pregnancy, and, well, she'd gotten it. It didn't even look human. It looked more like a bean-shaped stump and a head-looking thing on one end. But there it was. Agnes had stared at that black and white image of whatever she was carrying for so long now, and even then she found it hard to believe she was eventually going to pop it out. Sitting, cross legged, with the book open in front of her and the words she needed to memorize blurring between the image of a tiny alien, she began to feel sick. This wasn't what she wanted for her life, a child was a responsibility she couldn't take, and even though she knew she had Victoria by her side, she was scared. More than anything, Agnes was scared.

At the sound of the Fat Lady's cheering and some male voices filling the Common Room, Agnes tucked the picture into a random part of the book and pretended to be studying, writing things random things on the margins such as Oh, that's cool. and Will try this sometime. even though she had no idea what she was writing on. She was too busy pretending to be busy, that the familiarity of the voices never got to her, Agnes recognized none. It wasn't until a figure appeared on the seat in front of her that she looked up only to see Hunter asking her if she'd gone to the game. Her eyes narrowed and her cheeks grew warm, he wasn't supposed to be back so soon! Glaring at him, her eyes cold and full of resentment, she muttered a simple "No." He was smiling, or half of his face was, and Agnes felt like punching him repeatedly. He shouldn't be smiling! He had no right! However, things got worse when he dared continue the conversation. Clearly, Agnes had been avoiding him, that should clue him in that she didn't want to speak to him, she didn't even want to see him.

Looking down at her book again, she tried to come up with an insult to get him to leave. "Yeah. I'm grand." she said sarcastically, having failed at trying to be verbally abusive with him. She just wanted him gone, out of the picture. Out of her picture, to be exact. What they had, what they did, should have never even happened. She regretted it, she regretted entering the train, and kicking him, and being in a class with him, and listening to him, and being friends with him. They had never had a healthy friendship, if it could even be called that, both having been embarrassed of the other, so taking it further than that had obviously been a mistake. Friends didn't have benefits. Friends were fucked. And, naturally, the girl ended up with the package to carry it for nine incredibly long months. "Do me a favor and jump off the Astronomy Tower, please?" she said, suddenly imagining herself throwing him off. It was rather comical in her mind, but she didn't have time for fun. "Or at least let the trolls step on you." She said before going back to her book like he had never arrived. Agnes was not going to take any of his 'concerned friend' shit. No, she wasn't going to take any of his shit at all. Not anymore.

TWINSHIP ROCKS:

The moment that Agnes looked up at him, he could see that this wasn't going to go well. But the furious, yet distant look on her face didn't deter him. If anything, it only made Hunter more curious about what could possibly be causing it. After a simple, angry no, she said she was grand and tried to ignore him. His brow furrowed in frustration as her eyes returned to her book - like this was normal. Like he'd done something to instigate this from her, and like he was supposed to know exactly what it was. "Grand," he repeated just as sarcastically. "Right." What was wrong with her? Hunter's eyes remained on her face, trying to get a sense of how upset she was. But her face was more or less impassive, and he sighed but for a moment, tried to swallow his frustration.

He was about to open his mouth to ask her what the hell was wrong with her in a completely calm, non-offensive manner, when she cut him off and told him to jump off of the Astronomy tower without even looking up from the book he was reading. Like he deserved that fate. Like he was no better than Evan Williams, or that git that she'd fucked around with however many summers ago. And instantly, Hunter felt anger rush through him. Fine. Fuck trying to actually act like a decent, normal person for once. Leaning forward, he reached out and swiped her book from her hands. "Okay, seriously, what the fuck is your problem?" he asked angrily, pulling the book completely out of her reach. Enough of this bullshit. And that was what it was. Bullshit.

"Seriously, I hate it when you do this!" he told her, glaring at her from where he was seated. "When you act like I'm not supposed to give a shit about you - like we're not even friends at all." Just because they didn't hang out like normal friends did didn't mean that they weren't. Hunter knew more about Agnes than he did about a good amount of his friends. And if he was being honest with himself, he knew that she'd probably make it near the top of the list if he were ordering people by who he was closest to. Ariel. Aoife. Blake. Agnes. Number four. Number four was pretty high up considering how many people Hunter knew. But no, apparently, when she decided to get all moody, they all of a sudden weren't close at all. "Honestly, Agnes, what the hell did I even do to you? Because I have no fucking clue what this is about, or why you're being a royal bitch all of a sudden."

TWINSHIP :

She jumped up a bit when the book was sharply snatched from her hands, and looking up, she saw Hunter was still there, but he was angrier than she'd seen him so far. Oh, fuck no. He was going to start making himself the victim again? Really? If he was done, she was more done than he was. Because he wasn't carrying it. "My problem is that you're annoying." She informed, her eyes as filled with anger as they could be. "You're so self-centered that you're oblivious to what happens to everyone around you!" She snapped, "I feel really bad for Aoife now that she's dating you and I sincerely hope you're not as big an assnut to her as you've been to everybody else." She was calm, for the most part. She wasn't yelling at him or hitting him, which was a huge accomplishment as she'd been wanting to chop his head off for quite a while now.

"I know you don't give a shit about me!" Agnes replied. "It took you too long to come up and ask me how I'm doing! And you're probably doing it because those idiotic first probably told everyone already!!" Now, she raised her voice. Standing up, she glared at Hunter. "WHAT DID YOU DO?" She yelled, still glaring as if he was the cause for all of her problems and embarrassment, which he was. "It's what you DIDN'T do!!!" Just as she was about to tell him, to actually tell him about their huge mistake, he called her a royal bitch. Her eyes narrowing, she raised her hand and slapped him across his face as hard as she could. It stung, and her usual fair skin suddenly turned red as the impact with his bone structure was probably more than she could handle. Biting back the stinging, "I may be a royal bitch but I know when people are hurting. In your world, everything happens to you and no one else. Everyone's problems are too insignificant to even add up to how big and miserable yours are." she half-yelled.

"But you know what, FUCK YOU." she said as she flipped him off, with both hands, just like he had the habit of doing. Taking her book in her arms, she walked off to the Dormitories, fighting back the pain. She liked Hunter, he was one of her best friends whether she wanted to admit it or not, but she couldn't be anywhere near him without wanting him dead. Staying as far away from him was probably the best idea, and finally telling him that she was done with his selfish shit felt better than it should have.