Unoriginally Titled Haoife Thread (Aoife)

As winter slowly became harsher, so did Quidditch practice. And although Hunter preferred the cold, and definitely didn't mind it as much as most people, he always wondered why Quidditch Season stretched through the most biting part of the winter. But it did, and the cold didn't stop the Gryffindor team from practicing nearly every day. In past years, the competition had never been incredibly fierce, but this time, the other teams were actually pretty good. Aside from Hufflepuff, of course. Those gits couldn't win a match if their lives depended on it. So, after yet another long, grueling practice in which Aoife had nearly broken his arm with a particularly well-aimed bludger, Hunter gladly landed on the ground and dismounted his broom.

Reaching up to rub his arm, and wincing at the sharp pain that resonated from it, Hunter headed toward the locker room with Blake. "You know, I swear, she does it on purpose," he told his friend with a grin, taking a drink from his water bottle and waiting for Blake to change and bundle up in warmer clothes. Hunter didn't bother - his Quidditch sweater would be warm enough, at least for the walk up to the castle. So, when Blake was ready, they left. But as they stepped from the locker rooms, a glint of red hair from ahead caught Hunter's eye, and he grinned. "Sorry mate, but it's my last day. Might as well make the most of it," he said, not really apologetically, and gave Blake a nod before picking up a jog to catch up with Aoife.

When he finally reached her, he slowed to walk beside her, shouldering his broom. He ran a hand quickly through his hair, and grinned, because for the first time in years it was long enough for the action to actually make sense. He'd at least made an effort not to cut it since he started dating Aoife. And so far he'd managed, but it was starting to get into his eyes, and he wasn't sure how much longer he'd last. How had he ever dealt with it so long when he was younger? "Hey!" he greeted her brightly, draping an arm over her shoulders and shouldering his broom. "You know, if you'd just attack the Ravenclaw team like you attack me, they wouldn't stand a chance," he joked, grinning down at her.

The sharp cold bit against Hunter's face, but he wasn't bothered by it. The ground was snow-covered, but overall it was one of the milder days so far. As in, there wasn't a blizzard going on. "Tomorrow you're free, you know," he added, his voice nonchalant. Tomorrow, their contract will have officially expired. Which meant that Hunter's last day of dating Aoife was today. It was a bit of a pathetic experiment on his part, being that he'd only even managed to kiss her that one time, on New Years, and he didn't even see how she'd reacted to it. But it was probably better that way. In the end, he was glad to have had the chance. Though, he hadn't expected to be upset at the idea of Aoife wanting to end things afterward. He'd always thought that it would either be perfect, or terrible. But it wasn't either. And he didn't want it to end. The trouble was, he had no idea what Aoife wanted. And, since it was Aoife, she probably didn't want the same thing that he did. "Your sheep will no longer be in danger, and you won't have to pretend like you like me anymore," he added, making sure to keep his voice light. "So, how are you planning on celebrating?"

Aoife understood that the Gryffindor team were serious about winning this year, but what she didn't understand was how often they had to practice now. Last year, she was sure it had only been a few times a week, rather than every single day, and practice was beginning to take up all of her time. Sixth-year meant a huge pile of homework every day, which she couldn't keep up with, because she was busy working, going out with Hunter, and practicing with the team. It just made her stay up too late every night, and then the next day sleeping in class. So she was almost certain that it was quidditch that was going to completely ruin her education and mental well-being. Also, it was cold. Icy and sometimes snowy. Apparently that meant nothing to the captain. Apparently the team was so terrible, they needed to spend every waking minute training. She didn't need it. She was an awesome beater. And hovering outside in the freezing cold wasn't worth it, even though she was wearing about six layers of warm clothes.

Towards the end of the practice, she was beginning to get beyond bored. With only the occasional bludger to hit to keep her occupied, she just wanted to go back to the castle and have some hot chocolate and a nap. After a couple of seconds, when the next bludger came near, she chased it a little and whacked it full-force with the bat. Totally not aiming at anything. Not at Blake's head. Obviously. Somehow, it hit Hunter, and she frowned, but decided to act like it was deliberate, because nobody should have the opportunity to doubt her extremely amazing beater skills. If everyone thought hitting him and not Blake had been deliberate, then they wouldn't realise maybe occasionally her aim wasn't perfect. Luckily, that signaled the end of the practice, so she flew a lap around the pitch to cool down and headed to change out of her quidditch robes. She wasn't good at dealing with the cold, and both at home and here she always wore the warmest, most comfortable clothes possible during the cold weather. Today a few sweaters over each other.

Upon deciding she wasn't tired as she had thought, but incredibly hungry, she began the walk back up to the castle quickly, suddenly craving a bacon sandwich. She looked around at the sound of footsteps behind her, to see Hunter there. "Hey!" she said, trying to return the enthusiasm but really far too hungry to do that properly. "Yeah... sorry about that, I wasn't aiming at you," she added sheepishly. Hunter could know about she one-off mistake she'd made in not hitting the bludger in the right direction. "You've actually been pretty bearable recently." And she hadn't felt the usual desire to hit a bludger at his ugly face. Strange. Maybe the relationship thing was actually destroying her common sense and making her brain go fuzzy. Like a teenager's.

No. That couldn't be right. It had been that long already? Why had she not been counting down? This was very unlike her. She'd managed to genuinely lose track of time in the past few weeks. It didn't make sense. "Yeah.. I know," she answered after a moment, even though it was a lie and she was a bad liar. "I guess you're right." Poor Willow was no longer at threat and they could have a happy bestfriendship without the awful possibility of something bad happening to the sheep. "I do like you." Gosh, what was wrong with her today? Was this a dream? Had she been the one hit in the head with a bludger? "At least, I tolerate you more," she added. "Sometimes you're even bearable." Like when he bought her food. And thinking about it, she really hadn't had to do much in return. Just not hit him when he tried to hug her or whatever. And he'd only kissed her once, on New Years', when he had probably been too drunk to remember later. "Well," she said slowly, trying to work out what she was going to do. "I was thinking I'd go and confess to Blake that I'm madly in love with him." She almost pulled that off, unbelievably, but then she had to laugh, because that thought made her feel physically sick.

"Well, that makes the fact that you almost shattered my arm with a bludger a lot better, then," he replied sarcastically. "What about all of the other times? Like during that Slytherin match when you almost knocked me off my broom? Or when you broke my nose in second year, and then tried to fix it and broke it more," he added, grinning. "You know, I actually haven't had to go see Logan yet this term. I think it's a new record for me, actually. We should go visit him one of these days, I'm sure he misses us - I mean, we always had the most interesting injuries," Hunter joked. Like his broken nose that Aoife had tried to use reparo on. And Aoife's temporary blindness. And that time that Hunter had gone to him for a potion to cure his hangover. "But I mean, it ended practice at least. You'll have to hit me earlier next time - we could be eating already!" he pointed out. Hunter would gladly take a hit from a bludger any day if it meant he got to eat sooner - after all, who wouldn't?

Hunter raised an eyebrow at Aoife's expression when he pointed out that the contract was ending. She actually looked surprised, and when it took her a moment to answer, it was too obvious. "You didn't even realize!" he said in surprise. "You're still a terrible liar, you know, I don't know why you bother," he added, looking away from her, an amused expression forming on his face. "Damn, I could have not told you, and you wouldn't have even known." Which was - interesting. He thought for sure that Aoife would have the day marked on her calendar. Then again, she wasn't the most punctual or observant person on the planet, and a month was a bit long for her to focus on anything in particular, unless it was food. Anything else was pretty much a huge stretch for her attention span.  

Hunter looked back at Aoife with a slightly incredulous expression when she answered so quickly, with the last thing he'd expected her to say. "Er, are you sure you're feeling okay?" he asked sarcastically. "Maybe we should actually go see Logan after all," he joked. "Anyway, you could've fooled me," he added, not really sure if he was joking or not. Aoife had been - different, since the contract. She'd been less violent toward him, and hadn't insulted him as much. But really, it was always in response to his actions. If he instigated a conversation, she responded without acting like she hated him. When he'd kissed her, she hadn't rejected him. But she hadn't really done anything else, either. Even now, as they walked, she'd let him throw an arm around her shoulders, but she didn't react. She didn't reject him, because she couldn't. Because of the contract. It wasn't like Aoife ever went out of her way to act like she liked him. Though, just the fact that the words had come out of her mouth were an improvement. He just nodded as she corrected her statement, breaking away from his thoughts. "I guess I'll take it," he replied with a grin.

Of course she wasn't serious. Which made Hunter feel ridiculous for looking sharply over at her when she finally responded. Recovering quickly, he rolled his eyes as she started laughing. "You shouldn't joke about that, you know. I mean, I shouldn't tell you this, but we got into a huge fight over you when he found out I was going to ask you out," Hunter lied smoothly, looking down at her with a serious expression. "I won, obviously," he deadpanned, giving her a moment to react before allowing himself to laugh. "Anyway, I thought for sure that you'd have a pile of large, heavy objects stashed away to throw at me the minute you were able to," he said, grinning. "I, on the other hand, will be celebrating by cutting off all of my hair," he told her, absentmindedly running a hand through it. "And unlike last time, it won't be just to piss you off," he added. "I don't know how I put up with this for fourteen years of my life."

Aoife rolled her eyes. She'd just been trying to APOLOGISE. But when he put it like that, it did sound like she was always going out of her way to try and injure him by hitting a bludger at him. Maybe he was always in Blake or whoever else's way. Maybe she was doing it subconsciously. Or maybe he was just unlucky. Whatever, it didn't really matter. He just needed to try and stay out of her way a bit more. "None of those were deliberate," she tried to justify anyway. "Yeah, you're right - I'm definitely LoLo's favourite student." And he was her favourite school healer, because one time he'd given her cool sunglasses in the middle of winter. "Congrats on your new record, though - maybe you're getting less clumsy with age." Because obviously it was always due to Hunter's clumsiness or stupidity that he had to go to the hospital wing. Thinking about it, he was a lot worse than her when it came to being injured. She only occasionally getting blinded or tripping down the stairs, whereas, like he said, he was in the hospital wing every term for something or other.

"No, I'm an amazing liar, like I always have been," she denied. "That wasn't even a lie. I've been counting down until today for weeks now. I knew the whole time!" It still didn't make sense that she'd forgotten. Surely she should have been constantly thinking about when the contract ended? It was like technically being Hunter's girlfriend hadn't changed anything at all between them. Except the perk of being bought food all the time. Thinking of food, she needed to get back to the castle to have dinner. She was starving. And these big unanswerable questions were too much when she was so tired and hungry. "You could have not told me... but I would have remembered. Because I wasn't lying." If she said it enough, she might be able to convince herself that she wasn't going all loopy in the head.

"I'm not feeling okay." Definitely not. She was incredibly ill, something wrong with her head, that was what was wrong with her. "I'm hungry and tired and I'm having to deal with you being annoying," Aoife added, deciding to go with the classic technique of blaming everything on Hunter. "I just think you're less infuriating and screwed up." Maybe being under the influence of Seren had made him go a bit weird. And then obviously Jack's death had had a huge impact on his personality. But now he seemed to be slowly going back to the little first-year Hunter, so innocent, not at all arrogant, who she'd used to be best friends for two weeks with, who she'd given a pinkish-purplish friendship bracelet to and finger painted with in the common room, making weird plans that were never going to happen. She missed that Hunter. But she'd sort of changed too. So even if he did go back to how he used to be, things still wouldn't be the same. "Thanks," she said, once again in that deluded mindset, clearly. She paused for a minute then, mentally facepalming. "You know, for the food."

What? Blake? Argument? What? "Haha, very funny." Blake wasn't very attractive, really. Less attractive than Hunter. Not that she would ever say that aloud. She didn't want to inflate Hunter's huge ego any more. "No, you haven't been that bad, I don't have that much bitter revenge to throw in your face," she said quietly. Although that would be a pretty good idea. Maybe she could get all of the chairs in the Charms classroom to throw at him. "No!" she exclaimed. "Not your beautiful hair! It's so beautiful! How could you do that? I never want to look at you again, you ugly shite!" Even if it wasn't to annoy her, it was still stupid and pointless.

"LoLo?" Hunter repeated, raising an eyebrow at her. "You still call him that? Really?" he asked incredulously. "LoLo, VickyTori - how old are you again exactly?" Not that he'd expect anything less from her. If there was an award for least likely to ever grow up and act like an adult, Aoife would win it, hands down. Of course, Aoife would pride herself in sounding like she was six instead of sixteen. "And I'm not clumsy," he defended himself. "Clumsy people trip and hit their face, and knock shit over. I, on the other hand, just have particularly bad luck and an unfortunately bad habit of punching things when shit doesn't go my way. Nothing clumsy about it, really," Hunter pointed out, shrugging. He'd definitely rather have an anger management problem than be clumsy. It wasn't even a hard decision.

"No, you should actually really trust me on this one, I'm trying to spare you from future humiliation in the chance that you attempt to lie to anyone other than me - you're really a terrible liar." Hunter was doubly aware of it due to the fact that he was an incredibly skilled liar. Which was probably because he naturally tended toward sarcasm so often that most people weren't ever really sure when he was serious and when he wasn't. "But really, how did you forget?" he asked, completely writing her denial off as a lie without even acknowledging it. "I mean, even I didn't forget - but my reason to not forget was kind of opposite of your reason, so I thought for sure you'd be on top of it." Except, Aoife's reason to not forget was kind of nonexistent, because she'd obviously forgotten. It was all pointless trying to get an actual answer, because she was far too stubborn to ever admit that she'd gotten caught in a lie.

Thanks? Raising an eyebrow, Hunter pulled his arm away from her, letting it fall to his side, and looked at her with a slightly bewildered face. Before he could ask her who she was and what the hell she'd done with Aoife, she instantly amended her statement. Hunter just stared at her for half a moment, because she was so fucking impossible to figure out. She was always so disinterested - never wanted anything to do with him - which should make how she felt pretty obvious and straightforward. But then, she'd go and say things that made him have no idea where she actually stood. Though, they were things that would mean absolutely nothing if anyone besides Aoife was saying them, and it was possible that he was looking too far into them to begin with. Thinking about it was beyond frustrating, so Hunter just decided to take her words as some strange form of a compliment and smiled at her. "You're welcome, I guess. Thanks for - er, letting me buy you the food?" Because that was kind of all that she'd' done. That and not attack him.

"I'm never that bad," he replied, not being able to keep a bit of exasperation from entering his voice. "For some reason, you just usually refuse to admit it." Hunter couldn't help but grin at her reaction to the idea of him cutting his hair, and he rolled his eyes at her. And then, she ended her rant by calling him an ugly shite. "You know what - " he retorted with a laugh, reacting quickly by sweeping his free arm around her and hoisting her over his shoulder. "That is a breach of contract, you know!" he informed her, adjusting a bit to hold her weight. "Calling me ugly is against the rules. So you can thank me for being kind enough to let it slide, since it's the very last day and up until now you haven't been a completely terrible excuse for a girlfriend," he said jokingly. "Anyway, let's get one thing straight - my hair and I, we're kind of a package deal. Though, I'll keep whatever I cut off, if you want it. I mean, I only grew it back for you - if you're no longer going to be my girlfriend, there's really no reason that I wouldn't cut it."

But at that thought, Hunter's grin faltered a bit. Because it was too frustrating to have gone through the entire month and to have learned, more or less, nothing. Loosening his arm from around her waist, he sighed and let Aoife slide back to the ground, and looked over at her. "Are you going to break up with me tomorrow?" he asked her, deciding that it would be a thousand times less frustrating to just be as straightforward as possible. It sounded strange to even use the term "break up" considering that it hardly felt like they were dating, but it seemed the least confusing way to put it. "Because I'm going to be honest, I thought I would know by now. You know, if this was a complete failure or not. But I don't. So I really need you to just tell me if I've been completely wasting my time."

Aoife scowled. "Nobody grows out of nicknames, Hunter-la," she shrugged. "Don't act like you're all superior and mature because you're old and everything." Hell, he probably had nicknames for everyone he knew. "And I'm sixteen. You know what teenagers are like, it's not just me." Obviously. "Okay, because that's way better than being clumsy," she smiled. At least when Aoife got angry she'd just throw inanimate objects around, chairs and plates. She wasn't stupid enough in the head of her fury to want to injure herself by punching walls and stuff. Although Professor Leblanc might argue that hurting a chair was much worse than hurting her own fist. It was probably safe to stick to objects that weren't made of wood whenever there was any chance of him coming along and seeing her.

"Right," she said. "I've lied to loads of people! And they believed me!" Well, maybe she'd been successful... once? Twice? With small children who didn't know anything but to believe every word she said. "Okay, that's not true - I'm a naturally honest person, I don't generally need to tell any lies. It's just another lovable, wonderful aspect of my beautiful personality. Only, just then, I didn't lie." He should just drop this subject and let her move on with her life. Did it matter? "Even if I did forget, which I DIDN'T, it's not like there would be a reason - I didn't forget for a reason." He could have asked why she didn't have it marked on her calender, that would have been a better question. But she didn't have a calender, so again it would be easy to answer. "I have much more important things to think about than when I can be free of you, anyway." Free of him? After she wasn't on the dumb contract anymore, was she still his friend? Or would he go and ask Ariel out, since they were obviously great for each other, and never pay attention to Aoife again? That thought was oddly worrying.

Wow, she was so hungry. And tired. That was what she was blaming on why she was acting so weird. Because clearly in any other situation she would never say stuff like this, even if she was an amazingly honest person. "Letting you buy the food?" she snorted. "That was the easiest part! And I've done so much other than that. Like... being nice. And going against all my principles in order to make you happy!" But she was quite proud of how she'd sort of managed to stick to her principles, at least vaguely well. She'd been his "girlfriend" but she'd still managed to be as cool and Aoife-ish as she usually was. And that was great.

Hunter sounded too serious. This was quite a serious conversation, actually. She didn't like that. And she didn't know how to respond. Thankfully, before long he was smiling again and sounding less bitter. But it wasn't good, because he noticed that she'd called him ugly. The thought hadn't crossed her mind that it was against the contract - she was so stupid! Aoife groaned. But Hunter decided to pretend to be nice for once, and she grinned. "Thanks." This thing about his hair wasn't fair at all. It was so pretty, why on earth would he want to get rid of it? It wasn't like it could be so terrible anyway - if so many girls could deal with long hair, why couldn't he cope with his adorable hair? Because he was so weak, that must be why. But she didn't know whether calling him a weakling was against the contract - she couldn't remember the exact terms - so she just shook her head. "Oh yeah, and I think I'll die my hair blue, or ugly bright orange rather than beautiful ginger. Or maybe just brown." No, Aoife O'Donnell was not born to have a boring hair colour. Even ugly bright orange was better than plain, generic brown hair, like Seren or Hunter's. They weren't born for superstardom like her, clearly.

She frowned. Breaking up with him? It wasn't really breaking up, was it? Just the end of the contract, therefore the end of their relationship. So Aoife really didn't understand why Hunter had to give her that look, and use that tone, to make her feel so guilty. She didn't think she had anything to feel guilty about. Surely this was unfair on her? Upon signing that contract, she didn't realise that she would feel so shit at the end of it. And it didn't even make any sense. Because it had gone fine. Hunter was more than tolerable. The past few weeks might even be described as enjoyable. So it might have been a complete waste of time for Hunter. But it might not have been. She didn't even have a reason to "break up with him". Did she really have any other friends than him and Willow? Did she want to be alone forever, with only sheep? Well, yes. But she did like Hunter a lot. "I like you a lot," she said, repeating her thoughts aloud. Then she stopped talking, because like usual when it came to conversation like this, she didn't know what to say. "I guess... I guess being your girlfriend isn't so bad after all?"