If there was one thing that Isobel Braley could truly hate in the world, it was when people treated her like a child. Her family, her peers, her teachers, it didn't matter who did it because she despised it all the same. She may be only fifteen years old, technically two years too young to be considered an 'adult' in the wizarding world, but anyone who knew her at all knew she was even more mature than most of the seventh years currently enrolled at Hogwarts. She didn't jump into things blindly, didn't relish in petty arguments or drama like most of her student counterparts, and she was a pretty keen judge of character over time. But despite these admirable qualities, people always felt the urge to overshadow her, to speak on behalf of her and decide what was best for her when Isobel herself was perfectly capable of doing so. She hated having her voice silenced, hated when people assumed they knew what was best for her. She hated it so much that sometimes she did things just because people said she shouldn't -- just to spite them. That was precisely the reason that the petite blonde found herself walking down the snowy Hogsmeade streets.

What had started as a simple conversation between acquaintances, harmless banter exchanged between a girl and a boy, had been interceded by Isobel's cousin. Cody had promptly told the boy, whose name was Jay, to back off and leave her alone. He had treated her as a child, deciding what was best for her and acting against it without even taking her opinion into consideration. That had angered her so whenever Jay later asked her to lunch, her spiteful side had accepted wholeheartedly. Now, though, Isobel was beginning to have second thoughts. Here she was, going to meet someone she had never consorted with before the chat room for lunch. It wasn't that she didn't know of him. She knew a good bit, especially since talk between the prefects traveled. Even talk from her mother told her more about some of her troublesome peers than she sometimes cared to know from time to time. The boy had a reputation all his own, a reputation that was a bit less than spotless.

Most people that were as ambitious and success-focused as Isobel would have probably avoided situations with people like Jay. "People like Jay" meaning those who didn't have the best reputations, who others didn't think very highly of. Many of her peers and fellow prefects harbored a dislike for the boy and his strong personality, particularly when he was under the effects of alcohol. But Isobel was unique, she was the kind of person who liked to make up her own opinions of people and not just assume that salacious gossip about them was true. Besides, there were some people who liked him well enough, so there had to be something good about him. Being a slowly judgmental person, Isobel wanted to meet him in person for herself. She wanted to stick to her agreement and meet him for lunch, share some small talk where they would ultimately get along well or end up irritating one another. That would then decide if it was going to happen again and they would ultimately go their separate ways. In her mind it was far from a date, and Izzie wasn't expecting much more from the meeting than the possible acquisition of a new friend.

Isobel tried to plan out the way the day would go as she walked, wondering if they were going to stroll around Hogsmeade after lunch or go back and hang out somewhere in the castle until Izzie decided to return home. As much as she wanted to assume the way things would go, though, she couldn't be sure in any of it. She didn't know this boy any better than she knew a stranger off the street. Sure, she could probably guess a couple of things about him. But nothing concrete enough to plan out the rest of her day. Her trudge through the fallen snow and her silent wonderings came to a halt, however, as she reached her destination. Izzie's eyes wandered up to the sign, instinctively making sure this was the right place even though she knew it really was.

The bell above the door tinkled cheerfully as she pushed open the door to the little restaurant. It wasn't a completely unfamiliar place. She could remember sharing a few meals with her family here a time or two, but that seemed like ages ago now. Besides, this time she would be with a completely different kind of company. Her bright blue eyes wandered around the room, finally settling on the somewhat familiar Gryffindor boy seated alone towards the back. Isobel made her way over to him, sitting down only after taking off her coat and draping it carefully over the back of the booth. She then proceeded to sit down across from him, offering a friendly smile. "Umm... hi." she said with sort of a half-wave gesture. This was quite the awkward situation, just sitting down to lunch with someone you had only spoken to once in a chat room. But for some reason it wasn't completely uncomfortable, it was exciting in a strange way. "You're Jay, I'm Isobel... or Izzie... or Is. Whichever you prefer." the blonde added, the warmth of her smile remaining genuine as she spoke. "I hope I'm not late, I kinda lost track of time when I was getting ready this morning." Isobel added finally, realizing that she was just jabbering on for lack of anything too explicitly interesting to talk about.

---
word count: 944ish i think it was
outfit: this (with a coat obviously)
notes: oh dear, i hope this wasn't too bad of a post. i couldn't really think of anything that two complete strangers could talk about right off the bat. lol.