Ford smiled over at Lestrange. He very nearly said I'm sure you could find plenty of ways to entertain me, as a tease, but at the last minute decided against it and bit the side of his tongue. The remark had popped into his head without much consideration on his part, and he honestly wasn't sure what he would have meant by it, but he thought it might have implied a certain type of entertainment. Lestrange might have known what he meant by it, or might have assumed. This was the Quidditch conversation at the Sonata all over again, and that was a road he didn't want to go down. Despite his boost of confidence from a moment ago and his vague thought that perhaps he might become the instigator of such conversations instead of the recipient, that wasn't really who he was.
Besides that, things had gotten... weird with Dorian Fisk. They hadn't exactly been friends before the Sonata, but they were at least friendly acquaintances, and they might have had the potential to be friends since Dorian's younger brother had been Ford's roommate all through Hogwarts. Afterwards, they'd had that encounter at the post office that had left his head reeling, and now when he thought of Fisk he felt guilty and embarrassed and conflicted. He couldn't have articulated why, but needless to say he doubted very much that the two of them were going to become friends.
The last thing he wanted to do was to set off all that with Lestrange, even if they were currently alone in the Irish countryside, and even if Lestrange was sort of leaning over him now that he'd crouched down like that, and even if when the other man looked at him with that sparkle of curiosity in his eyes it made Ford feel clever and interesting in a way that was softly exhilarating.
Ford had maybe been staring at him and smiling and biting his tongue for half a beat too long when something crashed, loudly, in the hallway. It made him jump slightly, and Ford dropped the wire as he moved to sit up.
"Your turn," he suggested, with a nod to the hallway. "Go figure it out. I'll help if you can't find it."
Set by Lady!
Besides that, things had gotten... weird with Dorian Fisk. They hadn't exactly been friends before the Sonata, but they were at least friendly acquaintances, and they might have had the potential to be friends since Dorian's younger brother had been Ford's roommate all through Hogwarts. Afterwards, they'd had that encounter at the post office that had left his head reeling, and now when he thought of Fisk he felt guilty and embarrassed and conflicted. He couldn't have articulated why, but needless to say he doubted very much that the two of them were going to become friends.
The last thing he wanted to do was to set off all that with Lestrange, even if they were currently alone in the Irish countryside, and even if Lestrange was sort of leaning over him now that he'd crouched down like that, and even if when the other man looked at him with that sparkle of curiosity in his eyes it made Ford feel clever and interesting in a way that was softly exhilarating.
Ford had maybe been staring at him and smiling and biting his tongue for half a beat too long when something crashed, loudly, in the hallway. It made him jump slightly, and Ford dropped the wire as he moved to sit up.
"Your turn," he suggested, with a nod to the hallway. "Go figure it out. I'll help if you can't find it."
Set by Lady!