As the Hufflepuff wizard lingered in the Entrance Hall it did not escape him that he had better things to be doing with his time. Truthfully, Drew was not that much of a slacker despite his easy going approach to things. The wizard was in his seventh year of schooling and that meant that NEWTS should have been at the forefront of his mind as they would play a large role in what sort of job he would be able to get after graduating. True, the fellow knew what position he was going to try for and had already placed an application into the Ministry. However, none of this meant that he could slack off any. However, Drew was of the solid belief that all work and no play made for horrible time, so he tried not to allow the stress of the year to get him down. There were many in his year who had their heads bent into their books or trying to make up for the slacking of the last six years in the school. However, there was always only so much one person could do—granted, Drew did not mean then that one shouldn’t try to change things around or excel to their goals, but one had to be realistic.

So the thoughts of essays and studying that he should be doing were filtering across the lad’s mind as he leaned against one of the large pillars of the hall. The hall was sparsely populated with the late evening and students using the time to either catch a late dinner or were off somewhere studying or something less academical in nature. Drew’s gaze had started to drift towards the floor while he thought, so the young man no longer paid much attention to what was happening in the hall around him. He did not really expect to be interrupted in that moment. A couple of his friends were serving a detention with Professor Porter and the others were off Drew not knew where.

So with a mental start, Drew noted a hand touch his arm. His eyes followed the delicate digits up to the face of the beautiful brunette. The Hufflepuff arched a brow, his mind having been present enough to process her request—nay, perhaps it was more of an order? Drew was amused by it all. “And if I’m not interested, will you seek out another easy lackey?” he question, his tone having a hint of a tease in it and not a complete refusal--though he made no motion to move from his perch. He was more amused by the gall the young woman had to come up to him and just expected him to fall in line at her heels. Her expression all but spoke that she did not expect her request to be disputed. Drew knew enough of the witch to know she came from a well-to-do family, and in relation she was probably accustom to having most, if not all, of her requests and whims granted.

The young woman’s movements and words all bespoke of one who knew she would not deny, and Drew was certainly never one to bend into conventions. If anything, the Hufflepuff was wondering just how far he could push the lovely witch before she gave up on her endeavor to capture him for her own company—something he found equally surprising. The woman was from a traditional pureblood family, and while such conventions surrounding magical blood was being more and more questioned by the day’s youth, there were still many purebloods who clung to the traditional values. Many of whom would not be caught dead seen to be friendly—inviting of—of someone of a lower blood. Drew found it all fascinating and amusing—if not a bit sad as well. None in that circle knew of magical blood as the Hufflepuff did not even know it himself. Instead, they based him off his adopted family and as well as the belief not to take chances. So he had found he had been classified rather low on that totem pole when he had finally taken notice.

“Ah, but I have yet to accept either,” he indicated after she pointed out his lack of refusal. “A lack to say either affirmative or negative does not negate an automatic acceptance,” he said with a lazy half smile, still having not yet moved. He was rather comfortable in his position, and quite frankly following the witch into the Great Hall really did not all appeal to him. She was lovely, yes, but what could he expect to get out of all this? Drew was not so easily drawn in with the possibility of a mere fling or short conquest as some guys in the school. The young wizard was out for something far more serious in such areas—an area he wasn’t certain the brunette could live up to. He was all for living in the moment in normal conventions, moving free a bird from one moment to the next. However, he was also had his own ideals and expectations.

Drew did not place much stock in the fact that he had converged for a short while during that student dance. It was an event that many had agreed had meant nothing in the overall scheme of things. Many had used it as a means to cut loose, to fear no repercussions for their actions—their identities cloaked in secret. Nothing at that dance had really happened to incline Drew to think further into his relations with this particular Slytherin. A beautiful face was often just that; beautiful. Drew had yet to really see what was underneath—while intrigued the girl had done nothing yet to lure that intrigue into action, to try and stick the beauty’s mask away.

“You’ve yet to convince me of any real reason to follow, so at this point, I guess your inquiry should be answered with ‘alone,’” the lad answered, a challenged laid down with a cock of an eyebrow.

For a few brief moments Drew felt a sense of disappointment drop over his being. The smile on his lips faltered a span when the girl gave her initial response. He had not been expecting that. He had been hoping that the girl would have risen to the bait he had laid out. Drew hoped that she would show that she was something more than a pretty face belonging to an ancient name. The wizard had been burned before by the high class types. He knew those types. The ones who had everything handed to them on a silver platter and when it wasn’t they sulked and connived until they got their ways. The types who never really seemed to work for anything. As such, Drew had trouble believing that those people really understood the value of what they had—material or otherwise. Drew was a serious sort of bloke, although very few people actually saw that aspect of him. He was a laid back and easy going, perhaps a bit of a jokester, but he wasn’t the type to just take what was handed to him, to abuse what was given to him. He grew up initially orphaned and then adopted. The Hufflepuff knew to value what he had, and as such he was looking for something real, something stable, and not a fling. It was something that had made that student dance thing a bit of a bore for the Hufflepuff really. He hadn’t shared the mind frame of his fellow students, and perhaps that was why he had been one of the few to remain unmasked. Perhaps.

The frown was there for the briefest of seconds before his easy smile returned. He could accepted that perhaps this girl wasn’t what he had thought. He was ready to write her off as she turned to leave before she just as suddenly turned, taking that step back towards to whisper something low. Ah, now there she picked up the gauntlet he had dropped. There was something real, something raw and unhindered in the tone of the female’s voice. Drew could not just ignore it, and chalk it down to another ploy to get something she wanted. However, the Hufflepuff was still skeptical, but he was willing to go off on a ledge when the occasion called for it.

“Which mask are you seeking to remove?” he questioned, his voice equally as low. Drew easily pegged the girl as having multiple masks, and not just the physical one she had been wearing at that dance. Drew wasn’t certain what the girl’s angle was. What was she seeking to accomplish by drawing out his company? The dance, while being enjoyable, had not been all that ground-shattering of an event. There had been far too much going on around for it to be as such. The two of them had really only skimmed the surface of things, and for a span Drew had gathered he had been some sort of trophy to the Slytherin for a brief time as she had ‘won’ his attention away from the Gryffindor blonde who had been chatting with him prior to her arrival. It had been fun, and there had been conversation that had proven the girl was more than just her pureblood upbringing. Yet, Drew could not be certain. These waters were foreign to him, and it was best to wade slowly in.

The girl was a minx. This was a conclusion that Drew had came to somewhere in the depths of his mind as she continued to speak. There was a seduction to her tone of voice that just seemed to draw him in. The words and her tone were all a web that this spider seemed to be employing to gain him for his companionship. Yet, the problem for Drew was that he was longer certain of the girl’s ambitions. For the first few minutes he had been certain of what she had been after, but then she had seemed to change a bit, and now she seemed to be doing so once more. She was a minx. Most guys would rise to the flirtation, and Drew wanted to. He was male and faced with an enticing pretty face. He knew he could fall, and fall hard, for this particular pretty face. So it was more with self-preservation that he took things slow, wading into this situation with ease.

He could play along with flirtations and seductions, however if that was all this was he did not want to risk getting in other his head. Drew knew the type of person he was. He wasn’t someone to simply let someone go once they had entered his heart. He was loyal to a fault. His sorting in Hufflepuff had not been made lightly. Drew would protect those in his care, and as such, if he fell for this brunette, really fell with nothing there on her part he could foresee his heart getting broken. It was not something Drew looked forward to, and it was one of the reasons why Drew had seemed a confirmed bachelor inside the school despite his occasional flirts with girls. He had not had a girlfriend during the time he had been in the school. The Hufflepuff was not player. Instead, he was a down to earth good guy.

For a moment, Drew wasn’t certain about anything, and perhaps that moment of indecision reflected in his eyes. The girl was a mystery, and one he wasn’t certain he should entertain. She was a seductress in that moment, promising him things—things he assumed she might not even been aware she was promising. That was the thing. Drew wasn’t certain if this young woman was even aware of the effect she was emitting. Was she really offering something simple and basic, or was she fishing for something larger? Was she aware of the charm that she had easily adapted to as she wheedled her hook closer to her fish? Drew could readily imagine that all of the airs this Slytherin was using in that moment were the creation of a lifetime, things fallen into via habit rather than actual thought. That was what scared the Hufflepuff in that moment. What would he be walking into in that very moment? Something inside told him it was larger than what he was seeing in that moment. Intuition was always something that Drew trusted.

“What do you want?” the Hufflepuff then asked, his voice soft. As if realizing the state of the conversation—in that she had already answered it—he continued on. “What do you really want. No pretty phrases and words, no caresses,” he said, gentling brushing her hand away from his person. “What are you actually after here?” he demanded. The witch was sending him mixed signals, and rather than just follow her blindly Drew demanded a flat out answer from the Slytherin. Now, whether she could deliver an actual answer was a different story, as it seemed to Drew that the moment she had first brought up the dance had been more real, more demanding, but once he acknowledged an interest she had fallen back on flirtation and seduction to win him.

Given the dynamics of the social world they lived in, it would be almost easy for Drew to make assumptions based on Alice’s words and actions in that moment. He was not foreign to the concept of people in her station using any means necessary to get what they wanted. They did so many things out of habit or with some deeper or inner purpose beneath it all. The students were not sorted into their houses lightly. Each student held at least one characteristic to their house high in their traits. Slytherins were most known for their cunning, which was often used to deceive. However, Drew could also acknowledge that even as one was ready to deceive there could be those who wanted something completely opposite. So in that moment, Drew did understand that if this girl was not speaking falsehoods, he could possibly hurt her in some form emotionally. He was leaning towards this latter result given the witch’s tone and expressions. Reading people was not his specialty, but Drew didn’t think him so bad as to misjudge the situation (he hoped).

The bloke waited in silence as the young woman took time to gather her thoughts, her words. Her eyes were concentrated upon the floor, an action that could be read in varying ways, none of which Drew was versed in reading. So, instead, the wizard waited for the Slytherin to find what she sought and answer the question he had laid down at her feet. He didn’t rush her for an answer. The Hufflepuff was hardly in any hurry in that moment. After all, the evening was growing late, and he had nowhere to be in that moment. It had been why he had lingered there after his quidditch practice.

His thoughts were interrupted when the witch finally spoke, laying out her thoughts for him to judge—to make or break the situation. Drew was silent as he regarded the brunette with dark colored eyes. He would admit that she intrigued him. She had when they had met at the party. Though at the party he had little notion of anything further developing from the encounter. There was really no positive to say it would with this one either. Perhaps the girl would realize her mistaking in choosing him for company that evening, or maybe he would. Yes, Drew knew in the moment he would acquiesce to her request. He was not so mean-hearted to reject her when he had no real motive to do so, no reason to really say no. Yet from one portion of her small speech Drew felt a seed of worry for the young witch blossom in his stomach. The idea of trying to feel anything to know one is alive. He knew of instances where people ended up abusing themselves to feel such things. Things such as cutting themselves, turning to drugs and alcohol, and other self-abuse routes were often results. He didn’t dare assume that the beauty before him did any of these sorts of things, but it was still a seed of worry.

Rather than reflect further on it, Drew chose instead to act. The bloke finally shifted from his post next to the column, dropping an arm around the witch’s shoulder, and guiding her in an opposite direction than the Great Hall as he spoke. “Very well, but the Café has much better coffee and better selection than the Great Hall,” he stated. The great hall was also far more public than the Demiguise Corner Café on the second floor. While popular, the Café was not always as crowded, especially this late in the evening. However, Drew was not certain if the Slytherin would be amendable to this change in her plans.

Part of Drew took a bit of glee in the confusion that crossed the brunette as he finally made his decision. It gratified and reassured him at the same time. Drew had not been too remiss in his own observations of the witch. Drew was not a stranger to the manipulations of the people around him. He had enough things stacked in his deck for people to ridicule him for—in fact, he had been ridiculed already for them. Yet, the Hufflepuff was the type to take most things in stride and hold them close to heart. However, that did not mean he enjoyed experiencing them, so if he could curb some bit of unpleasantness, who was he not to try? The girl’s confusion provided the wizard with some relief in this ledge that he had decided to jump off of. He wasn’t completely sure why he was so on edge. Perhaps lingering adrenaline from his Quidditch practice? He could not pin point any other reason, as he had never been particularly burned to be distrustful of anyone. It was an inner question that unsettled the young man, something he filed away for later contemplation.

Feeling the strain of his practice on his body, Drew could not dredge up the energy to provide any further conversation on their way to the café. He wasn’t really sure what it was they would even be talking about at the establishment. Truly, Drew didn’t know what draw the Slytherin could possibly feel towards him. Why pick him out amongst the throng of students? Now and back at that dance. It was a bit of a mystery.

While Drew had led them towards the small café, the Hufflepuff had allowed the witch to take the lead once they passed the threshold. He followed her to her chosen seat, secluded at the back of an already near empty room. Drew had not figured that the girl’s approaching him had been something she had done with confidence, so why be on display in a public place that was often the Great Hall. The Hufflepuff had little to fear from rumors, given he barely paid them any mind to begin with. The girl drew his gaze when she opened her mouth, seeming to blurt forth her own insecurities. Drew’s brows raised slightly before he leaned back in his seat observing the witch for a silent moment.

“I don’t think many would call it weakness to admitting to such things,” he stated after contemplating the questions. “It takes strength to admit to things we seek to hide away from others… As to the stupid girl part and connections,” Drew shrugged his shoulders as he trailed off. “I for one believe that there are things like fate and destiny. So who is to say such connection can’t be made, if not, things like ‘love at first sight’ would never have come into being. “

He grew silent. “Frankly, I’m still trying to wrap my head around why you’d choose to approach me both then and now,” he stated silently. He was far from any type of prince charming or wonder worker. He was just a dude trying to work his way through school. Hardly exciting.