Touchest Shell To Crack (Raine/open)

[Logan Greyson Smith]

For the love of Logan (his phrase, he tended to like to make himself seem very important, anyways, because... frankly, in his mind, he was the most important person in the universe)!  This guy ran.  Why did they always run?  They didn't pay him to run.  But alright.  He would do it.  The image of the whole alley flashed in his mind, and he quickly dashed to the side, up the stairs of the shop ("Hey!  Employees only!" the shopkeeper yelled), and looked down at the backstreets, spying his target.  Logan dashed across the rooftops, before he jumped down, hitting the ground, placing some blessed cuffs (a present from a client, which would not let the prisoner escape without the key) around his wrist, pulling the target, a scruffy looking man close to him. 

"Time to go see the Ministry," Logan said with a large smile on his face.  He would get two hundred and ten galleons for this guy.  The murderer of a famous ambassador, rumored Death Eater (actual one, actually, Logan had found that out the instant he laid eyes on him).  He walked over to where the Ministry branch in Diagon Alley, which was supposedly hidden so they could spy on Diagon Alley in close promity.  Logan threw the man into the building, walking in behind him.  He walked over to the desk with the galleon reward, picking up the bag, leaving those inside speechlees.  On the man was a note saying that he would like the return of the cuffs.  And if not, he would take them back anyways.  The Ministry knew that he could get them back.  Despite not being able to use magic. 

It was too bad that Logan had a bad habit of collecting wands, perhaps to compensate for his squib nature, or he would have gotten a hundred more galleons, but Logan didn't care.  He stored the wand in his pocket, and walked down the streets of Diagon Alley.  Food.  He needed food.  Damn this body, needing nourishment.  Logan began focusing on his brother, needing something to focus on as he entered a random place he knew that food would be, telling the order taker that he wanted the most expensive item on the menu, and sat, waiting for the food, which soon came.  Made by magic of course, something he envied and wished he could do, that his brother could do and he could not.  He'd kill his brother.  He was sure of it.

[Raine Taika Fae]

Raine was wondering Diagon Alley when her sense told her that something needed her in the Three Broomsticks. She glided in, watching the tiny glowing lights that most people did not see, but she had come to associate with the fairies of the area. Her senses focused on one particular table and she began to head in that direction. She passed many of her students who asked her questions and she talked to them, her focus seeming to be on everything at once. Her voice was soft and airy as she spoke of the feeling that needs to occur in divination. As she spoke, she let her seemingly unfocused eyes focus on the man she had felt something towards. He seemed exactly what she needed to fix. A man who hid too far down in his shell to let anyone in. She finished talking to her students and glided over to that area, bumping into the table in a way that seemed accidental.

"Oh dear, I'm sorry," she said, her soft voice sounding childlike to match her small stature. Feeling that the best method to attract his attention would be to push his attention away, she began to glide off again, humming a tune she used to sing to the animals of the forest when they were hurt. It was a song that had magical properties in itself, one that tended to draw the pain out of who heard it, even just a tiny little bit. Enough to begin the fracture in which to grow trust. She felt rather than heard or saw him react to her bumping into his table.

[Logan Greyson Smith]

Logan had been focusing on his brother and how to find this girl friend of his, from the light scent of perfume he smelt on his brother.  That was where he would go at the very end of the line, though.  Destroy the one his brother cared the most for last, destroying his brother completely and fully.  However, his focus was diverted by someone rudely bumping into his table.  He was about to scold the table bumper when he saw her, and something about her was just... odd.  Something that made his hyper-focus change from his original focus to her.  When he finally was able to regain his focus on the world around him, he realized he had gotten up from his seat, knocking the table slightly himself, and was staring. 

Logan quickly sat back down straightening his long coat back out, and the suit underneath, taking the fork with his hand and taking a bite of the steak he had ordered.  "It's quite alright," Logan found himself saying, having thought about what exactly to say for a moment, watching her gliding slowly away.  Logan stood back up and walked up to Raine.  "Would you like to sit with me?" Logan asked.  There was something about her.  Something he couldn't tell.  He could tell things about a person by just looking at someone, sometimes their whole life story, but nothing came up on her. 

Nothing.  He couldn't seem to perceive all the things he could normally see, like something had clouded his vision.  He was determined to conquer this woman, find out her, because he couldn't seem to do it by just looking at her.  If he could, nothing could escape him.  On the outside he could read things about her, but his eyes did not seem to pick them up yet, and yet, he knew that was just a layer.  One layer.  He needed to penetrate deeper.  She was complicated, just the look in her eyes told him that.  Complicated was what he was best at.

[Raine Taika Fae]

Raine smiled to herself when he reacted, knowing it was just what she needed. She had that little crack that she could begin to open. It could take years, but she could do it. As she turned around to look at him the smile changed to one that melted the hearts of most of her male students. It was one that seemed to say 'you are important to me' no matter what meaning of important it ended up being. "I would love to," she spoke in a voice that seemed to sing.

Raine sank down into the seat across from Logan, looking like a graceful swan descending in a dive. She tried to focus her sense on the layer beneath this hard outer shell she was seeing. She blinked in confusion, her unfocused eyes focusing on him for just a fraction of a second before she regained her composure. She had reached a block in her sixth sense. She could see that he had a fortress built around him, hiding himself from the world, and she needed to break that, but he had built it so strong that she couldn't see inside more than the first layer or two. It was strange for her, she wanted to learn what he hid in there, no matter how long it took her.

The inability to read this man confused her and sparked her interest. She felt something settle in her chest, a feeling that had never existed before. It felt similar to the feeling she had of Dumbledore, but still different. She let her eyes look deep within herself and almost coughed, it was attraction. She was attracted to this man. In all the years she had lived, she had never been on a date, never been in a relationship, never found deep attraction to a man or woman. She had found those whose looks sparked interest, but never the whole person. This was something she needed to look into, to discover why. She wanted to get to know him and learn who he was. She knew the first step would have to start, "My name is Raine," she said in a dreamy voice, trying still to disguise the slight gap in her dreamy, airy persona, knowing full well that he would take note of it, that showed as his personality.

[Logan Greyson Smith]

That look.  No one had ever given it to him before.  No one.  Not his brother, maybe his adoptive parents before they died, but no one else.  Logan played it off in his mind as a manipulation trick, one not to fall for.  They had just met, why would he be important to her?  But it was easy to just slip away and let it mean that she could care, that it could not be a trick, because being important to someone was something he wanted.  Ever since his adoptive parents had died... actually, ever since his brother visited, he hadn't really seen that look from anyone.  His adoptive parents may have given him it, but he didn't pay attention, because, he was extremely mad.  He wished them dead, so he didn't care what look he had gotten from them.  Dead people walking in front of him, why care?  Then here it was on this odd woman, someone he didn't understand, which was a feat in itself, and he kept telling himself it was manipulation... but even if it was, it felt nice to see that look.  But it didn't faze him beyond his barrier, just beneath it. 

Internally, Logan smiled, seeing the confusion blink she did.  She couldn't see into him.  No one could.  He had spent all of his years hiding himself in his barrier, without even knowing it sometimes, and given his high IQ, he was able to build such barriers extremely fast.  Even those who had magic, and could Legimens could not see into his mind.  A non-magical person with a skill in what they would call Occlumency.  Without even realizing it.  It was true, Logan had faint traces of magic, but he couldn't get normal spells to work on the wands he stole from his targets, and just other people because he was slightly obsessed with wands.  It wasn't like if one were to go into his residence, which changed with some frequency, just because he didn't want to stay in one place too long, or enemies might force him to face them, and he'd have to kill them.  Actually, he didn't take pleasure in killing.   But more importantly right now, it had made him happy to see her confusion when she was trying to see into him.  She had discovered what many others had faced, including Voldemort and Dumbledore, his Iron Curtain that no one could really see.  However, Logan did not register the small crack she had made, a feat no one else really could make, except perhaps his brother, which wasn't good for him, and wasn't because of him, but because of the hate Logan held in him, trying to break its way out.

Oh ho!  She was attracted to him.  Her pupils had dilated in the moment she had looked at him.  This he could do.  He could act; he could play that on her.  Use it to crack her open like an egg.  Time to throw an extra layer on, a weaker one, a persona, a fake.  "My name is Logan Smith," Logan replied with a fake charming smile, "Would you like something to eat?  Anything you would like.  My treat." 

[Raine Taika Fae]

Raine knew her smile hadn't worked... it had confused him, penetrated just a touch, but hardly enough. She meant the smile to whoever she gave it to. She truly cared about everyone in the world, excepting those who wished harm upon Dumbledore. He was practically her father as well as her mentor and friend. He was the only person she really cared about. She loved her parents, but rarely saw them. But she truly cared about everyone and they were each important to her because they existed. Especially people she chose to help, they were so important to her because they made her who she was. And he... he was already very important.

She hated that she couldn't see into him. Usually Raine was calm and didn't have a care in the world, but he bugged her. Her sense could always see the person beneath, but he was blocked. Most of all, she hated his smugness that she couldn’t read him. He was all too proud of his fortress for her. For not being a wizard, he was remarkably good at Occlumency. The only thing that kept her alright was that she knew she left a tiny crack. It was just enough for her to slowly weasel her way in. It could take months or years, but she would get there, no matter what happened.

Registering that he had noticed her attraction and mentally shooting herself for letting it slip, she smirked at him, to confuse him into thinking that her attraction was faked. The smirk was real, he did exactly as she expected him to, but not about her attraction, about everything else. It actually looked rather odd, her smirking. She had such a small body, so childlike, that a smirk did not seem to belong on her face. She played the smirk to be towards his offer. “I would love something to eat,” she wouldn’t let this attraction ruin her shell. There was something deep down that most people couldn’t accept and she refused to show it. She much preferred showing others her dreamy airy personality than that which she kept inside. Really it was rather ironic that she helped others break out of their shells when she was so deep within her own, but she stopped worrying about that a long, long time ago.

[Logan Greyson Smith]

The only thing, as he told himself, that made her special was the fact he didn't understand her.  There was something he couldn't read about her, anything below her simple outward appearance.  It was more than frustrating, but his extreme pride in being able to block her from knowing who he was by just a look, was partly due to pride in the years he spent building it up, and also because at least it was a mutual thing.  At least it meant that she was frustrated as he was with the inability to read one another.  It meant a lot to him that she found him just as much of a mystery.  Not that he wanted her to crack him.  He never wanted to come out of his shell, or let anyone inside of him.  Especially not his brother.  His brother he was most worried about him start to care about, because in the end, John was family, someone he hated with a passion, but he could also not seem to not care about him, even if just a little deep inside of him.  Which is why he wanted to get John to die as fast as possible and ruin him, make him pay and not have a chance to crawl in. 

However, in the midst of his thoughts, rapid, rapid thoughts, he dropped his barriers, and let himself think that Raine was fairly attractive... considering, his pupils dilating slightly, before he retreated way back into his shell, hoping to use that reaction to his advantage, not meaning to give it off in the first place, but thinking of how it could be used, as a way to get through her shell.  Though, he had to admit, she was beautiful, but only admit it way deep down.  In the deepest part of himself, where he hid.   Though the smirk had gotten him a bit, finding the smirk weird, confusing slightly, but he thought to himself, if she were like him, he would use it to hide the attraction that seeped through in her eyes, and therefore took it as that.  She was hiding even a bit deeper within herself, as he was, putting on this charming persona.

"What would you like?" Logan asked with one of those fake charming smiles that he had when he slapped on this persona of him.  He wanted information as well.  Perhaps he could make a personal connection.  She was a professor after all.  "Are you Professor Fae at Hogwarts?  The Divination Professor?  Do you by chance know John Smith?  I believe he is currently an assistant in DADA, Dumbledore said he was going to be taking over Charms next year.  He's my brother you see, though we don't talk very often, always an interesting conversation when we meet."  Which was true.  They were interesting, just not good interesting most times. 

[Raine Taika Fae]

He was only attractive on the outside, she told herself firmly. She found plenty of guys she thought were attractive… right? He had a bad personality and a hard shell that she needed to fix, that was all. His eyes didn’t sparkle, not really, it was just her imagination. She only found interest in him because she couldn’t read him. He was a mystery and she’d always loved reading mysteries. But… maybe she could crawl into his shell, figure him out, and just push out her attraction. There was nothing wrong with that, right? She forced herself to believe the lie to settle her confused mind.

In the midst of this internal argument she caught something. Something totally confusing and backwards. Something that threw her slightly for a loop, especially considering how he was faking attraction to get in her head. Some of it wasn’t faked. His eyes dilated, and she glanced for just one second into his soul. She saw his fear of love, most especially towards his brother, her coworker, in fact. This would be a very interesting lunch, she determined. Unfortunately, she doubted that the smirk worked… he seemed to be very much like her in the way he used his shields, it seemed he realized that as well.

“Oh anything is fine,” she smiled, playing his game right along with him. She could be equally as charming as he. She’d had years and years of it, after all. “Yes, that’s me, seer and Divination Professor,” she hoped that the fact that she was a seer would upturn him a touch. After all, it would eventually help her see into him, it always did. “Not well, unfortunately, but I’ve seen him before. I know very few of the professors, I’m still so knew at teaching.” Even though she had just been a student, she hardly talked to her professors. Albus was the only one she knew closely. After he mentioned his brother she saw another glimpse into Logan, a memory, of the last time he had spoken to his brother, “oh yes, very interesting, you threatened to kill him outside of the shrieking shack.” She hoped this insight would startle him a touch. She was getting in, minute by minute. She doubted she’d get anything more for a few weeks, but she got some.

[Logan Greyson Smith]

He saw it in her eyes.  She saw something in him.  No, he couldn't let her get anywhere else.  He let his hyper-focused mind focus on just her, not anything else right now.  He was determined to find out what it was about her that made him feel so odd, especially when she saw into him.  That was weird.  He wasn't used to this, someone seeing inside of him, even if just slightly beyond the first layers of his shell.  But he didn't know that somewhere way, way, way, way, deep down, he actually wanted someone to come through, so he might have someone who could perhaps help him.  But it was somewhere deep, deep, deep down that he had no idea that it was really there, but that also guided his actions in seeking down his brother, while actually voicing the fact that he wanted to kill him, when somewhere deep, deep, deep down he wanted John to help him.  However, he had no clue about this, and no one else really did either.  After the life he lived, losing his parents, both sets, then with that horrible orphanage and not being able to do anything about what happened to him there, or not believing there was at the time, it wasn't a wonder why he protected himself so greatly against others. 

Logan was quite surprised when she told him she was a seer.  It meant he would have to be even more careful.  Despite his lack of Hogwarts education due to being a squib, he knew what seers were.  He was, after all, living in the wizarding world, and knew most things besides spells he couldn't use due to his lack of magic, such as history of the wizarding world and the magical creatures, mostly from books he took and read about the world, and had to hide them when he was in the orphanage, but his revenge was beginning to bubble up in intensity against his brother, who he viewed as the one who ruined his life, and wanted to know everything about that world as he could.  Her being a seer meant that he would have to be even more careful about what he did.  That was probably how she saw into him just moments ago.  How she knew he threatened his brother.  This would be very interesting.  Very interesting indeed. 

"Why don't we skip right to desert?" Logan said suggestively, the charming persona taking over fairly well.  Even with the surprise that she knew about his... conversation with his brother, and the knowledge that she was a seer, he managed to keep up the act, though his reaction had made the smile fade, as the persona would probably react.  "A seer?  I don't believe I've ever met one before.  Could you read my future?  Or does it not work like that?"  He knew it didn't work on command, he read that in The Oddities in Witches and Wizards: Volume 3 Seers by William Penchant Grelion, who was a Seer himself, and studied Seers all his life.  So he was sure Grelion was a reputable source.  But that was what his persona had told him to say, and so he said it.  "That was just different, Raine," Logan said his face straight, not regretful at all, and quite serious at this, as he figured this persona had to have some sort of dark side, with some sort of sensitivity, or she wouldn't be interested, and she had found him out about his conversation... but that wasn't the reason... yeah, it wasn't, "It was an interesting conversation, I would have to say.  Emotionally charged that's all.  Haven't seen him in... over a decade, really. Understandable, yes?"

[Raine Taika Fae]

She saw into him. She almost didn’t believe it. Someone with such a thick fortress should have taken longer to learn something from, but perhaps it was because he was thinking about it. Thinking seemed to be easier for her to see than anything that is simply locked inside. She could tell he was threatened by it. He felt like no one should be able to see into his world, not even a seer. She could tell that he wanted his brother’s love, the threat seemed to contradict that, but it seemed something that he would do.

She was almost surprised he knew what a seer was. Most had to ask, he must be a reader. Getting up on the knowledge of the world he lived in, she presumed. Perhaps for protection, perhaps simple interest. All she knew was that they had both underestimated the other in this conversation. He never expected her to see any into his mind, she never expected him to be so knowledgeable about herself.

“Desert sounds lovely, perhaps some cake?” she knew what he was doing. Yet she still let him, she wasn’t quite sure why. Curiosity, attraction, who knew, but she let him continue all the same. “We are rare and hard to find. And most seers do not present that fact out to the public. People believe that we can use sight at any particular instant, they are wrong. Sight overcomes us at random moments, we have no control over it. My sight is slightly different, I can use it to feel emotions, to see memories, but nothing more. Not unless I receive a prophecy.” She was hoping that in revealing this much, he would think she was beginning to crack. She had to believe that trying to make him feel this way was the reason, and not that she was slowly opening up to this stranger. “Of course it’s understandable, he hurt you in some way and you retaliated, simply emotional up rage. Very common in my choice of work.” It was true, most people came to her to help them solve their problems, when really all they had to do was talk to the person who caused them such emotional turmoil. It nearly always worked.

[Logan Greyson Smith]

Logan's mind was racing, but one prevailing thought broke through all the little strands of thoughts that were always going on in his head: You're only letting her see more of you; you don't want that, do you?  And he assured him that he didn't.  He focused primarily on closing everything up as tight as possible, locking the key inside of his fortress, looking from above, watching her to be sure she didn't fly over or break through any more than she already had.  He stood over his fortress with his arms crossed with a cold look on his face.  However, he had little blind spots, which he would turn his focus to occasionally to check that she wasn't trying to break through more than a couple of seconds.  This was a bit more dangerous than he first believed.  But dangerous was fun.  Out of the norm.  Interesting. 

Yet, something wanted her to break through his barriers, to see if she could.  That would teach him more about her.  He could tell that she was opening up to him just a little bit.  Logan hypothesized the more she thought she was getting through, the easier it would be on him.  Or, easier, and less dangerous, make her believe that she is cracking her way into him, while he simply added more layers as she cracked through a layer.  He was up for the challenge.  He was determined.  And he wanted to crack this challenge, despite the danger to himself that she presented. 

"Sounds divine to me," Logan replied, waving down a waiter, ordering the cake, and the waiter summoned the cake, setting it down on the table, setting down two forks, believing they would share.  "It looks extremely beautiful, just like you."  He sent her a smile playing with the second fork, spinning it around in his fingers, watching her with studying eyes, something he probably couldn't change too much even with a plastered on persona. "Ah, a special seer.  I can understand hiding what you are from other people.  Many others don't know it, but I am a squib, you see.  Can't do magic.  Well, a little bit, I suppose.  But not enough to matter."  He was a slightly bit more magical than other squibs, with his skills of Occlumency, and Dumbledore even said he could preform a bit of Legilimency as well, while Logan believed the Legilimency was simply his perception skills mixed with the ability to guess well.  "As a professor, I would definitely think that you would encounter similar situations, though John had abandoned me, so there was a whole decade of pent up feelings.  Threatening him... was just talk," a lie, "Afterwards I was surprised I hadn't done more.  Showed a lot of self control, I did."  Indeed he did.  There was, in fact, a part of him that  wanted to kill his brother right then and there, but it was a lie that it was all talk.  But who cared anyways?  No one would convince him otherwise.

[Raine Taika Fae]

Raine almost laughed aloud at his method of blocking her. It was very different, creative, though. Most people just built more walls, but no, he fortified and then protected from above. He was a very interesting person, she had to admit. Someone who would never stop surprising her. She was almost glad he was fighting to keep her out at this very moment, she was enjoying the chase. Helping people was often so easy, this one wouldn't be. But he definitely needed her help, he was calling out for someone to see inside, he just didn't know it. He would be a challenge to her and she to him.

Raine shot him an equally as fake smile, "a flirt, are you?" She knew he was just trying to get inside her head, and doing that wouldn't help him. She didn't react well to the overly charming persona. "I tend to avoid talking about my sight, especially to non-magical folk. No one understands quite what it's like. Especially when some of your prophecies have made it into the hall of prophecies at the ministry." She knew she was bragging, she was enjoying it actually. Raine nearly snorted, "just an act, I suppose. Completely untrue, of course," she replied, raising an eyebrow.