Paulie smirked and wiggled his eyebrows a little as the pretty pair trotted off for some privacy. Uh huh, good sign, this was! 'HOW CUTE ARE THEY?' "Next golden couple, I tell ya! We called it," Paulie added, pleased with this whole alone time thing. Heheh, no rush! The Gryffindor also had to admit that this double date was soothing any insecurities he might've had about August fancying Tori. Like, PAULIE'S Tori. But he glanced back at Taryn and August and gave another smile. They did look good together..

"Reeaal awesome," he answered simply, tapping his fingers on the table without a care in the world. The two eventually found their way back to he and Tori and then there was lots of.. what would it be... visual conversation? Yeah, Paulie was never very good at that, so he was glad that people started actually talking. "Mmyeah, that's about it. You two all right then?" Was the freak-out thing done..?

Tori beamed at Paulie, very pleased with their matchmaking of the next Golden Couple, and waited for Taryn or August to say something. While she was just sitting there and enjoying the moment, the redhead noticed a dark shadow hovering over her section of the table. Hmm, that was weird...Tori leaned forward a bit to look at the shadow, which was steadily growing larger...that meant that something was coming closer and closer to them....

She looked up then, twisting her red head around madly as she tried to see what it was. Suddenly, the 'shadow' gave out a loud, "HOOO HOOOOOOT!" and landed on the table in a sweep of feathers and wings. Tori screamed and leaped up from the table and on to Paulie's lap.

She wasn't too fond of magical creatures, see, even if they were only owls. The owl danced around the table, dodging whatever was on it, and tried to approach Tori again. She stuck out her hand to shoo it away but the owl had other ideas. It stretched its neck out and delivered a red envelope into her outstretched hand, then promptly took off again, sensing that it wasn't wanted there.

Hands trembling, Tori ripped open the red envelope, afraid that it was a Howler. It wasn't a Howler, thankfully, but it was something just as bad. Her eyes quickly scanned through the letter before tossing it onto the table in a state of angst and shock.

Then she burst into tears and buried her head into Paulie's shoulder, sobbing loudly.

Er... sure. Sure. "Fine." Taryn replied with a nod. She sat down beside Tori, but of course, there was an open seat beside her. You know.. for Auggie.

Ahem.

She was entirely glad for the distraction in owl form, but not so happy when her bff started SOBBING. "What?" She leaned forward, trying to catch a glance at this evil note that had made her BFF so saaaaaaaad. "What's wrong?" STOP CRYING. Taryn didn't know what to DO about that...

She would KISS Auggie RIGHT NOW if it made her BFF stop crying.

What was going on?! The way that owl swung in like he was rabid, paired with Tori's yelping and hopping on his lap, well.. it made Paulie freak out for a second, too! But alas, it was only a letter.

Only a letter..

The sudden sobs coming from his girlfriend convinced him that it must have been about someone's death. Maybe a grandparent? He frowned and put his one arm around Tori while grabbing the letting with his free hand.

He thought the phrasing 'big, Muggleborn boyfriend' was very unsettling as it was, but when he read just a little further, he was hit with a wall. You won't be going back to Hogwarts next year. WHAT? He sent an alarmed look over to Tori, though she was currently blinded with tears, and he chanced a look over at August and Taryn before hurriedly returning his eyes to the letter to finish it.

This was horrible. HORRIBLE! Was there a word worse than 'horrible'?? Somehow her father had managed to take every positive aspect of her year at Hogwarts and transform them into things to be ashamed of. Every mention of him felt like a blow to the stomach, too. Too muggleborn, too old, too poor, too stupid! Paulie had always sorta thought Tori was too good for him, but when all this was laid out before him and given as one of the several reasons that she WASN'T to come back to Hogwarts.. well, Paulie had a lot of emotions going through him all at once. Anger, sadness, hurt, guilt. All at once. But the strongest was probably worry. Worry that Tori really wasn't going to don Slytherin robes this term.

"You can get out of this, though.. right, Tor? I mean, you can sweet talk him, right?" Tori was good at that! Real good at sweet talking and, by from what he'd heard, she was good at doing it to get what she wanted with her parents..

..Yes? PLEASE say yes.

Well, it would have been easier for her to grab the letter and read for herself than wait for Tori to tell her, but Paulie beat her to that. Taryn glanced at Auggie, wondering if he MAGICALLY knew anything about what was going on.

No?

"Can I see that?" She asked, holding out her hand for the letter. She NEEDED to know WHAT WAS HAPPENING!

O_____o

August had just gotten over the awkwardness of being on a date with one of his best friends turned girlfriend and had been looking at the two evil masterminds behind it all that were sitting across from him when Tori began to blubber like a freshly un-potted mandrake.

The boy had never been good dealing with emotions like crying and sadness and this all coming from Victoria Bunbury was even more unsettling. Figuring it was just some family drama put him a tad bit at rest but then the look on Paulie's face confirmed it was something of importance to others also.

He stared at Taryn as she looked to him for answers and he could only wide-eyed shake his head slowly to indicate he had no idea what was happening either. Maybe Tori had been yelled at for coming to this diner. Auggie looked around, it didn't look so bad; what did her parents have against Diners?

"Yeah Paulie can we see that?" he asked the other Gryffindor as he held out his hand, ready to share whatever horrible news lay on that piece of parchment with Taryn.

Tori just continued sobbing like... well, like a freshly potted baby mandrake, ignoring all her friends' pleas for answers as she clung to Paulie like a bowtruckle to a wand tree.

Sweet talk him? No.... no no no no no Paulie. Daddy!Bunbury's word was LAW. She pulled back from his shoulder, letting out a tiny, pathetic hiccup as she made eye contact and shook her head. Then it was back to the crying and sobbing fest as she made a right mess out of his shirt.

Tori did wave a hand toward August and Taryn, though, demonstrating that they, too, should read the HORRIBLE LETTER OF DOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.

Paulie saw the look Tori gave him, the clear 'no' written across her features, and his heart sank - no, not sank - plummeted down to his stomach. No Tori. No Tori? Her head went back to his shirt and the sobs continued, which just made him even more sad, and he really had to try hard to keep himself from blubbering, too! He swallowed hard. Boys weren't supposed to cry and stuff.

"Uh, yeah.." Paulie said, responding to the new couple's question a few moments late. He slid the letter over to the two of them. They'd be heartbroken, too, he thought. Today was just a heartbreak day! Except for Taryn and August's getting together.. Yeah, this sucked and TOTALLY put a damper on that.

Paulie stroked her hair a bit - it was super silky, like usual - and he tried to think of something to make Princess Tori feel better, but under these circumstances, he was having tremendous difficulty. "Well... it's not the end of summer yet; we still have some time..." This was the most optimistic thing he could come up with.

Taryn picked up the letter. She held it so that Auggie could read it as well, but she also intended on handing it over to him after she was finished.

.... This was a bad day. A BAD DAY. Cursed, maybe.

Well. It wasn't THAT bad... not... ALL of it.... but it was definitely bad timing for such horrible and sad news. Taryn frowned and passed the note to August so that he could see it for himself. "I say we train that unicorn to bite him." She muttered bitterly.

This was SO NOT COOL. Taryn really wanted to hug her BFF but she was clinging to Paulie for dear life, so she just sat in her seat and FROWNED.

Tori was so so so so SO excited to see Paulie, at last, that she had worked herself up into a tizzy, and now she was nervously pacing around her bedroom. The redhead alternated between brushing her bright locks and peeking out the window of her bedroom, waiting and hoping that sooner, rather than later, the doorbell would ring and Paulie would sweep her off her feet again.

Apparently it was going to be later rather than sooner. Letting out a dramatic sigh, Tori plopped down on her bed and decided to put on her BFF!shoes, for luck of course. She checked her nails and smoothed her skirt, then decided to go sit at the bottom of the stairs and wait for Paulie.

Hopefully he'd gotten her owl and had found the place easily enough. It was like, in a Muggle neighborhood and everything....

FINALLY.

Paulie was going to see Tori. PAULIE WAS GOING TO SEE TORI.

He was so pumped to see this girl that the fact that she came from a preeeetty wealthy background totally slipped his mind. Until, of course, he saw her house. He stopped and peered up at the place, his mouth slightly ajar. She lived here?!?!

It was kinda intimidating.. Actually, more intimidating than the house was the prospect of meeting Mr. Bunbury. Lucky Paulie wore nicer clothes today, even if his pale yellow shirt was in desperate need of an ironing.

The sixteen-year-old hopped up to the front door and rang the doorbell, then stole a glance through the window in hopes that he might see a flash of red.

Tori had just settled into a comfy position at the bottom of the stairs when the doorbell chimed. She jumped up to get it before a butler could, calling out loudly, "I GOT ITTTTTT," and racing the last few feet to the door.

She yanked it open and squealed, not just because Paulie looked SO CUTE today, not just because she hadn't seen him in like FOREVER, and not just because he was like ON TIME, but mostly because he was finally, really, really here, and she was not gonna let him out of her sight for as long as possible.

"PAULIE!" the redhead squeaked, throwing herself on him for some massive bearhugs. She snuggled into him and wrapped her legs about his torso, clinging like starfish to her boyfriend. "I MISSED you!"

Right as Paulie heard the loud, familiar voice calling 'I GOT ITT' from the other side of the door, he anticipated her imminent appearance with a super wide, excited grin. And, if you thought his smile couldn't get any bigger, then you thought WRONG. Because when an equally eager Tori flung herself onto him, his stretched cheek muscles all but blinded him.

"TORIIIIIII," he said, drawing out her name as he squeezed her even tighter. She smelled just as good as always. "Well, I'm sure that I missed you more," he laughed. He really probably did.

After he finally determined that he could quit squeezing her so lung-deflatingly tightly because she was not going to disappear, Paule pulled back. Why did he do this? HULLO!? So he could KISS her! And he didn't waste another second either. The boy stretched his neck a little and kissed her like he hadn't kissed her for the better part of a YEAR.

Tori just kept clingggggging to Paulie like he was a life raft and she was a Titanic survivor. She was so busy inhaling his nommy cologne, his Paulie-ness, and such that she almost forgot about the most best imporantest part of having a boyfriend-- the KISSES, DUH!

"Mmmmmm," the redhead murmured, kissing him back just as enthusiastically. She only stopped when she heard the old French maid behind them making a stuffy throat-clearing sound, and it was then that Tori finally climbed down from Paulie.

She clung to his hand instead of his whole torso now. His hand would have to do. "SO!" she chirped, shooing the nosy maid away with her free hand, "wouldja like to SEE the place? You didn't have any trouble getting here, did you?" Tori looked at Paulie with some concern as she tugged him into the mansion. She'd been half afraid he wouldn't even WANT to see her, since she was an awful pen pal and all.

What was that noise??

Oh. It was the old maid lady clearing her throat EXTRA loudly and giving Paulie the hairy eyeball. Heheh, oops. Paulie gave a little, guilty smirk and soon found himself being led right past the disapproving woman and into the mansion.

He whistled, impressed, when he looked up at the tall ceilings and all the expensive-looking stuff. "Yesss, show me the rest of your castle, Princess." Even though he didn't doubt that a tour here might last HOURS. It would be HOURS with TORI. Did he have any trouble getting here?! The boy grinned and gave one, curt laugh. "Here? Tori, I think it's a little hard to miss!"

He swung their hands and glanced around one more time, then turned to look at her again. "So, how was Beauxbatons?" And all those FRENCHIES.

Hehehe he was still calling her Princess! YAY! Tori gave Paulie's hand a squeeze and ignored the maid as she led him up the grand marble staircase first. She giggled, of course, at his joke about the size of their mansion and gave him a little shrug.

"Well, what can I say, we're wealthy." Tori made this comment as if it was no big deal, which to her, it wasn't. Her dad HAD worked hard for their galleons though, sorta, if one could say being a stunt double was really hard work.

Tori rolled her eyes at his question about school as they reached the second floor landing. "Oh. My. GOSH. I hated it. I wrote to everyone under the sun, asking, telling, begging, PLEADING to please come back to Hogwarts." She snorted. "You can see how THAT worked out."

She led him past a gallery full of Eastern Asian armor and weaponry and continued on, obviously intent on showing him her BEDROOM first.

Paulie tripped over his feet a little as Tori suddenly tugged him up the stairs, but he recovered quickly and without the notice of his girlfriend. Wealthy? UHM, YEAH. "I can see that," he laughed. It was kinda a lot to take in, though. Paulie's whole home was probably the size of Tori's bedroom.

Not that Paulie had wanted Tori to be sad at Beauxbatons - 'cause he didn't like her sad in general - but.. well, he wasn't wholly upset that she wasn't particularly fond of it. He just didn't want it to be better than Hogwarts, at least, because that's where they had been at school together. "Yeah, not good." And Paulie would wager that it all came down to that father of hers. Pffffft. "But I guess that's why you couldn't write to me much, hmm? Too caught up trying to get outta there," he teased. He honestly wasn't mad that they didn't get to write each other much - letters just weren't the same as being with one another; but that didn't mean that Paulie would neglect to hassle her about it. heheh.

Tori was in such a hurry that she totally started walking by some huge display of armor without even batting an eye! Or maybe she saw it so much that it was no longer very fascinating. Paulie, however, was fascinated with ANYTHING to do with armor, swords, weapons, battle, etc. Hence, he pulled on Tori's hand as he slowed. "Whoa.. what's this?"

Tori smiled over at Paulie, trying to think up a good excuse for not writing more, and really coming up with nothing. "Well, you did get my message about being in detention for like, one month straight, right?" She flicked a bit of swishy red hair over one shoulder. "I was basically CHAINED to this disgusting, stained table in the bottom of the dungeons, I kid you not. And all they wanted to give me for dinner was bouillabaisse."

You know, that smelly French fish stew? Yeah, that one.

"ANYWAY," Tori attempted to change the subject, only to find that her boyfriend had stopped by like the most boring household decoration ever. "What's that?" She tilted her head toward the quasi-armory and shrugged. "Just my dad's samurai/movie props and weapons collection." She eyed the obvious fascination in Paulie's eyes. "Wanna go in?"

Of course he did. Just look at the boy. She rolled her eyes to herself and started tugging him into the room now. Slight detour, but eh, it just meant Paulie would be meeting her dad sooner! "My dad like, LIVES in this room," Tori added belatedly, "but he's been wanting to meet you anyway."

The evil, mean old man.

Arnold P. Bunbury came around the corner of one of the ancient Chinese suits of armor and raised an eyebrow, having heard young voices all the way from the back of his gallery. He knew they didn't see him yet, since all he could see was the back of Tori leading the tall boy --- this was Paul, yes? --- on the most complicated route through his collection possible.

Show off. He shook his head and crossed his arms, leaning back against the wall with one boot propped against it casually. He'd just... wait to pop out and surprise 'em. Yep.

Paulie grinned and turned to Tori, his eyebrow quirking up. "You got detention, too?" For... ONE MONTH STRAIGHT? His eyes bulged a little. Man, that made his seem like nothing! They either must have been reeaally severe at Beauxbatons OR Tori committed some pretty darn impressive crime. "What'd ya do?? And.... I don't know what bouey-.... whatever that word is. Sounds gross, though."

Just her dad's samurai/movie props and weapons collection. Oh yeah, 'cause these were so common. Pffffft. "Yes!" But Tori appeared to have been using her mind-reading powers because she was tugging him in before he had even answered.

His mouth hung slightly ajar as he tried his best to get a glimpse of all the armor and weaponry on either side of him before Tori led him further. He stopped, though, when his eyes landed upon a particular collection of swords. SWORDS. There was absolutely, positively no cooler weapon than the sword. And here were fancy, real ones. "Whoa." He examined the intricacy of the hilt and moved his eyes along the length of the blade, right to the tip. Paulie was mesmerized, to say the least. BUT, the moment Tori mentioned Pops, his head whipped toward her, eyes slightly wider than normal. "Your dad..?"

...

GULP.

"Yep...." Tori's gaze flicked over toward Paulie, her eyes narrowing just because she knew what his detention was for. And it was definitely nothing at all like what she'd done to earn her detentions.

"Bouillabaisse," Tori pronounced the soup as if she was doing an impression of one of the snooty French girls at her school, "is a gross fish stew. It smells DISGUSTING." She wrinkled her nose and shook her head. "And you don't even wanna know what I got detention for." The redhead rang a finger along one of the swords in front of them. "Let's just say... I was sort of a brat."

"I think that's a bit of an understatement, Victoria," Arnold spoke at last, pushing off the wall and strolling out of the shadowy corner. He came up on Paulie and Tori from behind, laying a big, heavy hand on both their shoulders and carefully but forcefully prying them apart.

He planted himself between Tori and Paulie, effectively blocking his daughter from the boy's sight. "Arnold P. Bunbury, Muggle Stunt Double and Wizard Motion Pictures Producer." Arnie held out a hand. "You must be Paul."

Paulie tried not to grin when Tori narrowed her eyes at him. No one held a candle to Tori, duh. And that detention WAS totally a misunderstanding. So, seeing her a liiiittle mad was actually kinda cute.

The seventeen-year-old did not attempt to repeat this 'bouillabaisse.' Why did the French need such a long, complicated word just to describe a soup? He crinkled his nose when she described it, though. "Eww, nasty. I hate fish as it is." The taste AND the smell.

Apparently he 'didn't even wanna know' what she got detention for? PFFFT. He thought not! And that statement only made him all the more curious. "A brat?" Too vague, muuuch too vague. Tsk, tsk, Tori; didn't she know that if Paulie were a kitty cat he would have been DEAD from curiosity long ago?!

But he hadn't the opportunity to wriggle it out of her because another voice had cut in. Although Paulie didn't recognize it, he immediately knew whose it was. The father.

The very one who was now prying him and Tori away from each other. Tori disappeared behind the man and Paulie was left standing before him, feeling more vulnerable without his girlfriend next to him. "Oh, hi. That's an impressive, uh.. title." The fact that Arnold here immediately defined himself by his job may have been saying something about the guy. He shook his hand. 'Paul'.. "Paulie, yeah.. Nice to meet you, Mr. Bunbury."

He did his best to conceal the tinge of nervousness spreading from his stomach.

"Me too," Tori was just starting to say, all prepared to launch into a story about this one time she'd decided to dump soup on her prefect rather than eat the disgusting food, only to discover that her father had seen them, apparently, and now he was literally coming in between she and her love.

Hmmph.

"Hi DAAAAAAD," she brayed obnoxiously, trying to wave her arms over his head so that Paulie would at least KNOW she was still THERE and all. "Can you like, come interrupt us later or something? I was just showing Paulie your toy collection."

"It's a pleasure." Arnold purposefully ignored his daughter and, after shaking Paulie's hand and resisting the urge to crush all his fingers folded one muscly arm over the other.

"Yes, it takes a lot of work and talent to break into my business," he drawled, sizing the boy up with his eyes at the same time. "Tell me, Paul, what is it you hope to do after graduation? Tori has recently informed me that you're actually two years older than her. So that means you'll be a graduate this time next year."

He continued to staaaaaare at the boy, adding belatedly, "And it's not a toy collection, Victoria, it's a collection of actual makes and mock-ups of props I've used in my films. Some are real vintage items, I'll have you know."

Paulie really had been expecting a vice-like handshake from Arnold Bunbury. His guns were big enough and Paulie knew very well that, in spite of the fact that they had never even MET, Mr. Bunbury wasn't his biggest fan.

He cleared his throat awkwardly when her dad sized him up. Maybe he was thinking that Paulie could never be a stunt double. He totally could, though. If he wanted to be one, ya know. "Uh, yeah. I graduate after this term," he affirmed. "And, you can call me 'Paulie,'" he added, when Mr. Bunbury called him Paul again. He must have a thing for calling people by their full names 'cause he kept calling Tori Victoria.

Speaking of Tori, the dude was STILL blocking her from him, save the redhead's flapping arms for a moment. He was like a WALL. Anyway.. what did Paulie want to do after graduation? Arnie wasn't wasting any time, was he? Paulie Foster was VERY tempted to reply with how, after graduation, he and Tori were going to elope and marry and live in the Bahamas forever, but somehow, Paulie came to the conclusion that Mr. Bunbury would not appreciate his humor like Tori would have.

"I wanna join the Army. Or the Air Force.." The Air Force was his dream, but as of now, he was still scared of flying in planes, so..

Yeah he wasn't going to cal the kid 'Paulie' any time soon. Not as long as he was dating HIS daughter, anyway. He might like the kid enough to call him 'Paulie' one day... but that day was decades away at least.

Anyway.

"Army or Air Force, eh?" Arnie made a tiny surprise!face of approval. "I wouldn't have pegged you for such a Muggle lover." The boy WAS a wizard, right? So far, no magical talent was yet detected. "You know, I once played a stunt double for a guy in a movie about the American Air Force. He wasn't RAF, you know, but I did get to spend a lot of time around sweet Muggle fighter planes..."

Tori cleared her throat loudly so as not to be forgotten. "Paulie's good at protecting people, Dad," she added helpfully, leaning around her father to grin at her boyfriend. "He once saved me from a bunch of carnies."

"Is that so?" Arnold's eyebrows went up even more though he didn't blink. "Just how did you save her, Paul? Magic?" Snorttttt.

Paulie nodded. He was surprised to find that maybe, just maybe, Mr. Bunbury actually thought this was a cool career path, too. It got super annoying when everyone would respond with how the military had nothing to do with magic and stuff. DUH. He was aware of that. Muggle lover? Okayyy. "Sure, I guess I like 'em just the same as witches and wizards.." He wasn't really sure how else to respond to that.

Mr. Bunbury went on to tell him about how he had gotten to play the stunt double in an air force movie, so he got to hang out with actual fight planes and stuff. Gosh, LUCKY. This guy had armor and swords galore AND worked around jets and fighter planes. "Oh man, that's so cool!" The nerves were wearing off as Paulie eased into fun topics like this. "What movie was it?"

Then Tori piped up and he spotted her maneuver around her father to grin at him. This triggered an immediate grin from him, too, and his thoughts went waaaaaay back to that carnival where they met.

"Yes and no," Paulie answered Arnold Bunbury, who was STILL calling him Paul. "I saved her, but not with magic. I, er.." heheh. Was this even considered a rescue by anyone other than Fostbury..? "I took the brunt of an exploding lemonade for her. Then I saved her from some freaks in an inflatable bounce castle." Awwww, such good times!