Game of Champions [Jesse]

Oh how Jesse loved Saturdays. The one day of the week he could sleep in past eight. The one day of the week he didn't have to wake up incredibly early for quidditch practice. The he one and only day he got to do absolutely nothing. And that was exactly what Jesse had been doing all morning. Nothing.

He had woke up a little before ten in some Ravenclaw's bed, still in his make up and clothes from the party the night before. He had taken his time to run a comb through his thick rats nest of hair and holding gel, and wipe excess makeup off, easily turning his hungover, morning mess into a passable cool and detached rocker look. With the quick application of his dark lipstick, he was good to go, leaving a perfect kiss mark on the boy's mirror for whoever he was to remember him by. He collected his things and strolled out of the boy's dorms, doing the walk of shame in style. Ravenclaw tower, hhmmm? With a yawn and a stretch, Jesse bounded down the winding stairs to get back to the castle. The kitchens were right on the way to his own tower. Looks like he was making a pit stop.

A few minutes later, with a large mug of coffee in hand, Jesse was back on track to the Gyrffindor commons for a nice long day of jack-shit-all. He was already planning his course of actions. One, he was gonna sit on the couch and finish this cup of coffee. Second, he was going back up to his room to call Fox down to give the little thing its breakfast. Third, finish a few projects he had on the go, if he felt like it. If not, he might pull out his sketch book and work out a new design. Or maybe he would just scrap it all and go back to bed. Didn't really matter what he did on a cold, long day like today. All that really mattered was that he didn't have to do anything at all.

He repeated the password and climbed through the portal, heading into his common room. It was pretty empty up here. He figured, by this time, most people were off doing something of importance. There was muttering coming from the sofa by the fire place though, and Jesse wandered over to see what it was all about. He came around the front of the settee to find resident spaz, Katrina Langly passed out, mumbling in her sleep. The girl, his age, was known for being a live wire and a real weirdo. Jesse thought she was cute, despite all of her quirks- Kinda like a hamster on speed. But cute, non the less. It was really stupid for her to fall asleep here though, what with Gryffindor students being known for their pranks and all...

Jesse grinned as he sat down on the arm of the couch and pulled his short wand out of his pocket. This opportunity was too good to pass up. With a quick flick, the tip of his wand sparked inches from her ear, giving off a loud CRACK, like a whip cutting through the air. The girl's body instantly went rigid and rose a few inches off the furniture, breaking out of sleep to scream an ungodly noise before tumbling to the ground. Jesse smirked, and peered over the back of the couch to make sure she was okay. No blood, that was good. He raised his travel mug to his lips to sip at until the girl decided it was safe enough to stop playing opossum. His sadistic side had really liked her reaction, he decided to consider greeting her with loud noises more often. It would no doubt bring a little cheer to the gloomy winter to be able to see her crumple to the ground every other day or so.

"You sure are easy to scare, Kat." Jesse growled, his voice still rough from a night of drinking and smoking. He didn't know the girl well. It wasn't like they had hung out much in the past, but with being from the same house, and same year, they had spent a lot of time together in class and around the commons. They were friendly enough to each other at least. Why not waste sometime on her? He took another sip of his coffee and smiled at the girl sweetly, "Seems like a weird place to be sleepin' when your room is just a few feet away... you been out here all night?"

Jesse put on his best cute, innocent little smile, but it was more for laughs than anything. He knew the girl could see right through it. "I wanted to be gentle with you, Kat, but my brain said 'No! She's sleeping in the common room! She's know perfectly well what that invites." he chuckled. "And no, I didn't come home last night, mum. I met someone at a party." He left that there though. No need outing some poor one night stand who was probably just experimenting. Besides, he had had so much alcohol last night, he wasn't sure he could even remember the kids name. B-brad? Rick? Was it Edward? Who ever it was, they had been older... right?

"What they hell where you doing up at Six-bloody-thirty?" he laughed, feeling that hour was too fuckin yearly for anyone to be up. Six thirty wasn't morning, it was still the night before, as far as Jesse was concerned. He hated to have to get up anytime before seven, and even then it was best to keep all arms and legs away from the boy before he had his morning coffee for he was known to bite.

"I was out practicing quiddich this morning, "

"Ooooohh... Well that makes sense." The boy groaned, knowing all too well the horrors of the early morning practice. "I didn't know you were all that into Quidditch. Most girls aren't." He made the sexist generalization with out so much as a bat of the eye, even though with three girls on the Gryffindor team it was a blatant lie. "That's cool though it's a great sport to get into. And we always love when people come out to support us..."

Jesse got up from the uncomfortable arm of the chair and sat down on the couch next to Kat, taking a moment of silence to sip his coffee. He looked over the girl, and was quite happy to notice that the two of them were very similar in body structure. That didn't happen often. Normally, with his small stature, most girls towered over him. Being short was one of the reason he had begun dressing fem in the first place. If there was anything he hated more than short boys, it was short boys who tried hard to be macho. It just looked bad on them.

Jesse nodded slowly as the girl spoke, not full awake yet. "Yeeeeep... First year as seeker." another sip of caffeine. He looked down into the cup and gave the stray grounds a swirl- he was getting dangerously close to empty. "Seeker has never been my favourite position, but it's the one I'm best at. I'm small, so I weave in and out of plays quickly." He shrugged lazily as the girl asked him questions, "Iduno... I grew up on a farm ranglin cattle and ducks. Chasing a snitch on a good broom is not unlike chasing a stay calf on a horse. You get good at predicting where the stupid thing is gonna go before it even makes a move."

"Why didn't you try out for the team this year?" he questioned through his rough and groggy voice, "Yer doing all this practicing for what, next year? I bet you could have made the team this year... what position do you play, anyways?- And don't say keeper. We all know that's where rookies go who can't actually play the game themselves." the boy was full of offensive views that he wasn't afraid to make public. "Course, if you're actually taking time to practice keeping, you'd still be a loser, but at least you'd be a responsible one..."

The boy nodded, pushing a stray chunk of faded and fried black hair. Jesse’s natural hair was fine and red, and after a few years of bleaching, and straightening, and dying, it had become rather crunchy and unhealthy looking. It never usually mattered. He put enough hair spray in it most times to make it look good anyway. Having slept on the mess though, he was looking rough. “Yeah, growin’ up in the country was cool, I guess, But I would have loved to grow up in the centre of a city. We were so far away from everyone growin’ up. And there was never any real adventure outside of the animals and hillsides and stuff. Grown up in a city, I would have run through the alleys, and explored down town... and shopping would have been much closer too.” He giggled, though it was a dark sound not a usual light and happy giggle, “Maybe I wouldn’t have such a fucked up sense of fashion if I had access to shopping as a child.”

His eyes lit up with excitement when the girl pulled the cookie tin out of her bag and offered him one. Not many people knew this about him, but if there was one thing that could be used to make the strange kid happy, kind, and complacent, it was sweets. “ I would love a cookie!” he said with a very thankful tone, “Awwwwww!! You’re so sweet!” he reached into the tin and took a cookie, nibbling on it as she began to speak to him about her experience in Quidditch.

“What?! You had never played Quidditch?” He shook his head in disapproval, quickly finishing up his first cookie, and eyeing up the others in the box. “I’ve been playing Quidditch since I got my first broom when I was five. There are two other wizarding families that lived nearby, and I used to play with the kids in those houses. I love chasing. It has to be my favourite position. Competitively, I’m not the best at it, cause the other team will bounce into you, and I weigh so little, they completely push me off my flight path. I’ve seen little wizards like us do well as chasers, with enough practise. If you can build up your muscle mass, you become very study, and hard to knock down. I’ve just never been able to do it, so I switched to seeker.” He shrugged, “It’s pretty fun too. You get a lot more attention from the position. I’m having to learn to block out a lot more yelling from the spectators than I did when I played keeper.”

“Yeah... bludgers are nasty little buggars.” She offered him last call on the cookies, and he hastily took a second cookie, and sneaked a third one, even though he knew she was watching him. They were just so good with the last bit of his coffee. Making these two cookies last longer than the first, he continued talking with the girl. He loved quidditch. He could go on and on about the sport. “What you gotta do is get hit by the bastards one time, reeeeeal good.” He chased a mouthful of cookies with coffee. “I know it sounds strange, but trust me. I used to be afraid of bludgers too, until one reamed me right in the gut. Bruised for days. But I tell you what! After I knew how hard the thing hit, and I knew I could take it, I wasn’t as afraid of them. It took probably three more bludger beatings to make me fearless of them though.” He smiled at her, “And if you ever need to practise with someone, I’d be up for a run with you.”

He swallowed down his last cup of coffee and looked down to the bottom of the cup with a mournful look. With a pouted lip, he sighed “I’m heading down to the kitchen for another cup. You wanna come with?”