entrancelogs | You might belong in Gryffindor

You might belong in Gryffindor

Who: Gryffindors! (+ Friends/Visitors/People sneaking in)
Where: Gryffindor Tower: Common Rooms + Dorms. Gryffindor Table in the Great Hall.
When: During the event
Rating: Label as you go
Summary: Gryffindor Mingle Log
The Story:

Common Room
The common room is a circular room where Gryffindor students can relax after a long day of studying. It is full of squashy armchairs, tables, and a bulletin board where school notices, ads, lost posters, etc. can be posted. The common room is decorated in several shades of red, which is associated with the house.

There are many windows that look out onto the grounds of the school, and a large fireplace dominates one wall. The mantle of the fireplace is adorned with a portrait of a lion. The walls are decorated with scarlet tapestries that depict witches and wizards, but also various animals. There are also bookcases located in the room.

Dorms
The Gryffindor dormitories are also located in the Tower, with two doors leading off from the common room that open to spiral staircases. One of them leads to the girls' dormitory, the other to the boys'. The stairs to the girls' dormitory are enchanted to become a slide if any boy attempts to climb them, but not vice versa, since it was deemed that girls were more trustworthy than boys... (Look don't blame me it's canon)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ barry used to be a deep sleeper until he enrolled in hogwarts. then the shadows began to haunt him, and he developed a fiercer fear of the dark than he ever had before. eleven years old, and taking on the world, yet he couldn't learn a spell to curse the dark away. it's a fear that's stuck with him throughout the years, and though a howler is often meant to scold a child silly, mom had figured out a way to turn the howler inside out and let her voice be there with him when she couldn't. ]

[ he much prefers iris' bed to his own. not only is it in the girls portion of the tower, but he finds her room to be a bit brighter than his. there's something about his own that feels slightly haunted; there's flashes of red he often blames his owl for that illuminate the darkness, and though his magic often gives off a unique golden glow to scare it off, he's never liked it. ]

[ remaining spread out along her bed, barry waits until she's settled before he pretends he's still half-asleep and rolls over to throw his arm over her. his voice is muffled, ] Yeah, but you won't. [ and he remains as a heavy slump, face half buried into her pillow. ] You can't if you're unable to move.

[ a small squeal escapes her lips, iris making a show of attempting to extricate herself from his arms, though she is doing no such thing. she wouldn't be able to even if she wanted. she is smol, all five feet and four inches of her, and barry may be lanky, but he weighs. his weight alone would keep her pinned down. ]

Some would call this imprisonment.

[ her fingers rake into his hair, smoothing it back with gentleness.

he seems tired lately. ... more tired than usual. ]

Some would call it not … [ his voice dips as he discovers his quick response is not witty at all. ] imprisonment.

[ barry laughs, and shifts his arm so if she wants to roll away, she can. he'll remain on her bed for the foreseeable future — perhaps for the next four decades if he can. it's comfortable, but it'd be even more so if she stayed with him for a little while. ]

Say you won't take away any points. The First Years were so happy when they were given points this morning. [ despite being the reason why points are subtracted from his house, barry is a good influence from time to time. when he's not making suits of armour dance to beyonce, or trying to trick ghosts into chasing him, he tells the first years what to do to earn points, which professors to suck up to, and which ones to never try with at all. ]

[ he's a good influence — or he was at the beginning of the year. ever since he proposed he take a time turner to speed up his progress in school so he can graduate just a little earlier to make the cut for a muggle university, he's forgotten to make time to prep the first years. there's no more huddles in the gryffindor tower's corners where barry allen prepares his allen's 11 heists anymore. ]

Do you want to break their hearts, Iris? Do you want to see them cry?

[ so smooth, barry allen.

iris rolls away once he's granted her freedom, but only to sprawl accordingly on his chest. her eyebrows arch upward elbows propped lightly on his chest as well, so she can prop her chin on her hands in turn. her ankles cross high in the air, and she could not look more comfortable if she tried.

so much for kowtowing the rules. barry in her room is a big no-no, and yet.

teasingly: ]

That's sneaky, Barry, even for you. Are you sure you're not meant to be in Slytherin?

[ this is why barry never bothers to make his bed — he's never around to lie right back into it. this is why he likes stowing himself away in iris' room; he can sleep easier knowing she's there to lumos the shadows away when he finds he can't so much as find his wand. ]

Depends. [ he brushes his fingers against his hair, then figures he'll leave it as the messy nest it is. his hands brush against her waist. ] Would you be able to keep your hands off me if I was wearing green?

Mmm.

[ iris tips her head to the side, pretending to consider the question in earnest. he would look good in green... ] Probably not. If you were in Slytherin, our romance would be all but forbidden. [ and that's hot ok. gryffindors and slytherins are legendary adversaries. inter-house romances between the two are rare, but if anyone could prove to be the exception to such a rule, it'd be iris west and barry allen. ]

Secrets are hot, Iris.

[ he shifts beneath her, but doesn't pull himself to sit properly against her headboard. he remains as he is, taking up a good portion of her bed. ]

[ secrets can be attractive, but he knows they can be stressful, too. knowing he liked iris while he was with becky, and that he'd been leaning over a very fine line when he wasn't with iris when he was with iris had been fun yet maddeningly hurtful — secrets can be fun if everyone's in on it. ]

I could climb through your window, and whenever your friends come into your room you could hide me somewhere. Everyone loves it when someone's standing outside their window with a boombox.

Clandestine meetings are hot, Barry.

[ then again, barry doesn't have to be a slytherin for that. she happens to think this constitutes a clandestine meeting. he's definitely not supposed to be here, which definitely adds to the forbidden aspect, and they are prefects. they should lead by example, probably. but he's such a good pillow...

she places a soft kiss on the underside of his jaw. ]

Depends on the song.

[ ambience is important. ] What song would be playing on the boombox?

[ and the kiss is a win for bartholomew henry allen. one thousand points to gryffindor. ]

[ he hums, purposefully loud, as he mulls over the song. there's so many options — he could beat a dead horse even more and insist it's "poker face", but barry thinks to try and embarrass her. though he knows her being associated with him in any way, shape or form may be embarrassment enough when he's spelling knives and forks to dance to "single ladies", it's a different kind of embarrassment. ]

[ he sings, rather quietly and in slight embarrasment, ] Hold up, they don't love you like I love you. Slow down, they don't love you like I love you. Back up, they don't love you like I love you. Slow down, your elbows are really pointy.

[ the side of her face is pressed to his cheek, and she starts to laugh quietly into his skin the moment she recognizes the song. a rumble of laughter blooms in her chest, and he'll feel it against his own. she pulls back, looking at him with a critical eye.

be very careful with how you answer this next declaration, bartholomew henry allen. ]

I'm starting to think you love Beyonce and her elbows more than me.

Edited 2016-10-02 06:05 (UTC)

She does know how to move her elbows …

[ he says it with a completely straight face that lasts for only a second, and then it completely breaks as he laughs. he lifts his arm to wipe at his eye, fingers trailing over his brow before they drop against the bed. ] I love someone else. Beyonce's cool and all, and she's totally my number two, but … [ he shrugs his shoulders. ] She's not the one for me.

[ one of those pointy elbows will be digging into his chest threateningly...

until he says the magic words, and iris melts a little, winding her arms around his middle instead. it earns him another quick kiss, this time closer to his jaw line. ] That was the right answer. [ much as iris loves bey, she would not want to fight her for her man. ]

[ barry doesn't stop smiling. ]

[ his hand presses against her back, moving up and down slowly. he looks at her, then up at the ceiling, and knows he can become incredibly comfortable in this dormitory. it doesn't matter his friends may open his door and expect to see him falling half off his bed in sleep again. barry allen's been impossible to locate these days, and iris west hasn't been the reason why. ]

[ but he wants her to be. ]

[ he's quiet for a long moment, and thinks about not saying anything at all. but when he realises he's about to run away, he forces himself to crash right through his filter. ] I need to tell you something. It's important.

[ his fingers feel so nice at her back.

they would lull her to sleep if she didn't know any better. but she does. silence and barry are not two things that mix together often. if he's this quiet, it means he's thinking about something, and it's an important kind of something. instead of pushing, iris waits for him to bring it up himself.

iris regards him wordlessly at first, taking in the expression on his face. ]

Is everything okay?

I'm fine!

[ it's almost a little too cheerful and forced, but barry's had to say those words so many times over the past few months he's tried to change the delivery of it to make it more fun for him. he taps his fingers against her back for the wordless all ten fingers and all ten toes reply he often makes whenever a housemate ends up injured. ]

You know I want to go to a Muggle university, right? Like how my mom did after she graduated.

[ except his mother hadn't used a time turner to speed things up due to impatience. she'd waited a year, travelled, explored different types of magic the world had to offer, and then applied for school in the muggle world once everything aligned. but not barry; he wants to make the cut as soon as possible, and that means graduating a little earlier than his peers. ]

[ speed demon barry allen. he would've made a great gryffindor seeker. ]

[ a little too cheerful and forced indeed.

iris knows all about barry's plans to go to a muggle university, and she's been a hundred percent supportive and then some. part of nurturing a healthy relationship is encouraging your significant other to have dreams and aspirations that go beyond your relationship. barry and iris work together and individually for this reason and many others.

doesn't mean her barry senses aren't tingling. ]

Uh-huh.

[ she eyes him carefully, her answer meant to convey he should go on. ]

[ barry thought this would be easy, but he's since discovered it's very hard. can he turn back time and pretend that he hadn't tried to broach this? fear often drives barry allen to run, and it'd been why he'd gripped his hogwarts letter with all his might when he'd been accepted elsewhere for school. ]

[ but barry allen isn't a coward, and so he continues onward. (a part of him is a bit of a coward, and so he keeps his fingers walking up iris' spine, if not to distract her but also himself.) ]

The school term starts while we're still here. If I get in. [ he tacks that on; barry may be brave, but he's not overly confident in himself. ] Which means I'd have to graduate a bit earlier than everyone else next year.

[ it's a thought barry doesn't like to dwell on; he wants to graduate with iris, has made plans to graduate with iris, but in order for him to be able to start his life, he needs to sacrifice that small slip of happiness in order to march forward to something greater. he still has his hesitations, but he doesn't doubt it won't break them if he's not there to try and coax everyone into one final "single ladies" dance. ]

You know about time turners, right?

[ iris straightens into a seated position right away, despite the fact his fingers feel very nice.

of course, she was sprawled on barry's chest, so it's his stomach that she is sitting on now, looking down at him with an intently worried frown on her face. he is the one imprisoned by her legs this time around, and she isn't going to let him go anytime soon. ]

Barry!

[ it's not a hint of reproach in her voice, necessarily. first things first: ] Of course you'll get in.

[ but also, a light smack on his chest. ] That's why you've been exhausted, you're running yourself ragged.

[ his hand falls to his chest. ] Ow. [ and with a laugh, he tries to pretend like she's punched him with super strength. ]

[ but iris has never been able to, and he doubts she's ever had any intention to punch a hole in his chest for whatever reason. he's given her one in not telling her of his plans to grab a time turner and take as many of his classes as he can so he can prepare for a life beyond hogwarts, but he thinks she may understand why. (barry barely understands why he hasn't let her in on that little secret.) ]

[ looking up at her, he doesn't move. ]

I've been running a lot … [ the joke falls flat when he inhales deeply and the smile slips a little from his face. ] I'm sorry I didn't tell you when I first got it. I wanted it to work out so bad and I didn't want you to think … I couldn't do it if it didn't work out.

[ a quiet sigh unfurls in her throat.

iris rarely gets angry at barry. truly and legitimately temper-flaring-angry. iris usually understands where he is coming from, and as long as there's understanding, there isn't much she won't meet him in the middle for. but his well-being is her priority, because so often it won't be his. ]

Baby, you know I believe you can do anything you set your mind to. [ iris west is his number one supporter. ] But if you don't pace yourself, you won't survive this school year long enough to go to a muggle university at all.

[ she pins him with her gaze this time around. ]

Promise me you'll take better care of yourself, and tell someone if this starts getting out of hand.

[ barry sighs, feeling slightly caught. there's a reason why he hardly lets anyone know anything going on with him — they take it upon themselves to worry, and he's never done well with that. when mom ended up in the hospital his first year of being at hogwarts, he knows keeping it to himself had been his initial plan. remain strong that way, don't acknowledge it, maybe he'll wake up and mom would be okay. but his kingdom had crumbled as the foundation it'd been built on had been flimsy at best. ]

[ he looks up at her, and knows why he told her. barry allen tells iris west everything in his own time, even when she's smart enough to figure it out long before he thinks to confess to her. ]

[ lifting his arm, he curls his fingers into his palm, leaving his pinky jutted out. ]

Promise.

[ iris flashes him a small grin, wrapping her pinky around his. ]

And don't pout. You won't be losing any points from the House of West.

[ he told her eventually, and that means a lot to her. you can't rush barry, fast though he may be with his legs. he needs to come around at his own pace and in his own time. iris is thankfully patient enough to let him do that. ]

[ barry doesn't let go of her pinky, using it to pull her hand rest against his chest and hoping the rest of her will follow. ]

I was hoping I'd earn a few points from the House of West. [ his smile's boyish and almost embarrassed, but that's how barry always is around iris. a little shy, almost like he's finally taking her out on that first date all over again and believing it'd be the best planned thing ever. he's since learned when things don't go to plan, they make for memorable moments. ] I think I'm close to winning the House Cup.

[ iris plops back down on the bed unceremoniously, tugging him with her so they're both resting on their sides, their limbs tangled together. a leg is wrapped snugly over his own. she loves those boyish smiles. she'd be sad to ever see them go away.

an eyebrow arch. ]

That's a highly confident, ambitious statement to make. Is there evidence to back it up, Mr. Allen?

Yeah.

[ he easily lies on his side, long legs not quite under his own control as they get lost in hers. reaching for her hand, he keeps it between both of his own to fiddle with instead of the linens. his smile remains big and bright, and then he scrunches up his face as if he's mulling it over. ] But I can't tell you. I took a vow.

[ given the fact he probably shouldn't have told iris about his time turner, it's safe to say barry allen doesn't take vows very seriously. perhaps that's why no one would ever insist he commit to an unbreakable vow. his mouth runs quicker than his feet sometimes. ]

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