Adrian Connery
Adult
Gryffindor Head of House and Auror
Mysterious; another word for boring.
Posts: 110
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Post by Adrian Connery on May 18, 2010 14:54:23 GMT 1
Even in the dull light of the pub, it was obvious Adrian’s words had had an effect on the woman he sat with but not as much as they had an effect on him. It was blatantly evident that his cheeks had flushed a deep red, rivalled only by the sickly blood red of the pub’s latest attempt at carpeting. He opened his mouth to apologize at making both of them feel embarrassed but something stopped the Irishman with his mouth half open. The young man had no idea of what to say or do next. He was completely and utterly lost.
Even before Dacian had driven her away from Hogwarts, Diana had always been a tricky one to deal with. The thought made Adrian’s mind wander wilfully back to the brief few moments they’d shared together at the school. Of course he’d only ever made a complete and utter fool of himself when he’d tried to impress her but by some miracle his pathetic and novice attempts at flirting had almost worked.
His mind had just reached the soap and portrait incident when Diana herself brought it up. Her voice brought Adrian back to his dingy reality and he was shocked to see that the woman had moved to the chair beside him. So shocked in fact that he almost visibly jumped. To disguise his temporary shock the Auror let out a fond laugh. ”You know, I don’t think anyone ever did. I think the staff were glad to be rid of his constant bloody moaning and grumbling.” Subtly, as he spoke, Adrian moved himself closer to Diana. It had been something he’d wished he could do so often when she’d been sitting at the staff table but as fate had put it Abe had always somehow managed to be beside her instead.
”I miss those moments. The moments of me making an idiot of myself but at least it made you laugh. You know, that was me trying to flirt? How sad is that?” he confessed ruefully. Rickie had always been the one who had been good with the ladies but his older brother was hopeless and probably would always be hopeless.
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Post by Diana Addair on May 18, 2010 20:09:58 GMT 1
Thankfully Diana was too focused on reaching over to drag her box of runestones closer to notice Adrian freaking out when she slipped next to him. She caught the movement out of the corner of her eye and interpreted it only as an attempt to get comfortable.
“You know, I don’t think anyone ever did,” Adrian mused. “I think the staff were glad to be rid of his constant bloody moaning and grumbling.”
Diana looked a bit nonplussed. Perhaps he was only trying to make her feel better about it? “Oh dear, I was actually rather fond of him,” she said sadly, thinking back to the time she’d had a rather animated discussion with the portrait on the merits of different kinds of herbal tea. “I did mean to reverse it but it slipped my mind after... Well...”
The vampire topic again? She supposed it was a hard one to avoid, seeing as it was a major event that had happened to her while she was at the school. Understandably, it was going to crop up in conversation with the man who had been there to rescue her.
“You know, that was me trying to flirt?” Adrian admitted, nearly causing Diana’s butterbeer to go down the wrong way. “How sad is that?”
Lucky for Diana, she recovered gracefully. Coughing up butterbeer was hardly dignified. “I thought it was sweet,” she said with a forced smile, putting the flask down and hoping that didn’t sound like the way you would condescendingly describe a five year old saying I Love You to a teacher as ‘sweet’. “You were always a good sort.”
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Adrian Connery
Adult
Gryffindor Head of House and Auror
Mysterious; another word for boring.
Posts: 110
|
Post by Adrian Connery on May 30, 2010 14:29:55 GMT 1
There, in the whole wide world filled with billions of possible scenarios, was none worse that could be thought of than sitting with the girl that had been a crush for ages and not being able to think of a single smart or suave thing to say. It was like being locked in a room and being told the only way out was to solve a series of complicated Arithmancy problems on the creation of life. Like talking to women, Adrian just couldn’t do it but Abe could and it made him insanely jealous of the older man. Well the ease in addressing women did, the Arithmancy was something he could easily live his life without ever lamenting the absence of it.
Maybe it was the alcohol; maybe it was his past record with her but whenever Diana spoke a word Adrian found his stomach lurching quite uncomfortably, as though the butterflies in there, though dulled with the whiskey, were trying valiantly to escape. ”If it will make you feel better, I’ll go back to the school right now and give the portrait back his voice,” the man grinned widely, his blue eyes flashing audaciously.
Irish humour, something he reserved for rare, rare, occasions after having several alcoholic drinks. Even then it was sketchy and patchy at best. It wasn’t just a joke though, it was an attempt to steer the conversation away from the reasons Diana had left Hogwarts. Vampires had been mentioned far too many times already since they’d walked through the doors of the pub.
Just when things had been looking good they were ruined by the voicing of the wrong thing at the wrong time, in this case the admission of pathetic attempts at flirting. ”I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.” He looked away, trying to hide how red the tips of his ears were going. She may have said she thought it was sweet but she was probably just being polite. If that were the case, what she said after that still made him grin once more. A good sort she’d called him. ”I do my best,” Adrian chuckled. ”For that I think I should shout you a drink, what’s your poison? Butterbeer again or something stronger?”
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Post by Diana Addair on May 31, 2010 11:57:12 GMT 1
“If it will make you feel better,” Adrian proposed with an amused lit to his voice, “I’ll go back to the school right now and give the portrait back his voice.”
Okay, Diana laughed that time. More of a chuckle than anything, but still. So Adrian did have a sense of humour in there somewhere, even if it needed hefty amounts of fire whiskey to get the job done. He’d better ease up on that actually, he was having a bit much and Diana hadn’t known Adrian to be much of a drinker.
“Indeed, Mr. Connery,” Diana replied, deepening her voice to a joking sort of imperious and matronly tone. She gave him a stern look, pouting her lips exaggeratedly. “If you don’t I shall be forced to deduct points from Gryffindor. How disastrous for a Head of House; what would the students say?”
It didn’t take long for him to lose his nerve again. Adrian suddenly backed up to apologise for admitting to her that he used to (or still did?) have a thing for her and Diana suddenly looked downright alarmed. Oh dear! She hadn’t meant to make him feel bad! She reached out to touch his shoulder supportively, wondering if the enormous height difference just made her look faintly ridiculous. “It's all right, Adi.”
Now it was her turn to be lost for words, but Adrian saved her by offering to buy her another drink. “Oh, firewhiskey please,” she requested, withdrawing her hand so that Adrian could stand up. “And butterbeer for you I think, you’ll be feeling that whiskey in a few minutes,” she promised. “My, what do you do at Hogwarts without someone to look after you?”
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Adrian Connery
Adult
Gryffindor Head of House and Auror
Mysterious; another word for boring.
Posts: 110
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Post by Adrian Connery on Jul 1, 2010 13:45:00 GMT 1
Feisty, like the Diana of old. Adrian liked. The man pouted in mock disapproval. ”I’m afraid deducting points from Gryffindor won’t help as there is nothing more the students could say about me than the ammunition they’ve got already.” He laughed in a gallant attempt to hide the embarrassment he felt. It was true; the students of Hogwarts did have a few harsh words they whispered in the corridors about their Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. It usually involved harsh criticism of Adrian’s teaching methods but they couldn’t expect Grey or Driscoll style teaching from everyone. Essays had to be handed in on time or else detentions ensued, even Hufflepuffs got no special treatment in Adrian’s classroom.
Of all the places his mind could have wandered, it had wandered back to the school. The school of all places! Outwardly Adrian snorted and shook his head; he had to focus on the beautiful woman in front of him, not on his work for once. The beautiful woman that had rested her hand on his shoulder. A temptation to reach around with his hand and to feel her soft skin with the tips of his fingers was almost too much; thank God she needed a drink as much as he did.
”One firewhiskey coming right up,” the man stated almost a little too loudly with a blush. Diana’s hand fell away from his shoulder and he moved to head to the bar as quickly as possible without looking strange or like an alcoholic. ”Nonsense, I’m Irish. Drinking is in the blood, I’ll be fine,” Adrian stopped to retort smugly.
Oh Lord had he been wrong. Although he felt jovial and talkative at that point in time, in the morning he’d feel all the firewhiskey he’d consumed. Adrian Connery with a hangover, Abe would have a field day. Several empty glasses lay scattered in front of him on the same wooden table he’d sat himself and the gorgeous Diana at only a few hours ago. It had taken awhile but the awkwardness that had threatened to cut the reunion short had dissipated drastically, Adrian was even smiling! A sure sign he’d had too much to drink and had loosened up because of it.
Another factor that affected his mood and had not gone unnoticed by the man was that the distance between he and Diana had grown smaller the more they had talked, drank and laughed together. ”You know if I didn’t know any better with my Auror training, I’d say you planned to get me drunk,” he chucked heartily at his own brilliant joke. Like a living, breathing, cliché Adrian smiled, inched subtly closer and caught Diana’s eyes with his own blue, albeit hazy, ones.
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Post by Diana Addair on Jul 13, 2010 12:37:38 GMT 1
Hah, drunk. Diana giggled.
“Why yes Mr Connery,” she laughed, leaning deviously back in her chair and swilling the glass of God-knew-what she was holding in her hand. “It was all part of my master plan to weddle information out of you about the tricksy Professor Driscoll,” she said dramatically, raising the glass as though in a toast.
Who knew that Adrian could actually be entertaining when he loosened up a little? She leant snugly against Adrian’s arm, the thought that that might not be entirely appropriate not even crossing her mind.
“After all, he took my job. I mean, for instance,” she started, cutting herself off with a long gulp of alcohol before surfacing for air. “I heard he was stealing quills from McGonagall’s office, and,” Err, yeah. “...doing something that would make a hilarious joke if I could think of a way to finish that.” Note to self, alcohol was not conductive to good stand-up comedy.
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Adrian Connery
Adult
Gryffindor Head of House and Auror
Mysterious; another word for boring.
Posts: 110
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Post by Adrian Connery on Jul 13, 2010 17:43:42 GMT 1
Ah her giggle was akin to a swan song –no that wasn’t right, swan songs weren’t a good thing. No, it was more like music. Music that sounded like a woman giggling. Or whatever, what its drunken simile could be was not important. The important thing was that she was laughing in the first place and Adrian enjoyed hearing it. He would tell Abe when he saw the other man next that he could be funny and debonair with women too, that it was aided by more than a few shots of firewhiskey would be conveniently left out of the story. Arithmancy extraordinaire Abraham Grey would be able to tell that copious amounts of alcohol had been consumed anyway from the hangover alone.
And it was all Diana’s fault! She’d admitted she’d wanted to get him drunk to get information. Sly, very sly. It took a few moments for Adrian to catch on that she was in fact playing along with his most recent joke. As his whiskey addled brain processed what was going on, a dawn of realisation crossed his face which made him laugh heartily. ”Well he’s not as talented in the area of divination as you are, I could go as far as to say completely lousy and I swear he made a pass at me once.” The last piece of information made the young man frown a little as he thought on the suggestive comments, as subtle as bright yellow pants, the new divination professor had spoken.
”There, there,” Adrian snuggled closer, ”rest assured that he’s not even half the teacher you were.” The Defence professor petted the woman softly on her thigh and shot down the remnants of the drink he had left, unaware that he’d left his hand on Diana’s leg. Bless her, she tried her hand at a joke but couldn’t quite finish it. ”That’s not all I heard he stole from McGonagall. I heard he’s been stealing many of this with her,” and with that all his inhibitions vanished and Adrian placed one hand on the woman's cheek, leant over and kissed her.
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Post by Diana Addair on Aug 17, 2010 19:33:08 GMT 1
Ooh, compliments. Compliments were lovely. They were a simple thing, and Diana was by no means a stranger to them, but coming from Adrian it made her feel incredibly pleased with herself. Could be the alcohol, could be his influence, she wasn’t sure, but she used the opportunity to settle more comfortably into his shoulder.
At some point Adrian’s hand had eventually found its way onto her thigh. She almost hadn’t noticed. Diana made a bleary sort of shuffle as though to get herself comfortable while staring off aimlessly at the table, her hand slinking down to land on top of his. In response Adrian’s hand came up to rest over her shoulder. It wasn’t a bad feeling. Certainly not. And the weight was not unpleasant. Nor was the warmth. Okay, Adrian was excused.
She congratulated herself for coming to this conclusion with with another mouthful of whatever drink Adrian had bought for her. It wasn’t fire-whiskey - she’d given up with that rather quickly owing to not wanting to get too drunk, so Adrian had been kind enough to fetch her something else. It tasted rather fruity. She approved, and that was all she needed to know. She could always heckle him for the name of it later.
Her ears metaphorically pricked up when Adrian mentioned there was more that Driscoll had been stealing. Huh, funny that, so she’d been right about him yoinking things had she? She looked up interestedly, about to demand what it was was, but the answer she got wasn’t exactly what she’d expected.
To say it came as a surprise was by no means an overstatement. Adrian leant towards her, his other hand coming up to stroke the side of her face. Diana blinked in surprise, but didn’t get long to wonder about what was going on (or what kind of blue his eyes were) before he lowered his head and kissed her.
His breath smelt like alcohol, and his jaw was rough from not having shaved since that morning. Merlin, what was she doing. Her lips took a delay to catch up with her brain before they started moving hesitantly. Her hand clenched and she moved it away onto her other leg.
Okay, she could get used to this.
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Adrian Connery
Adult
Gryffindor Head of House and Auror
Mysterious; another word for boring.
Posts: 110
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Post by Adrian Connery on Dec 8, 2010 5:37:07 GMT 1
Through his drunken haze his heart felt as though it was about to explode. Adrian could feel his lips on Diana’s but nothing moved. The whole pub seemed to freeze as he waited with bated breath to see if she’d kiss back or reject him. This whole thing had been a bad idea. What was he thinking getting drunk and kissing someone? He was acting more like Abe than himself. A mental note was made to stop hanging around the Arithmancy professor so much, his influence was obviously bad for him, but it would probably be forgotten by the morning.
After what seemed like hours a miracle happened and Diana kissed back. Her soft lips moved slowly against Adrian’s and made the man grin into the kiss. He’d thought about kissing Diana for so long and now he actually was. Adrian couldn’t believe his luck and leant into the kiss, clumsily moving a hand to the nape of her neck. He savoured the feel of her hair through his fingers and tried desperately to keep himself upright. So focused on his embrace with Diana, it took a moment for Adrian to realise he’d forgotten to breath and he broke away from her reluctantly, sucking in air.
For a while he just looked at her, grinning stupidly and unsure of what to do next. A big part of him wanted to take her into his arms and kiss her again and another wanted him to be the gentleman and wait for her to move next. ”That was...” Adrian sighed finally, unable to find a word for exactly what the kiss was.
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Post by Diana Addair on Dec 21, 2010 12:41:32 GMT 1
It was Adrian that moved away first, and for some reason that made Diana nervous. She wasn’t that out of practice was she? She surveyed his expression when he pulled away, but he seemed pleased more than fed up.
“Perfect. Amazing. Fantastic. Wonderful?” she finished, offering him ways to compliment her.
Her brain started catching up with her a bit belatedly. Oooh Merlin, that probably shouldn’t have happened in the middle of a crowded pub. There was no way of telling just who could have seen them. Not that she was embarrassed about Adrian or anything... it was just that... it made her look like the one that... Argh. So much for having a sense of prioriety. Kissing in public was okay, but not like that. Adrian had completely caught her off guard.
To preoccupy herself from this fact, she turned back to the table and picked up Adrian's glass of fire-whiskey, taking a larger mouthful than she probably should have. However, she made no move to remove Adrian’s hand from her shoulder.
"Mind if I have some of this?" she asked more than a bit too late.
Dear Merlin, she was so confused.
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