Appearances Are Everything {Open}

[zoisite]

There was a ghastly explosion in potions and for once, Zoi was not behind it. Someone had not been concentrating properly and had added the wrong ingredient to their potion too early and the result was, Zoi laid on a bed in the hospital wing, wearing one of the most disgusting hospital bed robes she had ever seen. With any luck, Casp or Laide would bring her some decent clothes considering she didn't have time to stop by her dorm as she was rushed with urgency to the hospital wing by professor Slughorn and another student. Who it was though Zoi had no idea. She'd been unconscious.

Zoi had been told she had a few burns over her torso but was lucky enough not to sustain any on her face. Zoi thought other wise. Having the burns over her body meant Madam Pomfrey had seen her body and seen how skinny she was, and the confirmation in that had been when Madam Pomfrey had sat down with her to talk about her weight. Something Zoi was very private about and didn't even let her own family know about her weight issues. She would be ashamed of herself if anyone found out she was struggling with something, even one of her much loved siblings. She was a Nott and a pureblood, Nott's did not struggle. Ever. Period.

Eventually Zoi was practically forced into agreeing to come and see Madam Pomfrey twice a week for two moths for weight check ups. After that it would be once a week if Madam Pomfrey was pleased with Zoi's weight gain and then down to once every two weeks and then Zoi would not have to see her after that. Apparently putting on the weight was the easy part, maintaining it was the difficult task, but Zoi really didn't care. She was showing weakness and that was something she could never forgive herself for. She could make herself healthy and did not need the help of an interfering school matron.

Laying back on the bed she was in Zoi looked up to the plain white ceiling. Everything was pretty much white. White and sterile, it was nauseating, so much so that . . . yep. Zoi lent over the side of he bed and vomited. A problem she was experiencing a lot of when she worried, and the main cause of her worry? Her weight. And what happened when she worried about her weight? She threw up, losing more weight, and then what would she do? You got it, she'd worry about her weight and throw up.

Grabbing a towel from her bedside table, Zoi wiped her mouth. She grabbed her glass of water that sat next to where the towel had been, took a mouthful, swirling it around her mouth, and then spat it into one of those strange looking bowls that was next to her bed, placed quite strategically in case she needed to vomit. However, she hadn't seen it before somehow, and well, her vomit was now on the floor. Great. Her hair was probably a mess because Madam Pomfrey had demanded she stopped playing with it while they were talking and now she was too busy rinsing out the sick from her mouth to check her reflection in the only shiny surface she had surrounding her.

[gabriel sutherland]

The hospital wing was one part of the school which every student would eventually visit in their seven year stay here at Hogwarts. It wasn't like the faculty was neglecting their students, it was just the simple fact that adolescents were clumsy and arrogant, two factors which led to one accident after another. Some of the students however, seem to find themselves here in the hospital on a weekly basis, whether it be from a stomach ache caused by eating too many sweets, or from a potion lesson gone wrong, which seemed to be the case with the odd girl occupying one of the beds right now. This of course piqued Gabe's interest, but then again, so did a lot of things and people.

Gabriel was here because of a rather deep yet simple cut across the palm of his left hand. He had been in a scheduled dueling session and after getting the better of his opponent, had been caught off guard by a rather nasty and commonly overlooked severing spell. A spell which had been sloppily cast by his opponent and only cut his hand instead of removing it altogether. This of course had led to the end of the duel with Gabriel declared the loser due to his inability to continue the challenge. So, humiliated and still bleeding, here stood mister Sutherland, his hand wrapped up in a white cloth of some sorts in the professor's misguided attempt to 'help' his student. Pomfrey wasn't anywhere to be seen right now, which was a bit unusual, but nothing overly odd. She was a busy woman after all, and attending to all this accident prone Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs took much of her precious time.

The retching from the girl on the other side of the room made Gabe wince a bit and he suppressed his own gag reflex. The sound of wet bile hitting the cold sterile floor of the room really didn't help the uneasy feeling in his stomach, but he did his best to keep his composure. Out of natural human curiosity though, Gabe did spare a glance to the girl, trying to see if he recognized her and after taking a few steps closer toward her, he did. She was a Nott....one of the pure blood elites and while Gabe did recognize her, he had to admit that he really didn't know her. Those of her standing usually found one particular clique and stayed there, never daring to venture out among those others around them. This trait was something which Gabriel strayed from himself, hence the reason for his approach now.

"Madam Pomfrey really should take a young ladies desire to look her best into account when trying to revive her patients," he said with that boyish smile of his, holding his cut hand with his good one, making a bit of small talk. "Appearance goes a long way into making us into the people were are after all," he added, giving a shrug of his shoulders this time, sitting down on the foot of the bed.

[zoisite]

Zoisite finished rinsing her mouth out with the water. The taste in her mouth was disgusting and she needed a toothbrush with some extremely strong toothpaste. She wanted to get rid of the taste and the smell before it made her even more sick. As if she needed that. Damn her stomach and damn her body. She was nothing but a ghost to people. They barely saw her. She sat in lessons ignored by all, ate at the Slytherin table in the great hall with no one to talk to. Or at least that was how she felt, She had her siblings and knew she always would, but sometimes you needed more than family, but how could anyone even begin to expect her to start opening up when she'd been so strictly taught not to trust anyone but her immediate family, and that friends would let her down?

Zoi heard a voice and jerked her head to her left to see Gabriel walking toward her and then stopping, sitting at the foot of her bed. His words confirmed what her mind suspected. She looked disgusting. Her appearance was well below par and here he stood, telling her so in his own words. Yes, Madam Pomfrey should allow a girl some time to freshen herself up a little, and it seemed, from what it was that Gabriel had said, she did not look like a pureblood, a noble member of the House of Nott. If her mother could see her now she would be horrified and ashamed, Zoi knew she would.

"Are you trying to tell me that I am not attractive enough?" Zoi asked, raising her eyebrow, curious as to what it was that Gabriel had meant by his comment. She knew she did not look well and was far from her best, but no one but her sister or mother had the right to tell her that. It was a most personal matter that was best kept between ladies, and ladies alone. Besides, Zoi thought to herself. This guy didn't even know her properly. They'd never talked, they'd never been 'friendly'.

"I hardly think it's proper of a gentleman to tell a young woman her appearance does not suit who she is, when said young woman is in the hospital wing ill." Zoi did not like the young man before her. He seemed far from gentlemanly and more the egotistical sort that thought of himself above all others and enjoyed others pain and distress. That was probably why he was in the hospital wing in the first place, to see who was suffering. That plus he seemed to have a blooded hand, though of course, it didn't look too bad from where she was sat and as her thoughts trailed to her being sat there under the covers of the bed, she suddenly wished she was wearing more than the hospital wing robes. She looked far too thin in these.

Zoi called for Madam Pomfrey who saw the mess on the floor and shook her head, calling for a house elf who came in and cleaned up the mess Zoi had made on the floor and then took away the towel she'd used and the thing she had used to spit water in to when she was rinsing her mouth. In the meantime while Madam Pomfrey made her way around to look over Gabriel's hand, Zoi opened the draw next to her bed and looked through . . . space. There was no hairbrush or anything. Zoi huffed, folding her arms and collapsing against her pillow. She'd rather hoped her brothers or sister would come down and see how she was and preferably bring a hairbrush, some make-up and decent clothes, and plenty of them. But of course, that seemed far too much to hope for.

[gabriel sutherland]

Zoisite may not have been an outspoken figure like some of the other pure blood family members in Slytherin house and true that some chose to overlook the Nott name unless they needed something from them, she did seem to put Gabriel in his place of sorts. That soft reserved face and small frame apparently hid quite the fighter and monster, a mistake which Gabriel would not make again. Zoi was a Nott and as such, just as proud as any other pure blood with such an established name. Gabriel himself could fully relate, even if his own surname seemed to be lost in the shuffle these days. His father was the last to produce an heir and with Gabriel's uncle being in Azkaban, the Sutherland name was in jeopardy of being lost forever.

Dropping his head with a smile and holding his hand out and away from his body a bit, Gabriel nodded his head, realizing he may have chose the wrong words and tone. Zoi had quickly and sharply reminded him of his etiquette and had Gabe's mother been there, well....then he probably would have been washing blood from his mouth. "I apologize then miss Nott for my rather quick and poorly chosen words. It was not my intention to criticize your appearance while you are in such an obvious less than ideal state," he said, his gaze and smile finding Zoi's rather emaciated looking face once more. Gabriel couldn't help but notice how thin the girl looked, but then again, she had just been vomiting all over the floor. Maybe she was sick...but then again, maybe she wasn't? Girls with eating disorders weren't uncommon by any means, even in the magical world. To Gabriel it was just another sign of weakness, but in defense, stress had a way of weakening everyone.

Madam Pomfrey interrupted the little meeting with Gabe and Zoi, giving Gabriel a rather stern look for upsetting one of her patients. The old nurse quickly and quite forcefully took Gabriel's hand, causing him to wince in pain a bit. Gabriel's soft demeanor quickly changed as his brow furrowed and her clenched him jaw, letting just of bit of his true self show. Pomfrey evidently paid no attention to the look Gabriel was giving her as she harshly removed the makeshift bandage and looked the wound over. Giving a scoff, she chastised mister Sutherland for wasting her time with something so simple before drawing her wand and mending the wound. "As gentle as always Madam," he said as cordial as he could, giving Zoi a side glance. Zoi would no doubt find some joy in the pain that Madam Pomfrey inflicted upon Gabriel, but lucky for Gabe, Zoi was too busy looking through the beside stand for make-up and clothes no doubt.

As Pomfrey gave Gabe another stern look which clearly meant that he didn't have much more time to spend with miss Nott, Gabriel simply smiled back. "My...isn't that woman just a joy to be around," he said sarcastically, clearing his throat as he turned around to face Zoi better this time. "Well....I'm free until next class I suppose," Gabriel said with a shrug of his shoulders, "Tell you what, let me have a chance to make up for my poor choice of words," he said, standing up now, looking around the room for who knew what. "Ah," he said as he finally settled his gaze on the bed across from them, reaching out and jerking the sheets off of it. "Now, it won't be as good as something hand made, but it'll work none the less," he said, laying the bed sheet out across Zoi's bed. Drawing his wand, Gabriel flicked it about muttering something under his breath and transfiguring the once useless bed sheet into a white satin robe, "For after I leave," he added with a smile, "After all, a gentleman wouldn't dare indulge in such pleasantry while a lady is at such a clear disadvantage," he added, tucking his wand away, taking his eyes off of Zoi for just a moment.

[zoisite]

True, Zoi had not been impressed with Gabriel's words to her, but she did appreciate his apology yet did not show it. His smile was contagious, Zoi decided as she looked at him showing his pearly whites, however, she did not smile. She would not. She had to stand her ground. He was in the wrong and he had to right it, and being a pureblood, Zoi expected more than a verbal apology. She expected gifts of some kind. That was the pureblood equivalent of begging for forgiveness. That was how you knew someone was really sorry by how much they were willing to pay for your acceptance. Words meant nothing without a gift to follow through.

Zoi stole glances every now and then, absorbed almost by the look on Gabriel's face. So harsh in comparison to when he had been talking to her and apologising. Zoi busied herself, not catching his glances, but feeling the overwhelming urge to look back at him as he spoke harshly to Madam Pomfrey. He certainly was a pureblood, that was for sure, Zoi thought, and yet her mother had never tried meeting with his parents to arrange some kind of foolish marriage, and Zoi couldn't help but wonder why. What was wrong with his family that hers would completely ignore it. True Gabriel was in her year and house so her mother would not do anything official, but that had not stopped the woman from casually talking to other pureblood mothers of their pureblood son's in her year. Zoi wasn't stupid, she knew her mother had and had not talked to and she knew, her mother had not approached Gabriel's or anyone else in his family.

Zoi did not respond to Gabriel's rhetorical and sarcastic question about Madam Pomfrey being a joy to be around. Of course she wasn't, she was a healer stuck in a children's school, tending to childish injuries and pompous purebloods that thought they were better than everyone else and deserved more attention because quite frankly, they did. They were pureblooded and deserved only the best, they should even have their own hospital wing with a healer that understood them, but try suggesting that to Professor Dumbledore, it just did not work at all.

Zoi tilted her head slightly as Gabriel asked for her to let him have a go at making his poor choice of words, up to her. Though unless he was going to go and buy her a hairbrush and some clothes, she doubted he could make anything up to her. Even as he stood from her bed and glanced around the room, she was very much in doubt of what he would be doing. There wasn't anything around, even as he pulled the sheet off of the bed opposite, there was nothing he would be able to do to please her with that. A simple bed sheet was useless to her and held promises of nothing.

Zoi paid close attention to Gabriel, her eyes following him as he came back to her bed and spread the sheet out. Just what was he intending to make with that sterile cloth that was inflexible and dull to the eyes? This boy must have been delusional, Zoi figured. Perhaps she should call Madam Pomfrey back and have her take a closer look at Gabriel. Something was clearly terribly wrong with his brain, even as he pulled out his wand and transfigured the bed sheet into a beautiful satin robe, Zoi was still unimpressed. She was a pureblood, she would not wear a bed sheet no matter what it had been transfigured into. People had slept in that thing.

"Well when you leave you may take it with you. I do not wear bed sheets. It may be done in your family but not in mine, we have a certain amount of pride and a social standing we must respect. Bed sheets are not the fashion of aristocracy." But what Gabriel had done was . . . kind. Zoi wasn't used to that from anyone but her siblings and parents, but not even any of them would have gone out of their way and made something for her. It was all material possessions that they could buy, they were far too good and proper to strain their wand hands with menial work such as making a dress, not when there were others that would do it.

"But I appreciate the thought. Not many would apologise in a creative way such as that." Zoi closed her mouth, stopping herself from talking further. She shouldn't have just said that to him. She should have just kept her mouth closed and sent him away with the robes. But she found she couldn't. She was bored and in search of company and Gabriel was the best that had come along so far. She wouldn't be sending him away any time soon. Plus he was nice to look at she thought, not many guys were, but she pondered what his eating habits were like, hopefully nothing like Rodolphus Lestrange.

[gabriel sutherland]

Zoi's response was harsh and ungrateful, bordering on just plain rude.....however, Gabriel had been in the presence of other strong willed and very vocal women like this for quite some time now. Pure blood women were nothing like other females, in fact you could compare them to dragons easier. Pure bloods were already quite aggressive in nature, or at least the ones who had sense about were, and then when you threw in the complications and obstacles of being a woman...well...you just had a volatile compound waiting to go off at any second. Charging these dragons of the human world was just plain suicidal and while giving in to them was far worse, you had to find a way to subdue them and tame them. Respect seemed to work the best, on the more aggressive ones at least with the other more material ones being distracted well enough with shiny expensive objects. This was one of the first lessons all pure blood suitors were taught by their fathers, a right of passage of sorts.

So, slipping his hands into his pockets, Gabriel bit his tongue and reevaluated the situation he was in. If he just nodded his head, taking the robe with him as he tucked tail and run, then Zoi would forever have the upper hand on him. This could not be allowed and as far as Gabriel's pride went, it would not happen. His eyes fell to his feet for a moment as he began to take one slow step toward Zoi, however before he could open his mouth in some vain attempt to take his manhood back, Zoi said something very unexpected. She thanked him for what he had attempted to do, and while it was still very clear that she wasn't going to accept his gift, Gabriel could not help but smile again, his eyes drifting upward once again. He kind of shook his head at Zoi, laughing a bit to himself through his smile, "And its not everyday you find someone who appreciates such creativity," he replied, complimenting Zoi for daring to compliment him in such a way. Getting a Slytherin to thank or compliment anyone, much less another of their house was like pulling teeth.

"So.....," Gabriel said, giving a bit of pause in his speech, doing his best to make some safe small talk. He began to rock back on his heels, "What bit of unfortunate luck brings you to the wonderful bedside manner of Madam Pomfrey?," he asked Zoi, glancing over his shoulder to see if the old hag could hear him or not, smiling at her when she looked up. He waved at her, smiling, "Yeah I'm talking about you," he muttered under his breath, his clear disdain for Madam Pomfrey evident once again. "Magical or just your average virus?," he asked Zoi, looking back to her again.

[zoisite]

Zoi lowered her head and looked at her hands that sat in her lap. They were always cold, the bones could almost be seen through her pale flesh and the veins were so prominently blue they just screamed attention in her opinion. But how many people looked at hands? She only looked at hers because she wasn't sure how Gabriel would react to what it was she had said. She had been out of place appreciating the thought, or at least admitting it out loud. Her mother would be rolling her eyes and ready to backhand her for being so dumb and naive, but it wasn't as if Zoi could help it. Gabriel was being nice to her and she didn't want to put on an icy demeanour, or at least not all the time.

Hearing Gabriel's quiet chuckle, she looked up to glance at his lips before his eyes. The laughter was genuine. He was smiling and she found the way she was holding herself, her posture so rigid, relaxed a little into the pillow behind her. She wanted to smile, but didn't. It was hard not to, but she couldn't break the pureblood rules she'd grown up and lived by now, could she? It just wasn't the done thing and she was breaking too many of them enough as it was, so she just stayed sat where she was, holding Gabriel's gaze until he started rocking on his feet, elongating a 'so' before enquiring what was wrong.

Zoi wondered what she could tell him. The potion incident was a given, but that wasn't really why she was still there. Well it was but it wasn't, the burns were sore and the matron needed to keep an eye on them, but there was something else too, wasn't there? There always was when Zoi was involved at the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey wanted to keep an eye on her and her weight, observe how much she ate, if she ever ate at all which Madam Pomfrey seemed to think she never did. And speak of the devil, Zoi smiled and laughed a little as Gabriel muttered quietly to a disgruntled Pomfrey who probably couldn't hear. She really got very little respect. Zoi wondered what she was still doing here. Surely she had better things to be doing rather than listening in on their conversation, though the matron did not look too happy to see Gabriel still hanging around. Perhaps they had a history, who knew?

"Potion explosion. Wrong place, wrong time." Well that was true, but she wasn't going to explain nor show the burns on her torso or explain about her weight issues. Zoi wished to God she could put on weight, be a healthy size for her height but it just never seemed to happen no matter how much she ate, nor what it was she ate. She could eat a block of animal fat and lose weight. She had no idea how she was still alive but she must have been getting the nutrients her body needed somehow, it had to be some kind of disease.

"How did you manage to injure your hand? Pomfrey seemed to think it wasn't much. Parchment cut?" She enquired. It wouldn't be unlike a pureblood to attend the Hospital Wing with a parchment cut. She had to admit she had been for it once. They were particularly painful and Zoi did not handle pain well, nor did she like any part of her body to be imperfect. She had enough imperfection to last her a life time, why would she want any more? So she had come in while Pomfrey was in the middle of an emergency where a lot of spilt blood was involved, and waited before being seen to. Pomfrey had not been impressed, that was for sure, but it wasn't as if Zoi had demanded attention, she had just let Madam Pomfrey know she was here. It wasn't her fault if her voice had sounded urgent.

[gabriel sutherland]

Zoi's answer was short and to the point, an answer which didn't shock Gabriel, but one he wasn't really expecting either. He felt that Zoi might go into a bit of detail but for pure bloods, admitting an accident as embarrassing as this just wasn't about to happen. More often than not, it was pride which suffered more than the physical body and Gabriel felt that Zoi's pride was suffering more and more with each passing second he stood here. It wasn't everyday you were just thrown into a bed like this, denied all the finer things which you were accustomed to to making yourself presentable and then having one of your piers stand here, pressing you for details about something you wished had never happened. Gabe himself wouldn't have enjoyed being in Zoi's place, especially if Malfoy were the one standing over him, questioning him about this and that. But then again, Malfoy wouldn't made any effort to soften the sting of things either as Gabe had tried with Zoi. That was one of the few things which separated Gabriel from those like Malfoy.

"Mmhmm," he said, his smile fading as he glance down at his feet, trying not to make Zoi feel anymore embarrassed than she already was, "I once burned my eyebrows off in potions class," he added rather randomly, giving a light chuckle as he looked at Zoi once again through upturned eyes. Whether that statement was true or not really didn't matter, it was the reason for making it which was important. Gabriel was trying to lighten the mood, to cut through the rigid tension emanating from Zoi. Her upbringing must have been harsh, as was most pure blood upbringings, but hopefully with enough Sutherland charm, Gabriel could break through that.

Her next move, asking Gabriel a question in some sort of attempt to bring the spotlight off her and onto Gabe was fair enough. He would amuse her for a bit, after all, he didn't have anywhere else to be at the moment. He slipped his hand from his pocket and looked at his now fully healed palm. The skin was smooth and scar free, even going as far to look a tad bit better than it had before. Madam Pomfrey was indeed a skilled healer, that much Gabe would give her. Healing wasn't Gabriel's thing, he didn't have time to devote to such self righteous subjects. Crafting was where his free time went and that is what he enjoyed, as the end result of that subject could be used in a variety of ways. "I was dueling and became careless," he said with a defeated look of sorts, his blue eyes studying his hand, "Could have been worse I suppose," he went on, his hand slipping back into his pocket and his eyes finding Zoi once again, "My opponent could have been a better aim," he finished with a laugh.

[zoisite]

Zoi smiled as Gabriel said he had once burnt his eye brows off in potions. She'd never done that, but a few people had, it wasn't uncommon. Potions was a dangerous subject, one of the most dangerous, as well as tedious subjects the school had to offer. After all, if you did not follow the instructions perfectly, your potion would be ruined, however, you had to sit and watch it boiling for absolutely ages and count how many stirs this way and how many stirs that way. It was boring and probably something the majority of them would forget about once they had left school. Who needed to learn this stuff unless you needed it for a carer? You could always go out and buy what it was you needed.

As Gabriel looked at his hand, she watched his face. He wasn't the most handsome guy she had ever seen she had to admit, but he was the most natural. Everything about him screamed that this was him whether you liked it or not. Purebloods usually always put on some kind of pompous act, she did frequently. Technically she shouldn't even be talking to Gabriel like this, she wasn't well groomed enough to have any man lay eyes upon her at the moment, not even her brother technically, but still, Zoi pushed aside tradition and the pureblood rules and talked to Gabriel, she found him engaging and found herself thinking dangerously and outside of the pureblood ideals.

Zoi wasn't sure if she should believe Gabriel's story of a duel or not. Usually she didn't care what it was that happened to people, but Gabriel was a little bit different. In fact he was a lot different, he had her breaking the rules she had grown up being forced to know, to obey. Though he probably wouldn't realise that. he wasn't a female - clearly, and so he would have been taught his own things, just like she was never taught what a pureblood male was taught, it was the way things went in their world, yet it seemed Gabriel didn't pay much attention to these rules, and as Zoi thought about it, neither did many others in her house, not even her siblings. She was the one that paid it the most attention, followed the rules without fail and what did she have to show for it? No social life outside of her siblings, no one at all to talk to and in a hospital bed with some kind of eating disorder or disease, her body refusing to gain weight. Of course the burns had a little something to do with the hospitalisation.

"My, my, sounds like quite the scene." She said, quirking her brows and tilting her head to the left ever so slightly. "I don't see your opponent in here so would I be correct in assuming he - or she, got the better of you with your little cut?" She enquired, knowing it was wrong of her to bruise a man's ego with such an assumption - and any normal pureblooded male's ego would be a little damaged at such an assumption that there was someone out there better than them, but for starter, Gabriel wasn't a typical pureblood from what she had seen, and not to mention she was already throwing away most of the traditions she had ever been taught, a couple more wouldn't hurt now, would it? Then again, Zoi had always been fearful of consequences, though not at the moment it would seem.

[gabriel sutherland]

Zoi's cold defenses seemed to be thawing out a bit and as Gabriel looked close enough, he could make out the hint of joy in her eyes and in the tone of her voice. Now mind you it wasn't joy like others would express, such as laughing or dancing or joking around, no, it was more of the joy which one might see among the more elite pure bloods. The harshness of her words and the icy tone which usually went with them were gone and while her demeanor was generally the same, it too had been changed minutely. An inner war between Zoi's upbringing and her own sense of self was being waged, but this was something which anyone could tell, but only if they actually paid attention to what was going on. It was only common for an adolescent to feel like this, after all, everyone was their own person and while they did tend to carry on with some of the traits passed down to them by their parents, whether that be genetic or those taught, people always had a need to be different and to be something that hadn't been seen yet. It was this small fact which Gabriel always kept a mental note of and something which drove him to look for the drive of all those he happened to come across. It was how he read people, how he understood them and thusly how come he interacted so well.

Gabriel himself wasn't exactly following the upbringing that most pure blood males went through, after all, he was far too accepting of all witches and wizards, but not for the reason that most self righteous people might think. Gabriel was more open to other blood lines because he knew everyone had something to contribute to the cause. This of course, did not mean he liked or loved those he associated with, it just meant he wasn't stupid or blind. Now, don't get Gabriel wrong, it wasn't that he didn't like Zoi, but to be honest, he hardly knew her. Trust wasn't given freely, especially from Gabriel and if you really wanted to know him, you had to have experienced something bond worthy with him. Only two girls here at the school were worthy enough to be privy to Gabriel's more private side and then only one of them knew the real him. Zoi could prove to be another trustworthy confidant, but before that could happen, more time would have to be spent together and unfortunately, time here at Hogwarts was closing fast.

Gabriel reeled back, a comic defeated look on his face, his hand over his chest, his knees slightly bent. "Oh," he said in mock hurt as Zoi delivered that ego bruiser, "Cheap shot," he said, leaning forward again, his hand still over his chest and a smile on his face now. The comment did sting and in typical male fashion, Gabriel felt a pang of anger rise up, but like the gentleman he was trained to be and the intellectual he was, he bit back on his pride and tried to turn things back into his favor. This little ability wasn't easy to come by, but dealing with Natalie Bane for all these years had been perfect training. "But yes, I'm afraid the professor deemed my injury grounds enough for a dismissal of the match," he said, dropping his hand to his side this time, giving a bit of a sigh. Zoi's little comment showed she was at least feeling some better, a sign of her determination. Gabriel looked her over, slipping his hands into his robe pockets once again, "I'm sure you won't be here much longer, not with that fire in you," he said, walking over to Zoi, "We'll be meeting again," he added, his smile a bit different now, more sinister looking, "I promise," he threw in there, taking a slow step back, starting to turn around to leave.