Chapter 48 ~ Intimacy.

Theon was on his way to meet Maxine again; grimacing in distaste as he dreaded the session and wound his way round the library shelves. But getting into character made it a little easier to stand the girl and he results were admittedly satisfying. Plus it brought him closer to that money. He licked his lips slightly at the thought of it, smiling to himself as he walked. But his dreams were interrupted as he heard the calling of his name by a familiar voice. Sure enough, turning to his left, he saw Ava and Avery sitting at the library desks and belonging him. With a sigh, Theon looked around before approaching. Ava eyed him carefully as he sat down beside them and began to talk as soon had he was seated. 

"Right, I'll make this quick." She said briskly. "This is the last time you're going to see Lestrange before Christmas and you've got to leave something to prey on her mind. Can you do that for me?"

Theon creased his brow, looking confusedly at Ava. "What do you mean 'leave something to prey on her mind'?"

"She means what she's about to explain you idiot. We knew you wouldn't get it." Avery sneered, receiving a glare from Theon.

"What I mean, Theon." Ava explainined a weary voice that irritated him further. "Is that you get more intimate with her. Now that she trusts you, we have to begin the next stage."

Theon grimaced in disgust. "What - you mean..." He looked at Ava with slight alarm. "Oh god, I won't have to kiss her, will I?"

"Not yet." The golden girl snapped back. "But don't make such a fuss, Theon."

Avery snorted. "I would." He commented, surpinsgly supporting his friend. "She's disgusting."

"You think I haven't noticed?" Ava answered snappily. "Of course she's disgusting. But that doesn't change anything." She looked at Theon. "You don't have to kiss her yet, only be sure to make some gesture of affection to her before the meeting ends."

Theon looked at loss. "Like what?"

Ava rolled her eyes. "I don't know - touch her hand or something. Just make it really soppy."

Theon wrinkled his nose. "Seriously?"

"You heard Ava, Theon. Just do what she tells you." Avery snapped, also getting tired of Theon's objections. "Now go."

Ava followed on her brother's goodbye to Theon, calling as the boy stood up and turned to go; "And remember - make it intimate!"

And Theon, knowing she was right, resolved to do exactly that.

*   *   *   *

Maxine was not thinking straight as she headed for the dungeons. This time Stefan wasn't in the dark about the meeting, and before she had left he had obviously objected. Repeating Nick's words, Adalind's. But Maxine had simply looked at him with eyes that had warned him to be silent and gone ahead with it. She wasn't going to start blurting it out in front of Stefan and starting another fight with her friend, but she trusted Theon. After the incident that night and the previous sessions, Maxine almost fully completely trusted the boy, almost as much she did Fauna or Rose. Plus she was never going to give up the few hours a week in which she felt sane and stable.

The matter of her and Stefan's bloodlines had also been preying on their minds. The fact that she had a sister still sent a shockwave through her everytime she though of it and he was still affected by the matter if his father having been a member of the Verat; a servant for the people who were trying to kill him. And then, off cours,e there was the matter of their Wesen blood. The fact that they were hybrids of all three races and were technically not meant to exist. That took up a lot of their thought and formed the centre of their private conversations in the past two days.

But, Theon aside, the troubles had brought Maxine and Stefan closer together once more. The link to the Grimm world they shared having been refreshed and the troubles on both of them now, they had turned to each other again and spent more time discussing it. And that's why Maxine smiled at the thought of Stefan at that point; his protectiveness and intelligence, his constant comfort. His excitement when he mentioned Christmas that always seemed to affect her as well. The thought of Christmas with Stefan also widened her smile and, uncanny as it was, she entered the room of requirement with a happiness that made Theon smile, despite Stefan being the provider of this joy.

"Heya." He came forward, jumping off the desk. As usual, he was there before her. "Have a good day?"

She grinned at him. "More or less." Maxine raised an eyebrow as she changed the subject. "Ready for some hardcore duelling?"

He grinned in return. They were concentrating on his duelling that session as the last meeting had been spent entirely on brewing a tricky potion to assist Maxine. "Yup." His eagerness fooled Maxine to the core. "I've been practicing."

"Good." Maxine answered, placing her bag on a desk and making her way to the duelling corner they used, removing her wand from her pocket as she turned to face Theon. "And this time, you'll be duelling against me."

He raised his eyebrows, surprised. "But you're to good...plus you don't want to be on the receiving end of those jinxes."

She grinned. "Thanks for the compliment, but I think you'll find you've improved dramatically and if I'm purposefully not so quick you'll be able to succeed in defeating me. Plus it's better than using the dummy - if you want to learn to duel properly then you'll have to start practicing with me."

"Ok." He laughed. "Though I warn you - I'm not altogether in control of these spells."

She put her and up in a silencing motion. "Don't start dissing yourself before you even start. You need every ounce of confidence you can get." She reached down and grabbed a couple of cushions, throwing them to Theon. "Put those behind you - we want to avoid any hard falls." 

Theon grind, catching them with ease and chucking them onto the floor around him. Once he had done so, Maxine nodded to him, in her confident, orderly mindset of duelling once more. "Ok. Let's go." She began to walk to towards him, Theon follow suit, then bowed when the reached each other. Turning again, she walked the other way as Theon also did so. Then came the turn - both spinning on the spot, wands held aloft.

Maxine's voice rang throughout the still room as she announced the opening, smiling to herself as she did so. She and Stefan had made a point of steering away from the duelling club, but boy was it nice to do it again. Even if she s duelling against her student and had to take it easy.

"Go!"

She let Theon go first, the boy reacting surprisingly quickly and sending a perfect disarming charm her way. Maxine ducked swiftly, however, and shouted to him in the pause.

"Remember - be physical as well!"

He nodded swiftly, obviously concentrating hard, quickly sending another spell her way. This time it was a at bogey hex, which she quickly halted with a shielding charm and sent back at him.

"Protego!"

As if remembering her words of advice, Theon froze as the spell came towards him, then ducked just in time. She grinned with pride but because of the brief lapse didn't manage to shield a jinx in time - one that Theon appeared to have already known when she'd mentioned it and had got the hang of it surprisingly quickly. 

"Densaugeo!"

Maxine felt her teeth growing rapidly but stayed calm, knowing she simply had to get a chance to cast the counter jinx. Trying to ignore the fact that her front teeth were now down further than her chin, Maxine hastily cast a jinx at Theon, who had been looking at her with slight concern and a little alarmingly after he'd hit her with the jinx. He did' see it coming and it soon hit him, and though only causing him to momentarily grow a tail, it gave Maxine enough time to mutter the country jinx as best she could and turn her teeth back to normal. But Theon was very fast - either she was a very good teacher or he was a very fast learner - and again was attacking her.

"Perfunctorus!" The jinx came Maxine's way but she avoided it by quickly dodging to the side. Theon tried again and Maxine noted the look of determination on his face. "Flipendo Duo!"

Once again, Maxine dodged it, now advancing and thinking out tactics to test her pupil. With a hurried flick of her wand, she pointed it at the floor beside him and cried: "Reducto!", making sure her mind power was relatively low so it only made a small explosion. It was enough, though, to make the boy involuntarily jump and distract him. Advancing,s he decided to make it a little harder and get to the point, testing what he would make of the transition from formal to informal duel. 

"Locomotor!" She pointed at the books on the nearby shelf and sent them at the boy, but his reactions were to quick. eyes alight with realisation and determination. He fired another jinx at her - what it was she couldn't tell - but missed, Maxi e continuing to advance. However, he seemed to get the gist of the formal to informal change and was suddenly very close, taking Maxine by surprise as she blinked and he jumped.

"Protego!" She cried - but it was too rushed and with a quick slash, Theon had disarmed her. She was incredibly surprised, falling back as her wand flew from her hand and luckily landing on the cushions. His reactions were fabulous and Maxine felt a foolish pride in them - for a second. Th next moment, landing hard on the cushions, a whole new sensation entered her body.

"Oh god...no...gahhh!" She began to roll on the floor, involuntarily laughing as the tickling charm set in, Theon's previous cry of 'Rictesempra' echoing in her ears. "Please stop it - hic - please - hic - oh god....ahhh."

Theon was laughing as well, as she rolled on the floor, humour in his eyes. "Sorry - I couldn't resist."

"Wait - till - I - get - my - hands - on - you." Maxine said with mock aggression, between the hiccups that accompanied her giggles. Theon laughed again, then creased his brow.

"Hang on....what's the counter jinx for it again?"

"THEON!" Maxine shouted, still wriggling helplessly from the tickling sensation of the jinx. 

His face broke into a grin. "Sorry, only kidding." He held his wand out as she laughed genuinely. "Tranquillum Vivarum."

Maxine stopped wriggling and gave a sigh of relief, panting as Theon chuckled slightly. Then the boy was taken by surprise himself as Maxine, in one swift movement, sprang up and dragged him down as well, turning him over to point her wand in his face.

"Nasus Vespernidum!"

Theon continued to laugh at her gleeful and amusing grin even when the bats began to pour from his nose, the act making Maxine laugh along with him before terminating the spell and flopping back down to lie on the cushions beside him. 

"I'm sorry." She continued to chuckle. "I just had to do that."

Theon laughed in answer. "You weren't as bad as me. I shouldn't have cast the tickling charm."

"No it was good - well - it was a good display of your new skills." Maxine answered with enthusiasm, laughing at herself imbetween. "You've improved so much - that is to say - you're skills have been...." She tired to avoid criticising his old spell casting abilities and failed, Theon grinning at her.

"Maxie, I know I was awful before; that's why I came to you." He sat up and looked at her as she did the same, the two level. "You're so talented...I could;t have done this without you."

Maxine looked down with modesty. It was so nice to receive such a heartfelt compliment - or at least, what she thought was a heartfelt compliment. Theon's voice was very convincing. 

"Thanks." She blushed, the titled her head up again. "But I'm no expert. You just needed a little nudge and few corrections. Strangely enough, you're a natural."

He shook his head, laughing. "You're very funny when you try and make excuses for someone." His eyes met hers, warm, dark and melting. "But seriously, thank you."

There was a pause as they stared at each other, Maxine almost frozen in the moment and both smiling affectionately at each other. Theon reached up a hand and brushed back the hair from her face, Maxine stiffening up as he did so but Theon just smiling. The moment seemed paused for what seemed like forever, the two of them sitting there, unsure of what was going to happen next.

The thankful interruption for Theon came as the clock in the room started to chime, announcing six o'clock. He took his hand down and stood up, snapping out of it at once and Maxine doing the same. They moved in silence to get their bags, but stopped at the door, Maxine once again looking up at him.

"Have a nice Christmas, Theon."

His smile was the same warm one that seemed to light up his eyes. "You too, Maxie."

Entering the corridor, they went their separate ways; Theon to the Slytherin common room and Maxine to the Great Hall were she would find Stefan. Maxine's face awash with thought as she went over what had just happened with a bizarre set of feelings flooding it. Theon smirking as he congratulated himself on the success. He had definitely given Lestrange something to think about. Something to plague her over Christmas.

Definitely.