Tessa was walking next to her two favorite boys, enjoying some time outside away from classes and school work. She wasn't made for doing all of that stuff anyway.

She was just turning to comment to Sander when she heard Bay. "Bay?" she asked, turning to look at him. "What is-" her eyes moved over the grounds and she stopped in her tracks at the sight.

Was that... "Lux?" she called out in question, unable to believe what she had seen. That wasn't what she had seen, right? It was Lux, she had talked about punching a boy for even trying... it couldn't be...

"No, Bay, come back! There must be some misunderstanding..."

There had to be?

Sander held Tessa's hand as he walked along the lake with her and Bay. He noticed a young boy and girl sitting down on the grass but made nothing of it, since there were always couples sitting together at the lake. He and Tessa been doing that a lot of times.

As they neared the couple he discreetly turned his head to see whether he could recognize either of them. With his failing vision all he could see was that the girl had red hair.

Oh wow!! the girl has leaned over to kiss the boy. Sander tried to rush Tessa and Bay along wanting to give the couple some privacy, until he heard first Bay call out Lux's name swiftly followed by Tessa's gasp of surprise.

Sander quickly turned back to look at the boy and girl...and saw red. But before he could even say anything, Bay had turned without saying another word and began walking away. He looked desperately at Tessa wanting to ask whether what was happening was just a dream, but the look on her face said otherwise.

Sander knew that he couldn't let Bay be alone right now, so he decided to quickly catch up with him. But just before he ran after his friend, he turned to both Lux and then at Louis before pointing to him.

"Both of you have a lot of explaining to do. I will deal with you later, Louis." Sander told the younger boy before heading off after Bay.

Louis was still waiting for a response from Lux when he suddenly heard a ’nooooo’ somewhere in the background. The boy turned his head only to find Bay a few feet away, looking awestruck; and just behind him were Sander and his girlfriend Tessa, looking shocked as well.

OH NO.
Oh no, oh no, oh no…
Louis scrambled to his feet as Bay began to walk away. He probably thought he and Lux had been kissing on purpose or something! “Bay! Wait!” Louis ran after his friend, stopping abruptly when Sander, who was also going after Bay, pointed his finger at him threateningly. The Gryffindor boy turned a little pale, he wasn’t very good at dealing with confrontation. “I’ll explain, I promise,” he started, though he didn’t even know what he could explain seeing as he was just as confused as everyone else, “But I need to talk to Bay.” Before the other boy could respond, Louis hurried off after his friend, who had fortunately decided to walk rather than run. ‘Cause Louis was like 70 now and he was already out of breath after running for literally 6 seconds.

“Mate, hold on!” Louis grabbed Bay by the arm in an effort to get the boy’s attention. “Would you just let me explain, please?”

Lux could feel herself going slightly red with the way Louis was looking at her. She couldn't help that she had kissed him, she had just been so curious as to what it was like since everyone talked about it. "I just... you were so nice to me, and I really like you as a friend." He needed to understand that she was not seriously putting the moves on him or anything that would make him think she was a total creeper.

Opening her mouth again to ask him if he was mad at her, she stopped when she heard Sander. What was he doing here? She hadn't known he was at the lake. Frowning at his threat to Louis, she turned her gaze towards him and saw that Tessa and Bay were there too. Bay was walking off.

Oh no.

Getting to her feet, she followed Louis, going after the two boys who were walking away. "This isn't what you think, guys." Why was Bay leaving like this? Was he mad at her?

Bay heard Tessa's voice in the background telling him to come back, he didn't want to come back he felt like he was broken..and he didn't know why.. why is he acting like this… why…

Sander caught up with him and just with his caring words Bay broke… he fell into his friends arms and started to bawl… he knew he was a teenage boy and they weren't supposed to cry like this but he was hysterical. "its… its…. whyy…." the words came out in-between the sobs. He heard Sander stick up for him and he made a mental note to thank him later…

then someone was touching his arms, peeking out from under Sander's arm he saw it was Louis….. He went CRAZY! and started shouting at him with out letting him explain.. "HOW….. DARE YOU!!!! YOUR MY BEST MATE!!!! WHY…….. WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME!!! YOU SHOULD KNOW HOW I FEEL ABOUT HER" he nodded in Lux's direction.

Even though he didn't tell Louis how he felt about her, he was his best mate he should have know how Bay looked at her and how he was so protective… then Lux… she came… he didn't know why but he didn't want to see her… more like he didn't want her to see him like this.. "GO AWAY!!!! JUST GO!!!" he said "I can't see any of you right now" he added while falling back into Sanders arms and he just saw the shock on Tessa's face..

He started to walk away again.

Sander finally caught up with Bay and wrapped an arm around Bay. To his dismay, his young friend broke into tears, sobbing like his heart was breaking. "Awww man. I'm sorry you had to see that, Bay. Maybe it was just Lux having some fun and didn't mean anything about the.....thing she did," Sander tried to comfort him preferring not to say that taboo word right now.

Sander placed both his hands on Bay's shoulders, turning him around so that his body was shielding him from the others. He knew that Bay didn't want Tessa or Lux seeing him cry. Then he heard running footsteps and turned around to see Louis touch Bay on the arm.

Sander knew how upset Louis was but didn't expect how much until the younger boy started shouting at him. Wait? What? How he felt about her? Bay meant as a sister right? Or did he actually mean something else. Sander's brows raised in surprise.

Sander sighed and looked at Louis, "I'm sorry about earlier, Louis. I know that there's an explanation to what we saw just now. But I think for now, maybe you could give bay some space right now?" Sander told the younger Lion.

Sander looked over at Tessa and gave her a questioning look. Of course it didn't help make things better when Lux showed up to talk with him. Sander shook his head down at her. "Lux, I think maybe you should just leave Bay alone for now. You can talk with him later, when he's feeling better." Sander told Lux as Bay began sobbing in his arms again.

"Okay bro, let's get you out of here." he advised Bay as he turned to walk with him.

Bay might as well have just punched Louis in the face like he originally planned to; the boy would have probably preferred that to being the source of so much frustration, pain and anger in the person that he considered to be his best friend. As Bay yelled at him with so much hatred, the Gryffindor could almost feel a lump form in his throat. This was not pleasant at all.

And of course he knew how Bay felt about Lux! How could Bay think that he would ever purposely kiss the girl he knew felt so protective about?! “I know, Bay, I—” But it was impossible to talk over Bay’s angry shouts, and next thing Louis knew, his best friend was asking him to go away. What?! No… Louis didn’t want to leave, but he also didn’t want to upset Bay any further. He’d never seen his friend so angry before. It wasn’t even scary for him, it was just… sad. Sad that he was responsible for his friend’s misery.

He needed to fix this. But how? Bay wouldn’t even look at him!
Louis considered going after him again when he caught sight of Lux approaching the group, trying to explain herself. “Lux, I think you should give him a moment,” he said softly, not at all eager in letting the little girl approach Bay when the boy seemed so out of control. Not only that, but he knew Bay probably wouldn’t want Lux to see him like this.

“Bay!” Would he stop walking away already?! Didn’t he see that Louis was an old man now, this whole exercising thing wasn’t nice! “Mate, listen,” started the boy as he caught up with him, “I get it if you want the Giant Squid to come out and strangle me, it’s fine, but don’t do this to her.” He jerked his head in Lux’s direction. “I’ll go away, I promise, you won’t have to see me again. But… don’t you owe her an explanation?” Because seriously, it was not normal friend behaviour to freak out when your other friend was kissing someone, so poor Lux was probably clueless as to why Bay wanted nothing to do with her at the moment. It wasn't nice to just leave her in limbo.

When Bay started crying and shouting, Lux honestly had no idea what to do or how to feel. He had never flipped out like this before, and she was totally confused as to why he was so... angry over a little kiss she had given her friend. Okay, she knew he was protective over her, but so were Tessa and Sander, and they weren't flipping out. Looking at Tessa, she silently pleaded that her friend would know what to say or do to make things better. Bay had never wanted her to leave him alone before.

At least Louis was trying to make thing better, even though she was sort of torn because of what Sander said. Should she leave Bay alone? Or should she try to explain so that he would understand that there was nothing going on between her and Louis? One thing was for sure though, she was not going to let the older Gryffindor take blame for this when he had done nothing wrong. "Don't blame Louis, he didn't do anything wrong."

Sighing, she stopped there, deciding to take Louis' advice and give Bay a moment. If it helped him to calm down, so much the better.

Bay listened as Sander talked.. trying to explain things… but he could barely hear him over his own crying. he started to stop crying with Louis and Lux both followed them.. he turned to look at Louis… his best mate…. he started to feel a bit bad… they were like brothers and Bay knew deep down that he didn't do it to him on purpose… but it just hurt.. Listening to Louis he could tell that he was really sorry.. "I don't want to hurt you" he mumbled after his comment about the giant squid.

He looked over at Lux when Louis told him that she needed to know why… he was right… *sniff sniff* she should know.. but he didn't know if this was the right time… but she had those pleading eyes that made him want to tell her everything. "your right… i need to know whats going on… i just need to hear it…" wait what did Lux mean don't blame louis… so wait… she kissed him…. wait..wait..wait… he needed to hear what happened before he started yelling again or crying, which ever came first...

Sander looked first at Louis who was trying his best to explain what had happened to Louis and then Lux who was standing further back, looking all confused and sad. He sighed and looked at Bay.

Sander first spoke to both Louis and Lux,"I know that no one intended to hurt anyone. Sometimes things happen for no reason at all. I mean if we all knew what repercussions our actions did, we wouldn't be doing half of them."

Wait what did Lux just say? That it wasn't Louis' fault at all. Did that mean that Louis didn't initiate the kiss and was just an innocent bystander in this...wrong place, wrong time?

Hiding his confusion, he turned to look at Tessa questioningly. 'What is going on here?' Sander thought to himself. Why did Lux just decide that she wanted to kiss Louis? There really had to be some reasonable explanation.

So he looked at Lux and waited to hear what she had to say. "Lux would you prefer if I left both you and Bay alone to talk this out? I'll be right over there with Tessa if either of you need us." Sander told both Bay and Lux.

Turning to Louis, he placed an arm around his shoulder, "Mate apologies about earlier. I should have asked first before placing blame. Shall we give both Bay and Lux some privacy?" he suggested to Louis.

Even though Bay was seemingly calming down, Lux couldn't help but feel worse and worse for how upset this had made him. Honestly, she had never expected him to be so livid over her kissing a boy, even if he was protective of her.

When Sander offered to leave, she smiled at him then shrugged her shoulders. "You and Tessa can leave if you want or stay. Whatever you feel comfortable with doing." All that she cared about right now was not having Bay so upset with her anymore, because she did not like it.

At least he was wanting to hear an explanation... and she could give one to him. "Well, he was so nice to me at the dance and I really like him... and you people talk about kissing all the time... and I didn't think it would be a big deal or a problem." Louis was her friend and she had kissed him, simple as that. Now could Bay please tell her why he was so mad about this and stop being upset with her? Because it hurt.

Louis couldn’t help the corners of his lips curving into a small smile when Bay spoke. RELIEF. This didn’t mean things were back to normal, definitely not, but at least his friend was willing to hear them out now. It was a good step forward.

The Gryffindor was glad when Lux decided to explain the kiss situation first because, honestly, Louis had no idea how he was going to explain anything when he didn’t even know why Lux had kissed him. But now he knew. Awwww. Poor Lady Lux. She was so naive. Louis tried his best not to chuckle at her innocence. “The thing is, Lux, friends don’t usually kiss on the lips,” the boy explained to her with a sympathetic smile. It wasn’t her fault she didn’t know. “That’s why it was a little confusing.”

Louis glanced at Bay a little warily. Would his best friend believe them? Surely he wouldn’t think Louis was sick enough to go and get romantically involved with someone who was like a little sister to all of them! The boy turned his attention to Sander then, as the older Hufflepuff placed an arm around his shoulder and apologized. Louis smiled and shook his head at him. “Don’t worry about it, mate. It was a weird situation, I know.” When he suggested they give Bay and Lux some privacy, he nodded his head and returned his gaze to Bay. Did the Gryffindor want to speak to Lux privately? Louis kind of hoped he would. He needed to explain things to Lux.

Tessa watched the whole scen with a frown, her mind trying to work out how best to handle the situation. It seemed that every passing word or suggestion added to the stress.

"Okay," she said with a sigh. "I think we should all hear what Lux has to say," she said, looking over at Sander. "But we will try not to get involved- unless you want us as mediators. We also won't allow any violence," she said, looking between the boys pointedly. She never thought she would say those words, but she had. What was she, their mother? *cough* Anyway...

She stood beside Sander, giving his hand a gentle squeeze as she listened to what Lux had to say. She winced internally at what Lux said about the kissing. However, she let the girl continue, and nodded at Louis's reply. "Just waht he said, Lux. Kissing on the lips means a completely different thing," she agreed.

"How are you doing Bay?" she asked the other boy, trying to hide her worry. He seemed really hurt by the whole situation.

Sander listened silently as Tessa spoke up. He breathed a sigh of relief. No matter how crazy things got, Tessa was always the voice of reason. That was one of the reasons he loved her the way he did.

Sander knew that he has jumped the gun assuming that everything had been Louis' fault, when in fact, it was Lux's idea to kiss him. He just didn't think that Lux would act so impulsively like that.

He nodded at Tessa's suggestion, returning her gentle squeeze on his hand. He leaned over to kiss her on the forehead. It was his way of saying he was glad that she had been here with him.

Then he turned to Lux and Bay. "I hope you guys can work it out. Bay, friendship is a very important thing. Don't throw it all away just because of a misunderstanding. Lux has already told you why she kissed Louis. Maybe you should tell her why what she did has upset you this much." Sander placed his hand on Bay's shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze before stepping aside.

Bay stood there listening to what Lux had to say.."Well, he was so nice to me at the dance and I really like him... and you people talk about kissing all the time... and I didn't think it would be a big deal or a problem." what does that mean.. Bay was nice to her right… and he thought she liked him.. ohhh.. why was he thinking like this… why was he acting like this.. they were all good friends and he couldn't understand why he wanted to hurt his friend and yell at the rest.. Bay put his head down and shook it..

"whats wrong with me" a single tear fell from his left eye.. he thought the crying was over but this just hurt him so much.

"its just… I don't know why I acted like that???" he said, it seemed to him that he needed to sit down and think about it by himself to see how he felt.. he shouted at Louis telling him he thought he knew how he felt about her… thinking about that now how did he feel about her. his head was swimming with images… what if he told her that he liked her… would they end up hugging each other agreeing to their feelings or would their friendship be ruined?? there were so many possibilities and he didn't know if right now was the proper time to share them for like he's thought he doesn't know how he feels…


"Errmmm Im sorry alright… I just feel very protective of you and like….I didn't mean to yell at you…" he told her keeping his head down.

he looked over at Louis too. "I'm sorry mate.. we will chat later in our room.. so i can tell you how much I'm sorry for yelling at you… i shouldn't have done it…" Man Bay was going through an emotional roller coaster and he didn't know when it was going to stop.

Looking at Tessa and Sander "thanks for being there for me.. and I feel like I need to apologize to everyone for how I've acted.." he gave them a small smile.. right now though he just seemed like he wanted to have some time to think.. even though the answer he gave Lux of him being protective of her was very vague, one he thinks about it he will express what this whole situation meant.

Oh, well...

Lux bit her lip as she listened to Tessa and Louis explain that kissing on the lips was generally not something one friend did to another. She supposed that was something that only couples did then? Since she was aware that Sander and Tessa gave each other those kinds of kisses. "I'm really sorry I kissed you, Louis. I hope you aren't mad at me." It was her fault that he was in this whole situation and that Bay had yelled at him.

Sigh.

More sighing as she listened to Bay explain to her. Goodness, she had no idea that he was that protective of her. But at least he was calming down, though she could still see he was crying. "It's okay, Bay." She gave him a hug. "You aren't mad at me, are you?" Because he had been so angry.

Louis listened quietly as Tessa and Sander tried to assure both Lux and Bay. He couldn’t help feeling a little embarrassed that they had to witness that whole scene, it couldn’t have been a very pleasant show to see. He nodded his head as Sander gave Bay some words of advice, but kept silent.

The sight of Bay crying and looking so puzzled nearly crushed the Gryffindor boy. He’d never really felt so influenced by someone else’s happiness or misery, but he’d grown close to Bay in the last couple months and he’d grown to love him the way one loves their fun-loving, goofy brother. When the boy apologized for the earlier burst-out, Louis smiled sympathetically and shook his head. “We’ve got nothing to talk about, mate. You don’t owe me anything.” Bay was his best mate. He wasn’t going to hold a grudge over a silly misunderstanding. Following his instincts, Louis approached the boy and enveloped him in a brotherly hug. “C’mon mate, we’re Gryffindors. Lions don’t cry,” he teased softly before pulling back, smiling.

And then Lady Lux of the House of Hufflepuff was apologizing too. “I could never get mad at you, Lux,” he said, as if the girl was silly for even apologizing. Which she was. In his book, the Lady could do no wrong. He watched as she then went on to hug Bay, asking him if he was mad at her. Louis’s lips curved into something of a half-smile and half-smirk as he took a couple steps back, letting the other two have a little more space.

Tessa shot Sander a small smile, closing her eyes as he kissed her forehead. It was nice to have Sander there to help steady her. She nodded in agreement with what Sander had said, listening as Bay spoke again.

She watched him carefully, a inkling of an idea forming in the back of her mind. But it wasn't something to bring up for now. "Bay, you know we'd be there for you no matter what," she assured him with a smile. "It's alright- you don't need to apologize." She shook her head, glancing over at Sander with a knowing smile.

She watched quietly at the exchange between Bay and Lux. She hoped things would be worked out between them- but she had a feeling they were only seeing the peak of the iceberg at this point. Only time would tell. "Louis is right- why don't we all do something to get past this?" she suggested.

Sander nodded in agreement with Tessa. "Tessa's right. There's absolutely no reason for you to apologize. I mean I lost my temper there for a second too. Louis is right we should do something to get past what happened here today." Sander told Bay even as he cast a knowing look at Tessa.

Was she thinking what he was thinking? They themselves had gone through those awkward moments when their relationship was just budding.

"How about we play a game of hide-n-seek. Harry Potter played that game right at this spot with both Ron and Hermione. I know we're all grown up and everything and too old be playing children's games, but sometimes that's the best game to play when one just wants to have fun and forget about all the other serious stuff." Sander suggested.

"Bay, Lux, Louis, Tessa are you game?" Sander asked everyone, hoping that no one would think he had just gone stark raving mad.

What. A. Spectacle.

Obviously, or Arianna wouldn't be here watching everything. She HATED water with a passion, but as long as she was as far away as possible, there was nothing wrong with watching everything going on. Thank goodness her wavy locks hadn't been affected by whatever was going around the school. So many people were getting gray hair, or it falling out. She had witnessed this in classes already. UGH that would so ruin her year.

She had already placed her outdoor-specific quilt down so she didn't touch the DIRT. Ew. Dirt. She had everything organized specifically - Charms book, Charms notes, parchment, quills, ink, a small sandwich, and a drink lined up for her whenever she needed it.

Except she didn't feel like doing her homework. She felt like talking. But to whom? There were so many people around. Okay, maybe not TOO many. But there were still people around her, and no one seemed interested. Was she sitting up too straight? Was her hair too perfect? Was she being intimidating again without meaning to?

Whatever. Back to the homework she didn't want to do, unless someone distracted her.

Emma was totally enjoying the winter weather. It was cool, but tolerable enough still for her to be able to spend some much needed time outdoors. She was about to go set herself up a spot by herself when she noticed a fellow Ravenclaw girl set herself up a spot right in front of some weird love triangle/square thing. What hot messes. This was exactly why Emma was trying so hard to push any sort or crushy feelings away that she might ever have. It was just so dramatic... and messy. And a waste of time quite frankly.

"Hello there, mind if I join you?" She asked the girl, gesturing to her own bag of books and waterproof quilt. She was so proud of herself, she'd even charmed it to hold on to heat to keep her warm.

"My name is Emma, by the way. Quite the little lover's quarrel they've got going on. It's almost like a Muggle sitcom!" She giggled.

Oh SQUEEEEEEE.

A fellow Ravenclaw! With a quilt! And books! And she was talking to Arianna!

"Go ahead!" she said excitedly. "There's plenty of room to watch. Or do homework. Whatever it is you have in store for the time being. I'm definitely more interested in this than my homework though." Then she paused for a minute. She hadn't introduced herself yet. Big no no for manners. "I'm Arianna. I came out here before I realized what they were doing. I got kind of lost in my own little world out here."

She moved her things around a little bit to accommodate Emma some more. Finally she had something to do, besides watch this... whatever it was.

PDA. Ew.

YAYYYY. A new playmate. "Awesome! To be honest this is totally more interesting to me than just homework.. too bad I forgot to pack more snacks.." Emma sighed, looking at her small pile of goodies. HMPH.

"It's lovely to meet you, Arianna. I like your quilt." She beamed, giggling as she continued to watch the spectacle going on at the lake. "This is actually kind of funny, and gross actually.."

COUPLES. ughh.

Oh Merlin's beard she was already complimenting her choice of quilt. OBVIOUSLY this girl had taste, because duh. Arianna had like, the best taste a semi-mature 13 year old could have. So in return, she looked down and stuck her hand out to brush against Emma's quilt to notice it was heated. Why hadn't she thought of that?! Maybe there was a spell in her book she had to fix that.

"I love that yours is heated. I never thought about doing that," she said. "I'm going to have to do that to one of mine eventually. I just don't feel like getting up to do it now."

Arianna couldn't help but laugh slightly when she mentioned that the event taking place near them was kind of gross. It was. For sure. And it was weird, being 13 and being grossed out by that kind of thing. It was SUCH a waste of time in Arianna's opinion.

"It really is. I hate PDA, and I don't get the fascination with it. I mean of course every girl dreams of the perfect guy, but come on. Have you SEEN some of the boys around here? No thank you."

Emma beamed, she loved receiving praise for her spellwork. "Yeah, one of the best things I've charmed in a long time." She smirked, looking back over at the group of lovers. Wow. Lux was involved, even.

O____o

"My feelings exactly. I know my time will come for boy craziness.. but right now..? Ew." Emma smiled back over at the girl, reaching into her bag to grab some pumpkin pasties and chocolate frogs. Mmm. "Want any?" She asked, extending her arm to hand them to the girl.