Back at the bar.. (Open to Ravenclaw)

[sacredharpie]

There was a loud thump as Jordan slammed her door shut. In the length of time since the Secrets Board fiasco, she'd kept herself sequestered in her room with a stack of spellbooks and scared house elves brought her food. Whenever she wasn't studying, she was sleeping, eating, or bitching. Only so much time could be spent in seclusion, and she

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[estebanmd]

Stephen had paid very little attention to the Secrets Board this time around, having very few secrets of the kind he would discuss thereon. ('Guess what? I'm really a spy for the Admiralty!' would never appear on a Secrets Board.) So he had no idea what Jordan might or might not have gone through, and no hesitation at all about joining her when he came into the common room for his coffee and saw her sitting at the end of the bar. After all, he rather liked her. A sharp wit and an enmity against Cox -- what better qualifications did a person need for Stephen to find her likeable?

"Good evening, Miss Sullivan."

[sacredharpie]

She looked up from her drink to see Dr. Maturin, and smiled ever so slightly.

"Good evening. I must thank you for your book recommendations. I've been spending the past few days reading them, in an attempt to learn something. Plus, who wouldn't want the ability to hex their enemies?" Her tiny smile grew into a broad smirk.

"What brings you to the bar?"

[estebanmd]

"Why, nothing in particular. The company, one might say, or at the least a change of scenery." The idea that anything should need to bring a person to the bar seemed beside the point of having a bar. He grinned. "I do not recall recommending any books on hexes. Remind me to stay on your good side. That being said, what are you drinking?"

[sacredharpie]

She found his comment about staying on her good side amusing, and she laughed a little, looking down at her drink. "You didn't. I figured that it wouldn't be a good idea to try hexing anything unless I could figure out some of the basic stuff."

Raising the glass to her lips, she took a drink. "I just grabbed this from behind the bar." Mimicking her earlier action, she pulled up a bottle. "It seems to be Firewhisky. Would you care for a drink?"

[toujours_sirius]

Sirius had been lurking around Ravenclaw a lot these days, although not so much by the bar, which had at one point been one of his main hangouts. Instead, when he hadn't been in his own room in Slytherin, he had been at Lily's place, watching her dog while she was off doing her work. (And, of course, he was occasionally with Homsar. The pull of Homsar's marshmallowy, Jengatastic goodness was too strong to be resisted!) Besides, he had promised Remus that he'd try to refrain from drinking when not around either him or Lily, and the bar provided endless temptations for him to break that promise.

But he had been feeling a bit better lately and, not being on dog-sitting duty at the moment, was actually rather bored, so he decided to head over to the bar for some company.

And that's where he saw Jordan, about whom he had had a rather interesting conversation with Lily on the Secrets Board. He had no intention of breaking his unspoken man code with Cox, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to get to know her better, right

[sacredharpie]

She looked over at Sirius and laughed. "Your accent sucks." She took another drink of her liquor before she she continued. "I'm taking a break. I've been studying magic for the past few days based on Dr. Maturin's book recommendations. Of course, there's only so much seclusion I can handle, so I figured I'd get out and get wasted."

"What about you?"

[toujours_sirius]

Sirius laughed with her. "I know. I tried to work on it when I was in Reno, but my efforts have apparently proved fruitless." Smiling, he took a sip of his Coke. "Sounds like you've been reliving my teenage years, except mine had less studying and more getting wasted."

Toying with his glass, he continued, "I've not been up to much of anything, really. Dog sitting. Playing around with some Muggle things to see what sorts of ways I can charm them to be more interesting. Definitely not studying."

He observed her for a moment. People go into seclusion for reasons. It's what Lily had done when Voldemort had come back. It's what he himself had done just recently in Lily's room after the heartbreaking discovery he and Remus had made.

Still, he didn't want to pry; if she wanted to talk about it, she would. Instead, he said, grinning, "Why the fierce round of studying? Preparing for a duel, perhaps? If that's the case, I think you'd be better off shopping for some leather trousers than studying potions or whatever it is Maturin's got you

[sacredharpie]

"Reno?" She raised a brow. "What on earth were you doing there? I figured you kept pretty close to the school..."

When he asked about why she'd been studying so much, she blinked, the glass in her hand freezing for just a second on its way back to the bartop. When she answered, her voice was quieter. "Trying to figure out if I should stay..if I can't learn anything, not much point, is there?"

[coxinsox]

It had been a very, very long day, and Cox was looking forward to enjoying the first of what was sure to be many drinks, kicking back, and hopefully forgetting about all the crap that was bothering him for a little while. Unfortunately, as soon as he walked into the Ravenclaw common room he was confronted with the sight of one of the very things he was trying so hard to put out of his mind. Jordan. "Ah, geez..." he muttered to himself.

He could have gone up to his own room, probably. He had a couple of bottles up there, not to mention the new TV and the armadillo and the puppy. But, whether it was out of sheer stubbornness, or something else, something possessed him to stay. Taking a seat at the opposite end of the bar, he got himself a scotch.

[sacredharpie]

She saw Perry, how could she not? The man was an animated tornado, sweeping up those around him and spitting them back out with barely a thought. Except for Lily, and maybe Sirius, who he seemed to get along with when Sirius wasn't trying to shag him, which was most of the time.

She finished the drink she was working on and got another one. If he stayed at the bar, she'd need more than one.

[coxinsox]

The same went for him, of course. Like Jordan had, he drained the first glass down in one, and immediately poured another. He intended to nurse the second, to take it slow, but the atmosphere was so profoundly uncomfortable that he found himself needing a third far more quickly than he'd wanted. Trying to make himself settle down, he clutched the glass with both hands and stared down at the bar as though trying to set it on fire with his eyes, determinedly not looking to his left.

[sacredharpie]

Just as Perry was making every effort not to look at Jordan, she found herself drawn, no compelled to watch him. It was as if even the weight of her eyes was an unbearable burden for him, and he was trying to drown his awareness of her presence in a sea of alcohol.

If they could not exist in the Common Room without distress, what hope was there for Jordan to attend classes? If it continued at this rate, she'd be spending all of her time in her room. Inwardly she cursed herself for ending up in the same House as Cox to begin with. Perhaps that could be remedied. She'd heard a number of students no longer lived in their assigned Houses.