Fists Clenched, Fighter's Eyes (open)

[Scarlett Rosen]

Scarlett did not normally favor being around Gryffindors. They irritated her beyond belief. While there were a few half decent ones around, most of them were loud, obnoxious, stupid and highly annoying. She wasn't sure how they had become such a legendary house.
Scarlett had never been sure how: an unhealthy dose of bravery, an over-inflated ego and a reckless disregard for other's safety, could be considered good qualities for a human being. She did understand that her own house of Slytherin had become infamous for all the wrong reasons. Their affiliation with the Dark Arts was generally frowned upon, though it was only a small portion of students who gave them their bad name.
Maybe it was only Slytherins who could see the potential for good in their qualities. Ambition was not bad unless it was made to be and their cunning, clever nature should be used for good, rather than frowned upon.
Overall though, he thought that Ravenclaws were the best. They had no distinct reputation for evil, were intelligent, decent people who were strong enough to hold there own against an enemy with the bravery of a thousand Gryffindors.

That was another reason she dislike the Gryffindors. When people described them as brave, it made them sound noble, not stupid. And it sounded as though the other houses were not brave, they were weak.
Slytherin in particular were given a bad name for their attempts at self-preservation, which was seen as cowardice, not intelligence.

She snorted at the thought and her dark eyes found a small Gryffindor walking along the corridor. he looked up and saw her, resting on the high window sill, her feet resting on the statue she had used to climb up there. She gave a mocking hiss at him, chuckling as he flinched away from her.
She relaxed back, letting the soft sunlight dancing on her bright hair. She sighed and licked her ruby lips, waiting.
Something had to happen.

[Shendeth Potter]

Normally the seventh floor was not a place to find Slytherins. But it was a place to find Gryffindorks, and if you were needing to kill one of them their territory was as good a place as any to start looking. Shendeth usually won fights with his dear twin, one of the reasons being that unless it was about something stupid he didn't give up until he did. Which led to him being up here now. He knew where the Gryffindor common room was and that this corridor led to it.

A younger student came from the opposite direction, looking half annoyed and half scared about something, to whom he gave a shove but didn't bother with. It wasn't until he had turned the corner that he looked up and saw what had bothered the Gryffindork. Someone was there, but it wasn't Harry or even another one of Harry's stupid Housemates. Though not someone welcome.

Oh, great. The corridor was deserted except for them. It was the girl from the dungeons whom Shendeth wasn't yet sure if he liked or not. It could go either way though he was inclined to think probably not. He looked up at the sun on Scarlett's hair and the bored expression on her face. What was she doing here? Maybe she went around doing nothing in random places a lot. Hah. He'd been trying to be annoyed at Harry already and the other Slytherin did not yet do anything to help.

[Scarlett Rosen]

She glanced back at the sound of footsteps echoing toward her. For a moment she considered that it was the small boy, back to be irritating. But listening closer, the footsteps were heavier than his had been.
She waited until they got fairly close before she looked round. A flash of surprise crossed her face at the site of a fellow Slytherin. It was rare to find them so far away from the dungeons, but it was known to happen.
Glancing back again she realized she knew him. He was the strange boy she had met when on one of her many night wanderings. She licked her lips and grinned down at him.
"Hey, Shendeth, wasn't it?
What's a snake like yourself doing up here?"
She let out a mock gasp, a playful glint her her dark eyes.
"You're not looking for a Gryffindor are you? You know what their like..."
She tutted, but then her face creased into a smirk and she leaned forward, eyes glittering.
Maybe you're being a bad boy, looking for a fight..." she purred softly.
She couldn't decide whether she should like him or not, but for the moment she should keep her options open to every possibility.

[Shendeth Potter]

Yeah, he really wasn't sure what to make of her just yet. Be annoyed or act the same way. Shendeth looked up at her, showing neither. At least there was nothing wrong with the question in itself. She had just about got the answer right. He shrugged. "Just taking care of some idiots." he said with a smirk. Though that went without saying. As a rule all Gryffindors were idiots.

He was never picked on by them, usually it was the opposite; though he didn't really try to get into fights it was an ongoing war. Because Gryffindorks never stopped being idiots. To his knowledge Scarlett knew nothing about him and that was a good thing. Most of the time Shendeth didn't refer to them as 'my brother and his friends'. If he was asked it couldn't be a secret, but he pretended they weren't related so saying that would be counter-productive.

But anyway. Who cares. Shendeth crossed his arms and awaited a reply. Maybe he'd decide he didn't like her but at least they wore the same colors and so were on the same side.

[Scarlett Rosen]

She smirked back. He was right, Gryffindors were idiots. Not that she was complaining, it came in very useful sometimes. They were so easy to anger, perfect for a fight. Her fingers instinctively clenched to form a fist at the thought of a fight right now. It would be good to use her muscles for something constructive.
She looked down at the way he stood, arms folded over his chest, such a defensive position, as though he was trying to protect himself from her. She blinked, outwardly oblivious, but her mind was working fast, bringing up their last conversation.
Mentally she frowned.
He hadn't mentioned a last name, strange. Most Slytherins would automatically give their last name. Otherwise you could be suspected of being of 'bad blood'. Personally she had never been that bothered, but it did intrigue her.
"What did you say your last name was again?"
Her voice was far from rude as she looked at him, dark eyes inquisitive. There was a gentle curiosity to her tone, rather than the sharp snaps he might have received from other members of their house.

[Shendeth Potter]

Well that lasted a while. Not. It was almost as if she'd read his thoughts. If he had unconsciously been acting defensive this question did nothing to change that. Maybe it was without reason, but he didn't trust her now gentle tone. Shendeth blinked, wondering what to tell her. "I didn't." They both knew that. Then he shrugged, figuring he would only draw attention to it if he acted like it was a problem. Acting like he didn't care made other people not care.

Her own last name didn't ring any bells so maybe his usual one wouldn't for her either. At least he wasn't a Mudblood, right? "Potter." If he lied about it as he was often inclined to do and she found out she would really think something was up with that. Better to just say it and get on with things, no big deal. It wasn't something that could be kept a secret.

His mum taught at the school now and.. James Potter was an Auror, so she would at least know it wasn't a Slytherin name. And that simple fact was an excuse enough for preferring to not say it. She didn't have to know the full twisted story. Slytherins only bragged about their names if they were purebloods, which most of them were, but every single one couldn't care about that could they?

[Scarlett Rosen]

She waited for his response, wondering briefly what she would do if he came to question her background. It was nothing extraordinary, at least not among the pureblood world. She was, of course, a pureblood. However the Rosen name had some little secrets hidden behind it. Nothing the world would ever know about and nothing that would surprise most upper class purebloods. Her grandmother's suicide was the latest, something her family had thought best to keep quiet. After many rumors of mental illness in the family a suicide would do nothing to improve their image.

Her worries were not needed however when he spoke his name.
Potter.
Well, that was interesting, no wonder he hadn't told her.
It didn't bother her in particular, she didn't mind that he was not of the richest or most influential, or slytherin for that matter, family.
She observed him for a moment.
"Poor you. Good God, I can't imagine being related to a stuck up prat like Potter...I mean Harry."
She genuinely couldn't. The very idea of having grown up with such an idiot made her shudder dramatically.

[Shendeth Potter]

Ah. So she knew of Harry. He had hoped she didn't. It was annoying how most people seemed to, but then again with an ego like that.. Harry was always trying to get attention whereas Shendeth kept his distance and stayed in his own shadows. Probably not many people on Harry's end knew that they were related either. It wasn't completely one-sided.

"I'm used to it." he muttered in reply after a moment, watching her dramatic shudder. Clearly she wasn't. She was lucky then; considering what his own was he didn't question her background. A stuck up prat summed up his twin pretty nicely. The same went for Harry's dad and his friends. It never even crossed Shendeth's mind to defend him. Just because he was used to it, having been forced to grow up with him didn't make it any better. Poor him indeed. He saw it the same way Scarlett did.

Calling his twin Potter was nothing new either. Everyone except his Gryffindork friends - heaven knows how he got any - called him that. Especially with the Slytherins. Whenever anyone said Potter they meant Harry and that's how it was; there wasn't much need to do otherwise when talking to Shendeth. He knew. In fact he'd probably made the mistake of accidentally doing so as well a few times. Harry was usually Potter and Shendeth was just Shendeth unless you had a death wish.

At least Shendeth was in Slytherin so it didn't have to matter so much that they were related at school. They had some classes together and there were always times like this but other than that he could avoid the idiot if he wanted. Their time of growing up together was over. With the stuff that had gone on last summer they didn't even live together on holidays anymore. Not that it was a good thing. Shendeth didn't really hate him. When they were younger it hadn't been that bad. But any inner brotherly love was well hidden.

[Scarlett Rosen]

She kept watching him, trying to work out who this boy really was. He was no ordinary boy, that was for sure. She couldn't identify it, but there was something strange about him.
She twisted her body so she could see him better, curling her feet beneath her as she crossed her legs.
"You don't speak much, do you?"
She knew she wasn't always the most vocal of people, but she knew how to open her mouth and make words come out. This boy just seemed to wait for you to ask the questions, keep the conversation alive.
"I have seen you a few times around the school, in the common room. Am I just missing the moments when you talk or are you always like that?"
Some people would have added a smile to the end of the sentence to add some light to the question, but Scarlett didn't bother to. You tended to get answers faster that way.

[Shendeth Potter]

He blinked, resisting giving her a strange look as he realized that he hadn't said much at all so far. This meeting was unusual. Maybe he tended more towards silent than loud and obnoxious but speaking was not a problem. Shendeth didn't talk any less than average. In defense of not saying much so far today well he just didn't know what to say to her.

They hadn't exactly been conversing about anything worth going on about. She had just been asking questions. And as far as he knew nobody else went ranting about their dysfunctional family either. It was something sane people kept to themselves and it was normal to be uncomfortable when asked and not want to talk about it. Right? That's what any other sane person would do.. which he was.. maybe. Whatever.

He half-laughed, snapping out of it at her words. Maybe he was just distracted. "I think you must be. Of course I talk." Pfft. Shendeth might have added a 'sorry' to the end of that if that was something he said, but it wasn't. The only way to change the subject was to change it himself. He looked up at her almost as if he had been thinking about something else and only just noticed they were talking. "What are you doing here then?"

[Scarlett Rosen]

She didn't respond when he first spoke, just watched him. Maybe he was right and he did talk. Scarlett had been told many times that she was very loud and talked far too much. She mentally shrugged, it didn't matter to her what others thought, unless of course it could be used to her advantage.
What am I doing here? She considered it for a moment, while most of her brain was telling her to tell him what she had been telling herself.
But the other half of her brain was desperate to be let out. She was here because there was no where else to be, no one else to hang around with. She was confident and had a fair few friends, but they were always a bit dull, never up for the kind of fun that she seeked out. Most of her friends were quiet and cunning, they thought it was impossible to be a proper Slytherin and to have a voice, or to have a sense of adventure.
She looked him up and down, before her eyes returned to his face.
"Looking for something to do, what else would I do up here?"
She smirked, raising an eyebrow.

[Shendeth Potter]

Who was the odd one now? She had clearly been doing nothing, but that was because there was nothing to do here without a purpose. Picking on random Gryffindorks was no fun alone, true he had found her but other than that.. this wasn't the first place he would go if he needed something to do. Actually it was probably the last. Shendeth looked around at the empty corridor.

"I don't know, nothing at all. If you're looking here you must be pretty desperate." he said, looking her over with a slight smirk of his own.

Maybe saying that wasn't nice if she had no friends, but that was too bad. What a shame, he really doubted he'd be sorry if he ever made the achievement of being the one annoying her as opposed to the other way around. She didn't look like someone who didn't have any friends but then he still didn't know much about her, and that wasn't something she'd just come out and say. Pfft. From the way she acted he wouldn't be surprised at all if she was a bit of an outcast in spite of her always self-satisfied way of talking.

[Scarlett Rosen]

Her grin turned dark as he spoke. The smirk on his face inflamed her anger, but she kept her temper under check. She tried t only hit the students in other classes, otherwise she would have to deal with the scorn of her house. Her smile slipped from her face and was replaced with a bitter sneer.
He hadn't said anything bad out loud, but she was not stupid, she wasn't some dumb Gryffindor, she knew what he had implied.
That she was a loner, had on friends.
That had hit a little too close to home for the redhead. Her friends, while nice enough, were tools to her, she did not have any that she cared about enough to actually want to be around most of the time. Many of her house mates rejected her because of her difference to the house, she didn't fit the mold they had created.
They couldn't see that maybe Scarlett was more cunning than any of them, she acted like she did to through people of her scent.

"I don't think you can talk, Potter. I don't see any of your friends around here." She gave a mocking look around.
"Nope, none. This is the second time you have run into me and the second time you have bored me. How desperate are you, to keep talking to a girl you don't even like...getting a little lonely are we?"

She gave a dark chuckle and twisted her body back, resting her head on the glass window and watching the grounds outside, her teeth gritted.

(Wow, she was horrible there, sorry.)

[Shendeth Potter]

In another context what she said might have angered him. He just hated being called Potter. If it had been offensive and not defensive he might have gotten annoyed and she would have gotten a broken nose; or perhaps a curse shot after her, he did know more of those than he should, but a good old-fashioned punch in the face was much more satisfying. However, instead of waking the demon today she only amused him, and it took a bit of an internal fight to remain cold and haughty instead of laughing. Her words just proved that he had hit a nerve.

Shendeth smiled darkly at her and mimicked her look around. "Neither do I, which was why I was only passing through. You're the one who talked to me, actually." That was in fact the truth. She was the one who called out to him and he had been just walking by. No, his friends weren't here, and that was the reason he had been on his way to join them instead of staring out the window just for the sake of it. He actually did have a few close mates that he spent a whole lot of time with, especially for Slytherins who valued their independence.

No, he wasn't lonely, but it was pretty clear that Scarlett was. "Funny thing is you're just sitting there, but I don't see any of your friends around here either. Of course you're bored. I think you're the lonely one." She meant the second time he had run into her while she was bored. The other night there clearly hadn't been anyone else around or anything to do either.

[Scarlett Rosen]

She snarled, her anger erupting, though she did not feel the urge to punch something that she normally did. She swung her body down and landed with the slight thud. A dangerous smirk crossed her features as she paced toward him, like how a cat might approach a mouse.
"And for a second I thought you were not a Potter, You came from a fucked up family, you can pretend all you like but really, you ain't got the brains to look beyond the surface. Just like your stuck up, mudblood bitch of a mother."
She didn't like the red head woman, she had always been cold and snappish when Scarlett had run into her.

She stood in front of him, disgust in her dark eyes.
"Why would I be lonely?
I don't get lonely.
You know why?
Because I don't have 'friends' I have tools, people I can use should I need them. But I don't like them, they are stupid. They are Slytherins and I don't fit the mold. I am not the perfect Slytherin. I am not one of you. "

She turned and began to walk back to the statue, pulling herself up again and twisting to reach the ledge. She didn't look at him but spoke again.
"Has it ever occurred to you that maybe I don't have friends because I don't need people to complete me.
Or because the Slytherins don't like that I am different. But I can not be friends with the other houses, should I want to, because I will be expelled if I get into many more fights.
Then she looked round at him, her eyes glittering and her face dancing with mirth.
"I just want to be who I am not, who you demand I am."