Damn Owls (Damon)

She was studying, but that was nothing new. Autumn always studied, she studied to the point that her eyes became read and her house mates had to pry the book from her hand. She wanted her future to be as bright as humanly possible, and with these OWL exams coming up she knew that she could never study too much. Sitting at a small table in the kitchens she continued reading, the house elves had been nice enough to bring her a small try of goodies to keep her energy up. Autumn had always been friends with the elves. When she had been a first year she had wondered in the kitchen to get a more quiet area for reading. The house elves welcomed her in with open arms and now whenever she came she was allowed to study and eat whatever she wished.

Of course Autumn was a very finicky eater, she did not eat more than her body required and she liked to feel comfortable when finishing. She knew that there were some people that preferred stuffing themselves with food, to the point that they were about ready to vomit. Uh-Uh, Autumn preferred pacing herself and eating until she was comfortable and nothing more.

Reaching forward to the tray in front of her she grabbed her sandwich and bit from it. It was so good, and she smiled gently at the little elf that had made it for her.

"Perfect," she commented. "Just like always Sunshine."

"Oh thank you Miss," the little elf squeaked. "You just let Sunshine know if you need anything else."

And with a small bow the little elf had gone. Smiling, in spite of herself, she continued to read. She was so happy to be away from the idiots of her house. She just wanted to melt into the floor and disappear forever. Not to mention, that idiot Damon just would not leave her be. Closing her eyes briefly she rolled them.

That was one boy she would never understand and for a fact did not want to. Going back to her book, she froze as she felt someone approach her from behind.

Autumn

What was that smug Gryfindor playing at? This had to be the first time that he was ignoring her in turn, and she had to admit she did not like it! Why wasn't he pursuing her?! Was it what she had on, she had thought it was cute. Maybe it was her hair, she had decided not to straighten it...maybe Damon liked straight hair girls? GAH! What was she doing?! She didn't care! If anything she should be happy that he was ignoring her! At least with him not bothering her she could get some work down. But just having him there made him out to be a major distraction, and Autumn did not like that at all.

Sighing she attempted to turn from him and glared into her book. She would not give him her time, she would not give him her time, she was not going to give him that kind of satisfaction. She glanced back over at him and pursed her lips. He looked nice today, and as he walked by she had felt her body shiver. So maybe Damon Griffen was attractive...but he was still pompous...and that was something she did not find attractive at all. So she would ignore him, she would ignore him and not give him the time of day. Autumn had more important things to worry about other than romance and flights of fancy.

Turning around once more so that her back was towards him she could not help but wonder if he was looking at her at all? She glanced back once but quickly looked away, afraid that he may have noticed her. What was going on? Why did she suddenly care, or feel hurt that he was not talking to her. It couldn't have been that she had done something wrong. She was usually fairly rude to him on a daily basis, and Autumn knew she hadn't said anything, abnormally, spiteful. Maybe he just...gave up on her.

Her face sunk into a frown...it was strange. She had always thought Damon falling out of love...NO! IT WASN'T LOVE...

"UGH!" she growled, closing her book with a snap.

Turning around so that she was facing him she bit her lower lip. She wasn't going to ask why he wasn't talking to her...so she settled for just staring into his eyes. Why? Maybe she was waiting for some type of reaction. Her mind screamed for him to notice her, her heart screamed for it, but she didn't know why she was fighting it so much. Something told her she would never really figure it out. Autumn had told herself that it was her future, that because she wanted everything in life when she left school she could have nothing in the present day that would get in her way.

And a boy had definitely always seemed like a distraction...and this boy was a distraction...one that she wanted back!

Damon didn’t know what it was that Autumn wanted. When he wasn’t trying to talk to her she couldn’t keep her eyes off of him. He didn’t understand what was in girls that made it impossible to understand them. He wanted a minute of peace and quiet, a moment to reflect. That apparently was too much to ask for. Instead he came to the kitchens to find the one girl who had until this very moment wanted nothing to do with him. He focused on his food counting every bite to twenty before swallowing. It was something his mother had made him do when he was a child and he found that it helped keep his mind blank, especially in moments where he was prone to say something stupid.

He heard her sigh but didn’t look up to see her expression change or even to watch as she tried to turn away from him. His thoughts had already moved onto his parents and how he might not have gotten himself in this situation if they were around. He didn’t think he would be as cold as people thought he was. His lack of responsibility would have probably made him a player. He wasn’t sure if the change would have been for the better but he still wished he knew. Autumn, though. There was something about the girl that had made him agree to the bet. She was pretty, but there was something else that made her stand out from the crowd. Something in her that screamed at him.

He cast a glance upward only be faced with her back. He smirked slightly before returning his gaze to his food and taking another bite. He didn’t know why he had been expecting any different. Autumn didn’t care about his looks, or the fact everyone wanted to be with him. She was the one exception, and of course it was her that he had to woo. Her retorts were something that had kept him going.

He wondered if there were actual feelings behind his actions. How would he know? He did feel something when he saw her. She made him laugh even through her insults. He was thinking about this when she broke the silence with an exasperated sound. He took another bite of food to hide the smirk that came to his lips. She was a firecracker.

He looked up at her though. His eyes meeting hers for a second, for longer. Why wasn’t she looking away or throwing some insult at him. Why did her expression look hurt? Something protective roused within him and he wanted to hurt whoever had caused her this pain, no part of thinking that it might be him. The feeling scared him and instead he broke the eye contact.

“Can I help you with something Paige?” he said, his tone bored and disinterested, and so the common mask of his fell into place.

Autumn's face sunk into a deeper frown and she felt her comments falling from her lips without her even saying a word. She had not reply, and for her to have no reply was unusual. She was usually the one that could cook up something good at the drop of a hat. She was the one that could insult a person at the snap of her fingers and not give a damn. But today she did not want to do that, she wanted to make something of this...she just did not know how. So sighing she stroked the spine of her book with her thumb. Maybe she could just come out and say it, it would be so much easier if she just told him all of her qualms when it came to dating. But things were never that easy, and people were rarely that blunt when it came to relationships anymore.

"I..." she breathed, breaking an eternity of silence. "I...umm...never mind..."

Autumn turned and found her attention glancing at a bowl of random fruit. Smirking she flicked her wand and summoned an apple, biting into the lovely fruit she cringed a bit. It was warm...bleck...nothing was grosser than a warm fruit in her book. Swallowing hard she turned back to him and closed her eyes.

"Do you like apples?" she asked gesturing to it. "I mean...they are like...the universal fruit."

She blushed turning away once more. Wow...wow...had she really just tried to establish a conversation on a red piece of produce? God...she was a failure when it came to flirting.

"Apples," she continued, unable to stop once she started a rant. "Are also a symbol of...lust...well not so much lust...I think temptation. As it says in the Bible in what not that Eve had tempted Adam with her forbidden fruit..."

Autumn blushed deeper.

"I...I mean God's forbidden...I mean...the apple...on the tree......."

Closing her eyes she sunk deeper into her chair and bit her lip. God, this was why she did not date or try to be nice to people! She sounded like a freaking idiot!

Autumn felt her cheeks flush as Damon's warm lips caressed her fingers. She had never felt this way when it came to a boy before and it almost hurt her. She was so scared of letting someone near her heart, so scared that life was just filled with sin and lust. She did not want to get hurt for love, and Damon just seemed too good to be true. They were at different wavelengths when it came to clicks and groups of friends they hung out with. They both had different personalities that just didn't fit....and her health...Autumn didn't want to love anything in this life if she would have to come to leave it in the future.

"Damon...I..."

She froze and looked away. Why was life so hard and uncertain? She didn't even know if Damon was playing her or not. She wasn't sure if she wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt or if she just wanted to let it go and take a chance. Gently stroking his lips with her thumb she felt her cheeks flush once more and she looked away.

"What are we doing Griffen," she whispered. "Does this mean anything? Do I mean anything? What will happen after this?"

She looked up to him, her hands suddenly finding a way to hold his and the apple falling to the floor with a faint thud.