Kellen didn't know???? That was heart-hurting, to hear that Kellen didn't KNOW she'd never have him punched in the face. She LIKED his face a WHOLE lot!

Neptune looked away, sitting farther back from him still, and crossed her arms across her chest.


"He came along and I offered him gold to hunt you down and beat you up," Neptune DEADPANNED at him.

POUT.

Kellen probably shouldn't have snorted at that, but he did. A smile was worming its way onto his face as he pointed out, "Now you're sounding like me."

He wasn't quite ready to scoot closer to her, but he did poke her knee with a finger, "Why would Fletcher feel the need to punch me in the face then, do you think? Clearly you weren't anything approaching happy when you asked him to give me that message."

Not feeling bad about possibly making her cry. Not.

...

Maybe a little. Crappy hormones.

"He's SO stupid," Neptune huffed. HUFFY huffed, even. "I ... well, I was a little upset." Very little. Only cried a river of tears while squatting in the greenhouse behind a big leaf. "And Duncan offered to take you a message. All I said was that you were mean and you should pay me more attention and you still owed me flowers."


Which, by the way, he STILL did.


Neptune eyed his pokey finger mournfully. All jokes aside, Neptune got one of her most favorite people beat up. And now she had to apologize because Hufflepuffs were too stupid to live.

"Kellybear... I'm... Well I never meant...I wouldn't ever..." SORRY. Neptune was SOOOOOO pitifully and whole heartedly SORRY.

He couldn't disagree with her there. Fletcher was stupid. Throwing a purse full of bricks at him in class.

Okay, when Neptune was huffing about someone or something that wasn't him, it was actually kind of cute. But he was not, was not going to admit that. Though really, he had to blink at Neptune's message. He was mean; he said it all the time. This shouldn't have been news to anyone.

"It was dumb of me to think you would," he offered sincerely. "I guess you were right, what you said before. I'm really dumb about stuff like this."

As for the flowers... well it was November. And he'd sort of wanted to pick them. Couldn't do that now, could he?

Neptune nodded and agreed. Kellen Stern was dumb sometimes. Most of the time, even? But Neptune still.... would take his severe case of dumb over TOTAL IDIOTITIS that Duncan Fletcher apparently had.


REALLY. He'd REALLY thought Neptune wanted him to punch Kellen in the EYE? Oh mercy be. Neptune refused to meet Kellen's eyes. She was so rarely guilty of anything and THIS was HEAVY guilt. HEAV-Y.


...


She kept opening her mouth to say SOMETHING... anything... but she had nothing. If Kellen Stern got HER punched in the face? She'd likely never forgive him. So, by flipping that logic....

Kellen had EVERY right to HATE her. SAD.

She... didn't have to agree with him. Bah.

But she was also looking tragically miserable. Deserving of the punch from Fletcher, he didn't think he was, but he didn't exactly want Neptune to be all miserable again, either.

Bah.


BAAAAAAAAAAH.

"Well. I guess the good thing about being a dumb boy is that it's not the end of the world when someone hits me."

Grump grump grump.

Neptune turned her big sad eyes on Kellen, then swatted at the air between them. Shooing away his dumb. "Yes it IS, Kellen. It IS," she insisted. "Your face is purple because of me."

Not exactly. It was mostly DUH-CANT Fletcher's fault. But she apparently was the fuel to his stupid fire.


"Are you going to be mad for ages and ages and years?"

"It is purple, and half because of you," because if she got to agree he was dumb, he got to agree it was kind of her fault.

"And I probably won't be on anything approaching friendly terms with Fletcher for a while," (i.e. ever), "but I'm not mad at you." He gave her knee another little poke, "Okay? Not mad at you."

"Can it.... can it be more like a third my fault?" Not to be technical, but if Kellen STERN had just asked her about her name and not stormed off and left her a weepy mess -- then.. well.... Duncan Fletcher wouldn't have come along ,given his handkerchief (that Neptune had been decorating with glitter JUST before she came down the stairs... GUILT GUILT GUILT) to her, made her feel LOTS better, and inevitably punch Kellen as the result.

"I'd be mad at me. I'd be furious and cry and .. Oh Kellen, did you cry? Did it hurt terribly?" Neptune caught his pokey finger and CLUNG to it with both hands.

Kellen tapped a finger off his chin, "That seems fair. All right, a third your fault. And a third mine." And if it made any mathematical sense at all, three quarters Fletcher's.

He looked down at his captured finger, "It hurt pretty badly, yeah. I didn't really cry though. I think he disconnected my tear duct or something." He wouldn't be surprised; that punch had decked him, after all.

Neptune was completely horrified. He'd never be able to CRY again because of her! Oh, tragic awful mess! She was a wretched person (1/3)!!!!!!!!


.... it was just like that Neptune BURST out into tears. A literal BURSTY sob. "I'm so-so-so" SOB "so-rry! I'll cry f-f-f-for youuuuuuu."


End. Of. The. World. Neptune buried her face in her hands and BAWLED on Kellen's behalf. And partly her own, because guilt did NOT suit her.

For a few seconds, the look on Kellen's face was rather like a deer in headlights. Was this... was this what she'd been like after he'd left? It almost made Fletcher's reaction make sense. Almost.

"Neptune... hey, come on..." He scooted over to her and put an arm around her shoulders, hugging her, "It's okay. I'm fine. Really."

Better than Fletcher would be when Raiden got near him, anyway.

Neptune possibly snotted (in her lady-like way) all over Kellen's robes. She CLUNG and SQUALLED and really WAS genuinely sorry.

Why did hugs make her cry HARDER? Tear ducts were stupid. But then, at least hers were intact! WAAAHHH! TEAARRRSSSSSS.

...


Some time later...


HICCUP.

A small sigh escaped him as the dampness of snot soaked through his shirt, but other than that Kellen continued to hug her and rub her back while she sobbed what had to be enough water to fill a cup.


And then...

He blinked and looked down at her. Hiccups? Wow, bad day, Neptune.

Neptune took a shuddery breath and pulled back. BAD bad bad day, indeed! She rubbed her face with the hem of her robe, hoping that the splotchy red would magically wipe away.


HICCUP.


She sniffed and poked at Kellen. "You don't have to give me f-f-flowers anymore."

"I'm still going to get you flowers, Neptune," he rubbed her arm, "just... I was going to be sappy and pick them. Can't really do that with frost on the ground, can I?"

Using a robe as a hanky probably wasn't the most comfortable thing she could put against her face, so Kellen shifted a little and conjured a handkerchief for her. It wasn't patterned or monogrammed or anything, but it would do the trick. Especially when he added a light cooling charm to it.

"Here." He tucked his wand away and touched the hanky to her forehead, "Use this instead."

Still reading the letter from her stepfather, Louisa peered around the armchair she's been sitting on. She was sure to hear something louder than her ears have heard for a while. Oh, yeah it was those couple... wha..? The girl was crying..? Meh.

She turned back and realized that it's time to go outside away from Drama. She tucked the letter back into her bag and mounted it on her back and held the three books between her hands, balanced them carefully on one hand and then made her way towards the portrait hole.

Passing the couple she glanced again "Teenagers.." She mumbled under her breath. She'd make sure that she NEVER become one of those hormones-affected humans with touchy moods and feelings. It was like Enya's bad mood for 24\7. Yuck!

BANG!

She found herself on the ground and something hard was touching her belly. She pushed her bag off her head and tossed it aside annoyed. She straightened herself a bit and found her books piled as a pyramid and made her belly go painfully crazy. Groan.

She sat on the floor hugging her legs and burying her head behind them. No, not crying... swallowing pain and embarrassment more like it. Merlin! How was she supposed to get up and go back to her dorm? UGH!

Kitty came over to her owner watching her as she sat still...too still than usual. Maybe she was normal again? Nah. The little kitten licked Louisa's foot gently asking for attention.. or giving consolation.

Something wet touched her foot which made her, "Aaa!" Her eyes were snapped open to see her lost kitten by her side. "Kitty!" She forgot her pain and everything and hugged the little thing tears coming down suddenly. "Where have you been naughty Kitty? I've been looking all over for you..." She grinned and stared into the cat's green eyes, "..Glad you're back now."

Was it the happy ending everyone told her about..?

Meh.

Izzy walked up and jumped up and down on her shoulders once. (It's like jumping with your feet but hands on the shoulders.) "Hey Skye!" Izzy smiled widely. "What's going on???"

Serena walked over to a First Year whom she thought was called Izzy and a fellow Fourth Year called Skye and waved and smiled shyly.

"Hello there. My name's Serena. Mind if I join you?"

Skye tore her gaze from the fire as a vaguely familiar voice called out to her. She stared at the girl for a moment, trying to remember. Oh yeah. It was the girl from the lake. "Oh, hi!" she said. "Sorry, I didn't recognize you."
Skye looked over as someone walked up. "Of course you can join us," she said in her quiet voice. "My name is Skye."

Ellie walked into the common room with something NEW and shiny. Well...not so shiny. But NEW.

She sat down on the floor by the fire, putting her chess board and things on the floor in front of her. She was never one for chess. She didn't know how to play, and never had the desire to. But, her grandma sent her the present, and she was going to use it.

She pressed the letter that had come with it flat on the floor. There were instructions in it. Her eyes went from the letter to the board and the little pieces with it as she placed them on the appropriate spot. Gotta love her grandma and the very helpful diagram she had drawn. The pieces wriggled and shouted a little when she held them. But, she figured she wouldn't like it much either if people picked her up by her head. And at least they didn't try and run away. If they even could. Hmm.

Now. To play.

With his attention directed to the open Charms textbook in his hands, Max shuffled his feet as he made his way into the common room. He was grateful that the room was relatively quiet. He spotted that pretty second year Ellie out of the corner of his eye. As she seemed busy with her chess game and he was too bashful to steal her attention away, Max sat cross-legged in a massive armchair near her and continued to study, casually observing Ellie out of the corner of his eye from time to time.

So.... that first guy... he goes forward one space, but only the first time?

Right, so, "You." Ellie said. They knew which one she was talking about, right? Ehh, better make sure... She glanced at the letter again. "You at G2." Better. "Go to..." she stole another look at the picture, "Uhm.. G4." Yeah.

She watched the little dude move forward. Hah.

But.... she felt.... watched. She glanced up and looked around her. Ha. It was that kid. That Max kid. So she gave him an exaggerated distressed look. "You wouldn't happen to be able to save me, would you?" Because. She was doomed. Ravenclaw or not, she wasn't the most 'logical'.

Hmm... Locomotor... such a simple spell, really. He wasn't entirely sure why he was studying. Max glanced at Ellie and her chessboard for another few moments. When she looked up, he looked away as quickly as he could, but it didn't seem to be fast enough because she started talking to him.

"Depends on your definition of save, I think." Regardless, he shut his book, slid off the armchair, and crawled over to Ellie. He sat next to her on the floor and examined the board. He had watched his parents play chess before, but he had never played himself. He knew the general rules, though. "I'm not much of a hero."

Ellie smiled as he came to join her. "Well, you might just be my knight in shining armor if you'd play a friendly..." Match? Was that what it was called? Like Quidditch? "Er...Match with me." She gestured to the board.