Who: Grayson Wilkes & Ophelia Llewellyn
What: !!
When: Noontime, April 1978
Where: Hogsmeade
Rating: PG-13 for a bit of language

After departing from Laura at the entrance to the Three Broomsticks (although only bothering herself with wondering for a moment why in the world Dominic Yaxley would wish to meet the Slytherin girl here, today), Ophelia ventured further down the street on her own. She had gone early and walked down with her friend, rather than waiting for Smeth, who would be an hour or so with the essay that he had to finish up. Truthfully, she didn't know why she'd left, because without her boyfriend and friend, she really didn't know what to do--she wasn't desperate enough to go and find Narcissa (whom she still couldn't understand was her 'friend' after the events of two months ago), she hadn't seen Emmeline or Agatha in forever, and Junjie was probably somewhere off with Eunhee. It was a nice day out, though, if slightly overcast, which made her suppose that it could be worse...

Or not.

"Sorry--" Lia apologized quickly, upon running straight into a solid wall of human. Merlin, she really needed to watch where she was going, it was embarrassing to look so... oh... oh, oh shit, why was-- "I--Grayson" Her voice came out quiet and shaky upon looking up at who exactly she had run into because holy crap, why was he here?

Oh, Grayson had not been pleased about going to Hogsmeade during this particular weekend. He knew that it would be swarming with Hogwarts children - and he just had to bump into the only one that he didn't necessarily want to see. Grayson was about to hex the offending person who had run into him when he saw just who it was and ... well, stiffened more than slightly. "Miss Llewellyn. If you'll excuse me..." He wasn't trying to avoid her, but he had to run this errand for his mother or he would never hear the end of it, he was sure. It took him a few tries to resist the temptation to look her over ... just to see how she was doing.

Right.

Despite the fact that she should have been expecting it--and rather was, to an extent--Lia was still taken aback by the chilled, detatched reception. Merlin, it had been.. just less than two months since their gone-to-pot wedding, but it felt like it had been forever since she had seen him, and maybe--it had only been the one instance that they'd actually treated each other coldly, so she supposed all she remembered of him was the good. A mistake, because she knew the kind of damage she had done to their relationship when she walked out on him, so she should really be expecting him to slit her throat or something."I'm... no, wait--" Before she knew what she was doing, despite that last thought, Ophelia held up her hand to stop him, stepping just a bit in his way so that he couldn't go around her on his current path. "Wait."

He'd had the brief image of her artery spurting with blood, it was true. The fact that she stepped in front of him surprised him and he arched a brow just a little, forcing himself to compose and then glancing to her again, trying to regard her impassively. "What is it that you need, Miss Llewellyn?" Grayson flexed a gloved hand, "I really do have a lot to do at the moment..." Which was not a very good lie at all, but at least he was making an attempt to make an excuse up.

To tell the truth, Ophelia didn't know why she stopped him, and now she was just standing there stupidly, not having an excuse for having done it, but not wanting him to go. "I guess... I... I don't know," she admitted quietly, turning her eyes to the ground. "How are you? I haven't seen you in a while, I mean... I just wondered..."

Grayson sighed minutely and looked to Ophelia again. It was obvious that she was trying to get him to stay, but for what reason? He frowned a little. "I can't imagine you being entirely concerned as to how I am considering the fiasco that you caused at the wedding." Yes, he was being a bit harsh ... but he couldn't help it. If he were honest with himself, he was upset about it because he had been hurt.

His words struck a very hard chord in her, enough that she had to take a deep breath to lower her temper. It was not going to do to get angry at him; if she wanted to talk to him, she would have to do it rationally. "You know--I, Grayson, I told you, the reasons I had for leaving had nothing to do with you, there... you have to understand that, or at least know why I couldn't do it, I'm--whatever you had to deal with as aftermath was not part of what I intended." Her voice lowered and Lia sighed, running a hand through her hair, back to its normal brunette color.

"I said it a thousand times before, I'm sorry. I still am."

"Some of us, Ophelia, are aware of the way that our actions will influence others." Or that's what he was telling himself. He resisted the urge to glare at her - what would it solve, really? He wasn't so entirely immature. But ... they were standing in the middle of the street, and as much as he hated to think about it, it wasn't a proper place to have a conversation like this. "I suggest we go somewhere that we are not quite so in the way of the rest of the populus." Which meant finding some place to sit down.

Despite the fact that his first comment had not been the best, what he said next caused Ophelia to allow a small wave of relief to wash over her--at least he would talk, that was something, wasn't it? "Right, sure..." Lia turned her head slightly either way to look around, quickly spotting a small restaurant across the street. "In there good?" she asked, motioning with a nod of her head in its genearl direction.

He sincerely hoped that the rest of the Hogwarts population was not inside of the small restaurant. He paused to consider this. "I suppose so." Without looking back to see whether Lia was following him or not, Grayson headed across the street to the restaurant. He did, at least, hold the door open for Lia when they arrived at the entrance. What did he expect them to do once they got into the restaurant? Not explain herself, surely. And it wasn't as if they could ... talk. Well, he'd see.

She chose for them a small table in the back, in a corner, where they were the least to be seen by anyone else who might be in there--and she had other reasons for choosing this restaurant, like the fact that she knew Smeth hated their food, so she wouldn't risk him walking in. She waived the waiter away as they sat down, and spread her hands out flat on the table in front of her, finding it much harder to begin now than it had been back there, in the middle of the street. "So...I--I guess my big question is...Merlin, I don't know, what can I do? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you, I don't know what else there is to say--I don't regret what I did, but I regret what I did to you while doing it." She had to bite her tongue, to stop herself from adding 'I miss you', because while it was true, she knew that was something she shoudln't be saying at all. Smeth did not deserve that, she wasn't going to do that to him again. "I regret losing you to it."

Grayson settled himself into the chair across from Ophelia, leaning back in it so that he could get as much of her figure in as he could manage to. "And why in Merlin's name would you like to do anything at all for me, Ophelia? I highly doubt that there is anything beneficial that you can do for me." Still ... she was making an effort, right? "I ... recognize that you do not regret what you did, but I do not see why you couldn't have voiced your opinon say ... before the day of the wedding?"

That, she knew the answer to, despite that it was the hardest question. She had thought about it for a long time, before she had decided to put everything behind her, before she had finally stopped turning to her jewlery box and staring at that ring, before she had settled it all in her mind. She answered immediately. "Because I wanted, until the very last second, to try to convince myself that I could do it, that it was worth it. I wanted to make myself marry you, and I tried until the end to convince myself it was the right thing." She shook her head, looking away just a bit, at the door. "I didn't give up until I put on my dress and felt a rush of anger at myself for letting my parents walk all over me. I didn't just decide then and there, alright?" She looked back at him, just a tad fiercely.

He was barely phased by the fierce look, if only because he was listening to what she was saying. He frowned just a little, his brows creasing while she spoke. While he supposed he respected her for at least trying, he was still more than a little upset that she had needed to force herself to marry him. A niggling thought at the back of his mind wondered why she had slept with him, then ... but that was quickly squashed. Sex was just that, even if she had been a virgin.

She sighed, the fire fading out of her eyes at his lack of speech. Lia supposed she should have been used to him being silent and having to induce conversation by now, but it was still rather discouraging. Not that this meeting was slated to turn out encouragingly... with the circumstances, she wondered if that was possible at all. Ever. But what was good was that she figured she could tell what he was thinking, and that was something.

Carefully, she began again--"It was more convincing myself to let my parents tell me who I was to spend the rest of my life with... which I couldn't do. Truthfully, I think that if I had married you, if that was all it was, no strings attatched... that I could have been happy."

Grayson really wasn't being silent completely intentionally, but he didn't want to say something he'd regret later ... and he didn't want to raise his voice in a public place. He was determined not to get upset about this, if only because he had not deemed Lia worthy of it anymore. That didn't stop him from having a surge of internal anger - and then triumph - at her words. "Unfortunately, that is hardly in the cards." Ever, as far as he was concerned.

She stopped herself from rolling her eyes, but Ophelia could not stop the slight glare she gave him. He was so frustrating, holy crap! Had he been this bad before? "I didn't say it was in the cards," she said, biting her tongue before she added 'Don't flatter yourself.' "I've got a boyfriend, I'd just like to get this behind me, yeah?"

"How nice to know that you're so eager to forget." He hoped she didn't expect forgiveness anytime soon. He was frustrating? She was going to tell him she had a boyfriend when she'd just stressed how upset she was? Bullshit.

She just about threw her hands up in the air--that wasn't! She hadn't even meant--he was just--augh! "You just bloody told me that an 'us' is never going to happen again and you're admonishing me for trying to settle things and move on? What the hell is it you expect of me? You won't take my apologies no matter how much I explain myself, you tell me that we're over for good, you blame me for the same things over and over again... what are you expecting to get out of me! What can I say to make you happy, because I'm apparently running into brick walls every route I take!"

Grayson couldn't help it - he nearly smirked at her words. All right, so maybe he got some sense of satisfaction out of riling her up. "Did it occur to you, Miss Llewellyn, that you cannot in fact make every person that you meet happy? I would have thought you'd have learned that after the wedding." He tried very hard not to sound amused. But when he focused on her instead of how he felt about this whole situation ... it was far more bearable.

Ophelia's gaze towards him quickly turned cold, half from what he was saying, half from the amused way in which he was saying it. "Fine," she answered shortly, sitting back away from the table, obviously about two seconds from getting up and letting it be. She repeated in her mind over and over, 'He's not worth it, he's not worth it', but somehow it wasn't quite enough to get her to stand up and walk out completely. "Then if it was pointless and a mistake to let me sit here and try to explain this to you, try to resolve this... why are you still sitting here listening?"

He restrained himself for saying 'because I didn't want you to make a scene in the middle of the street where your classmates could come to your rescue' and simply turned to her, debating telling her the truth. Because he enjoyed watching her squirm, if only because it made him feel better about his own personal anguish? But that wasn't entirely it either. He had wanted to ... see her. "I was thinking of having some lunch."

Her gaze did not move, telling him that she didn't buy his lie. Whatever, if he didn't want to contribute, if he was just going to play around with her, then he really wasn't worth it. Leaning down, she picked up her purse, slinging it over her shoulder as she stood up from her seat. "Sorry I bothered," Lia said, although it was quite obvious that she didn't feel she had anything else to apologize to him about. Fucking frustrating, that's all that he was. She was foolish for thinking she had time to care--this is... this is why she'd gone back to Smeth in the end. He didn't make her feel like shit about herself, he didn't play around with her, and--

"My boyfriend's probably waiting. I'll leave you to your 'lunch'."

"I suppose you should. Get back to your boyfriend and the rest of your other friends, since you seem to expect me to simply forget that you embarassed the both of us in front of our families and left me to hold the bag." In order to explain to his family and hers, and to the rest of the guests. That had been embarassing, and on top of being hurt emotionally, his pride had been hurt.

Her fist clenched at her side, and Lia willed herself as strongly as she could not to make a scene in the middle of this restaurant, because she really wanted to turn around and throw something--anything--at him, just hit him or--noooo, no, she told herself, despite the fact that even her mental voice was shaking with anger.

"I've tried, damnit, you've told me there's nothing I can do to make you forgive me, so why don't you stop trying to play with my fucking mind!" she hissed as quietly as she could, putting her hands on the table and staring him, unblinkingly from what was now a very close distance. "If all you want to do is sit here and watch me beg, then you're sick and you're not worth me or my words."

At least he still knew how to upset her. That was something, wasn't it? He closed his eyes for a moment while she hissed and when he opened them she was rather disturbingly near to him, which surprised him less than he'd have thought. He shifted a hand up to brush a stray lock of hair away from her eyes and acquiested rather sternly, "I was simply making sure you were sincere."

She couldn't think of a time when she had been more stunned in her life. Silence reigned between them as Ophelia attempted to ascertain exactly what he meant by saying that, what he meant by the fond touch, and... oh Merlin, it was just like before, he was throwing her through loops like he used to do and she couldn't breathe, what--he had no right--why was she still standing there, letting him mess with her?

"I'm--you're--" Words failed her, movement failed her, how could someone shut her down like this?

"Would you care to join me for lunch?" He made an attempt at being as cordial as possible in hopes of at least smoothing over the conversation for the peoplea round them. It wouldn't do for him to eat alone, would it? People would think that he was up to something, which was something that he didn't want to happen unless he actually was up to something.

Lia opened her mouth slightly, for a moment about to accept his offer, but... no, that wouldn't be wise of her. Not with Smeth coming soon, and not if someone she knew walked in and saw them together, that would be... very, very bad. She forced herself to shake her head in a negative, leaning away from the table slowly and holding on to her purse on her shoulder. "No... I can't. Sm--I mean, my boyfriend... he really is going to be waiting for me."

Grayson sighed minutely. "You're going to leave me to eat alone in the restaurant? My, my, what will people think of me." It might have even been slightly teasing or ... as teasing as Grayson got. "If you insist." He noted that she had been about to say yes before she remembered that her boyfriend was going to be coming soon. Intriguing.

"I do insist..." she said, turning away slightly. "...maybe some other time." The last she tagged on thoughtlessly, before cursing herself for doing it. But she had to tell herself that she was not about to let Grayson snare her again. It was just lunch she was offering, and it probably wouldn't even be followed up, their being at two different places in England at all times--right, right, she needed to leave, she was just standing there looking stupid. So she did. Lia turned and left, despite the fact that she couldn't help but mutter a small goodbye, and that she couldn't help but look back as she reached the front door to the restaurant.

Fuck.