Pretending all this chaos isn't happening.

Louis loved spring.
The birds chirping, the trees growing green, the flowers blooming, the warmth of the sun. And, best of all, the amazing opportunity to finally wear t-shirts featuring his favourite Quidditch teams. No more blazers, coats, jackets, sweaters. This was the kind of weather that inspired him to be outside, to explore the grounds.

Exploring wasn't in the agenda this afternoon, though. No, Lou had very specific plans as he walked across the grounds toward the lake and onto the dock, carrying a number of things with him - a blanket, a picnic basket (filled with treats he'd prepared himself with help of the kitchen elves), a small gift bag, and pink roses. The lady's favourite.

Once on the dock, Louis proceeded to set everything down, laying out the blanket and organizing himself. To say he was nervous was an understatement. How could he not be? His friendship with Delilah had reached a point where, if this date didn't work out, they would be left to go their own separate ways. It was a good thing his best mate was near to advise him, should he pull a wrong move and jeopardize everything.

Sitting on the edge of the dock, Lou absentmindedly gazed at the calm waters of the lake, his feet only a few inches from the surface. And so, he waited.

Sophie had asked Adi a question, which he hadn't exactly had time to answer, but she really should have added--..."We should get you to the Hospital Wing now. I..." She paused. This was one of the first times she'd ever felt terrible about her old-age condition. Up until now, she'd just had such high hopes that they'd just take a potion and be done with it. But no. She looked toward the stretcher. "I don't think I can carry it. Can we levitate it?" she asked.

She looked toward Benny, thinking maybe he might want to help levitate Adi, as well. Would the levitation be too hard on her? She guessed she'd find out soon enough...

Delilah had been feeling slightly nervous ever since she got Lou's note. Wait, no. Extremely nervous. She couldn't believe this was happening, to be honest. This was going to be her first date ever.. and with Lou. Yeah, she'd obviously been looking forward to it.. but having never been on a date before, she was kind of worried about messing it up. Big time.

But as the blonde briskly made her way down to the lake, she couldn't help but relax a little. It was just so warm and lovely outside. Besides, from what his note said, it looked like they were going to be swimming.. Now, that was something she absolutely loved. Heh. It was going to be fiiine. She had nothing to worry about, yeah?

The corners of her lips automatically lifted up in a small smile when she spotted him sitting on the dock. She slowed down to a stop, the smile on her face widening to a grin. Taking off her shoes, Delilah quietly walked towards where he was sitting and wrapped her arms around his neck from behind before giving him a small peck on his cheek.

"Hey, there." More GRINNING.

Louis watched absentmindedly as the clouds passed, sometimes covering the sun and casting a light shadow upon the grounds. Mmm. This was so relaxing… BUT. Where was Delilah? Lou hadn’t really been keeping up with the time, but he was sure it was past one o’clock already. OH NO. What if she had bailed? What if she laughed when she got his note, crumbled it up into a paper ball, and hit the nearest first year with it?! Wait, since when was Delilah a bully? Silly paranoid boy.

Lou furrowed his brows as he thought over the possibilities when, suddenly, someone had wrapped their arms around him. And kissed his cheek. Startled by the newcomer’s arrival, Louis turned around sharply, his blue eyes widening as they fell upon Delilah.

Merlin’s dirty socks, she looked gorgeous!
Lou kind of just sat there staring at her blankly for a moment before realizing he should probably say something. “D— you came!” He grinned, picking up the flowers that lay beside him and bringing himself up to his feet. “I… These are for you.” With a smile, the boy handed her the bouquet of pink roses.

Date test number one: flowers.

"Of course, I came." Delilah frowned. Wait.. he wasn't expecting her to come? Didn't he want her to come? He didn't want this date!? No, that was ridiculous. He wouldn't have asked her out if that was the case, yeah? Okay, she was just starting to panic again, for no reason whatsoever.

.. "You look really nice." She finally said, with a small smile. He always did. The girl then took a moment to appreciate the arrangements he'd made. A picnic by the lake.. how perfect. The pink roses made the girl very nearly squeal.. and a gift. Oh, wow. She grinned happily, her eyes slowly travelling back to his face. "I'm impressed."

"Thank you." Delilah said, accepting the flowers, still looking at him with a rather surprised look on her face. "I can't believe you remembered... that I like pink roses. It was a long time ago."

Louis’s smile turned sheepish as Delilah complimented the way he looked, even though he looked like he did pretty much every day at Hogwarts. “Thanks. You look…” the boy’s gaze dropped to take in the sight of her before looking up at her blue eyes again. “You look stunning.” As always. Did she ever have a bad hair day? A bad outfit day? Anything? Maybe she was half veela or something.

Oh, and apparently she was impressed?
Lou raised his eyebrows slightly but tried not to make the relief too obvious. WHEW. He’d have to remember to buy Bay a thousand chocolate frogs for helping him set this up. “Good. That was the idea,” he confessed with a smile.

Louis chuckled softly at her surprise. Aw c’mon, it’s true he was momentarily 80-years-old for like half the term, but he wouldn’t forget something like that. “It wasn’t that long ago,” he said with a shrug. Even though the term was almost over by now, Lou still felt like he’d met Delilah yesterday. Probably because they didn’t really spend a lot of time together, except for that one night after the Valentine’s dance. Ahem-hem-hem. This is not the time to be thinking about that, Bolton.

“I’m glad you still like them, then…” Lou ruffled his own hair distractedly, as he often did when he felt a little awkward and unsure of what to do with himself. There was a brief second of silence before he snapped back to reality. “I’ve brought you something else, though.” Grin. Oohohoho. He was quite excited to give her the gift. HOPEFULLY she would think it was as funny and clever as he thought it was. “C'mon, let's sit down.” He took the girl’s free hand and gently pulled her down with him to sit down on the blanket.

Stunning? Delilah blushed a little. Honestly, she had no idea what to wear. Like, what did one even wear to a date? The girl would have asked her friends for help but she hadn't really told anyone about this yet. Talking about it would mean getting her hopes up.. Like, what if things didn't end well? She'd just end up getting terribly disappointed. Anyway, she was very glad that he liked it. "Really? I don't look too... casual?"

The blonde closed her eyes and slowly breathed in the scent of the roses, smiling a little. SIGH. "Yeah, but still.. It's so thoughtful. Thanks. I absolutely love them." Delilah finally said, opening her eyes. "Did you have these delivered from France too?" Her eyes went back to the flowers she held in her hand, still smiling.

... Brought her something else? Delilah looked up to see him with a rather excited grin on his face. The gift.. Yeah. She really wondered what that was. Chocolate frogs!?!? That would be perfect because she was kind of running low on sweets at the moment. The girl grinned as she gracefully sat down, carefully placing the roses on her lap.

"So.. what is this?"

Bradley looked down at the boy's leg. It looked good from here. He gave him (Adi) a smile. "You're welcome." It was his job but still.

He nodded at the boy (Benny) who was going to lead him to the hospital. "Thanks...what's your name?" Because names were important at this point.

Brad looked at the old looking girl (Sophie) as she asked a question. "I should be able to get him on the stretcher, but if you would like to help levitate it up to the hospital wing you can." Normally he would ask the oversized man (Kirby) to help him, but he didn't need that guy hurting himself even more. And Brad was strong but there was no way he could carry that stretcher by himself.

Brad carefully placed the injured boy on the stretcher and pulled out his wand, before slinging his bag over his shoulder. He pointed his wand at the stretcher and watched it slowly levitate up a bit. Not to high. "Ready whenever you are." He nodded at the boy leading the way.

Adeline was super excited for the Slytherin/Hufflepuff match this weekend. She really needed to go for a run, she had to be in tip top shape for this match. The seventh year knew it was going to be a good one and not because her boyfriend was on the Slytherin team. Adeline started out at a fairly slow pace, she needed to ease into a good running pace. The seventh year was a bit disappointed that she had forgotten her iPod in the common room. Adeline just loved running with just music to keep her focused on the run so she didn't have to worry about her breathing. Adeline had finally found a good pace as she ran along the side of the black lake.

It was such a nice day in May, so Lux was skipping small stones across the surface of the calm lake. The last time she had come here, she had ended up talking to Bartholomew Henry, and that had been so amazing. Maybe one day she would get him to come to the surface for another conversation, because there was no way she would be swimming in the lake ever.

As she skipped, she heard someone coming towards her, she turned and saw it was Adeline. She was running by the lake, and waving to her, Lux hoped that her friend would see and come say hello. She had not talked to Adeline in a while, and was going to miss her when she left Hogwarts.

Louis shook his head with a smile as Delilah asked if she looked too casual. Psh. She was asking HIM this? The guy wearing a Falmouth Falcons t-shirt to a date. He couldn’t help it he was fashion-impaired, though.

The boy’s smile grew into a happy grin as Delilah confessed how much she liked the flowers. Aww. She was so pretty, all blonde with her pink lips, and bright smile, and pink roses framing her perfect features. And he totally wasn’t just staring at her lips moving like a total weirdo. “I’m sorry—what?” It took him a second to realize what she’d said next. “Oh—Right. Yeah—yeah, my grandmother sent me those from her garden,” he confessed with a nod. Suddenly, his eyebrows raised. “Oh! Actually, she sent us some macaroons, too. You like those, don’t you?” Lou began to search the basket and pulled out a few of the colourful treats for the kids to share, offering Delilah a pink one.

And then Delilah was curious about her gift.
Oh, right. He had to hand that over, didn’t he? The boy bit at his bottom lip to keep himself from smiling with too much amusement. He had no idea what to expect - would she laugh? Would she hate it? Would she think he was sick for getting her it? Or would she think he was being clever? Well, only one way to find out.

“I’m sorry I missed your birthday, D…” he started apologetically as he picked up the small gift bag and offered it to the girl with a guilty smile. “... Happy birthday.”

The seventeen year olds mind was just going in ever direction. She was thinking about graduation, Asher, Ashlynn, Quidditch and the rejection letter that she got from University. Adeline hadn't told Asher about filling out the application, alls she wanted to do was surprise him but she didn't get accepted and she was being to to feel worthless. The seventh year didn't even know what she wanted to do with her future, she had thought she wanted to be a healer but she thought wrong. Adeline felt like being a healer would be a bad choice but she didn't know why it would have been a bad choice.

Adeline stopped for a moment to catch her breath. Honestly all this thinking about the future and her past just scared her half to death. She needed to focus on the match. Adeline turned her head to look around. Her hands were on her hips. Then she saw a familiar face wave. Adeline walked over to Lux. "Hey. How have you been?"

As soon as Adeline reached her, Lux pulled her into a hug. She did not care that the older girl might be sweaty from running, Lux had missed her and would miss her more when she was gone. Why couldn't Adeline be younger and stay at Hogwarts with her? "Hey, I have been good. How about you?"

Happy to see her friend, Lux beamed and started skipping the small rocks again. Soon she would be leaving Hogwarts for a few months. This school year had gone by so fast, and she would be saying goodbye to some people soon. It was a good thing she would still be seeing them in Hogsmeade and during the summer.

Sigh.

Jun didn't like being here. But the astro homework clearly said to post up your posters where people were most likely to go. And that, for once, meant the lake. Because everyone liked being at the to go swimming, the breezes or just get away from the stuffy castle. But not him. He'd rather go into the forbidden forest and nowhere near water. But this had to be done. For Pluto's sake. Taking out the first poster from his bag, Jun enchanted it with the sticking charm and stuck it onto a tree near the water. Quickly adjusting it and all, he became satisfied with it and left.

No more need to be near water. Bye.

Alright, deciding to take a break after lunch, Jonas found him self st rhe black lake. It was kind of weird. He hasn't made any friends yet. Which is kind of weird. He thought that a bad reputation for Slytherins had passed. He shrugs and sits down on the ground next to the lake. He opens a book about Quiditch that he had gotten at the library and begins reading it.

"I like your grandmother. She seems lovely." Delilah said, with approval. MACAROONS! She loved those. Oh, well.. she did have a sweet tooth and liked pretty much every kind of sweet/chocolate out there but macaroons were delicious! "Thanks." But instead of taking it, she leaned in and took a small bite from the offered sweet in his hand. What? It was cute, yes? Romantic even........... or not. Heh. ANYWAY. It was gooooood. Really good. "Tell her I said thanks."

... OH, right. Lou hadn't wished her, which had kind of made her upset but he at least, he remembered now and also managed to buy her a gift. "Thank you!" Delilah smiled up at him before accepting the bag. What could it be, what could it beeee? She eyed the bag curiously for a moment before removing the small gift-box from inside. Giving him another small grin, she opened it and...


........... BLINK.


WHAT. EVEN. Delilah could feel her face burn as she stared at the contents, unable to speak. What. How. WHY. No, it wasn't a bad gift at all... BUT. It was so unexpected! She finally looked up at him, suddenly feeling the urge to laugh. "This.... um.... wow." Delilah's gaze shifted towards the box once more before meeting Lou's eyes once again. "You..... um..... it's the correct... size?" He'd actually noticed the size!? And actually remembered? Did that mean...? ...

O_O

Louis smiled as Delilah approved of his granny. Awww. That was so nice of her. “Thanks, she likes you too,” he said with no— WAIT. Wait, did he just say— Wide-eyed, Louis looked away for a moment and internally face!palmed. Right, yeah, that wasn’t embarrassing at all, talking to your granny about the girl you like. What was he, a little boy?

Thank Merlin Delilah was soon distracted with opening her gift, and Louis forgot his earlier embarrassment to watch with an eager smile as she opened the box. And she just STARED. The boy wasn’t sure whether to run away or laugh. What did she think?! He couldn’t tell from her expression, but he did notice her cheeks turn the loveliest shade of pink. “Do you like it?” Cheeky grin.

At Delilah’s following question, Louis nodded his head confidently. “I’m certain.” Yeah because he, uh, hadn’t thought about that night for like every second in the past week or so. He probably even remembered what color her nails were painted.

... UH!? Delilah just looked at him, raising an eyebrow in surprise. His granny liked her too? So, that meant he talked to his granny about her!? She tucked her hands in the pockets of her shorts, remaining quiet for a few moments before blurting out, "So... she knows about me?" She probably shouldn't have asked since he looked quite embarrassed but the girl couldn't help it. She was curious.

Did she like it? Heh. Delilah laughed and nodded a little, still blushing. Oh, gosh. This was so funny. "Yes, I do. It's very.. pretty." She looked down again, the corners of her lips lifting up in a small smirk. "..Maybe you'll get to tell me if.... it looks good on me sometime."

Louis looked liked a bludger had just hit him in the face. He’d been kind of hoping that Delilah hadn’t noticed that slip-up, but. Too late. She totally noticed.

“Well…” Lou started slowly, looking at the water absentmindedly because he couldn’t look Delilah in the eye. “I mean, I guess she got suspicious when her fifteen-year-old grandson randomly started asking her to send roses,” he explained with a soft chuckle, looking over at Delilah again. “So… I told her. About you, I mean.” He hoped she didn’t feel awkward about it or anything; he knew it was a weird thing to hear, but well, he couldn’t exactly tell his granny ‘oh I just want the roses to keep in the boys’ dormitories, we think they’d look lovely.’

The Gryffindor boy was grinning again when Delilah approved of his unusual gift, feeling pretty smug to have thought of it. Ha, he was probably the only one to give her a bra for her birthday. … Wait, he was, right? Ohmygoodness, what if Delilah secretly kept a collection of birthday bras in one of her drawers!?

And then. Her next words.
Lou’s blue eyes widened significantly, and he felt his face growing unusually warm as his cheeks and ears suddenly turned a vibrant shade of red. Yeah, he… he hadn’t been expecting that at all.

“I… I would love that,” he confessed with a sheepish smile, looking down at the water again and running a hand through his hair. A;SKF;LDJDFG. RIGHT. SO. “Um, so— so, are you hungry? I made us some things,” he turned back to the girl with a smile, trying to move on past the awkwardness. They still had a date to get through, remember?

Delilah took another macaroon and bit into it, nodding her head slightly as she listened to the boy speak. The girl turned to stare at the lake for a few seconds, absently running a hand through her hair."Riiiight.. What did you tell her about me? Everything good, I hope." She finally said with a small, looking at him with a small smile. Honestly, she thought it was cute. The fact that he'd actually talked about her with someone.. It kind of made her feel special.

.. And then she watched him blush, unable to keep the smirk off her face. It was literally so adorable that she just wanted to squish his face. The colour suited him, really.... On second thought, she probably shouldn't have said that even though she was just being honest. It was, well....... and now, it was her turn to blush once again. "I'd love that, too." The girl muttered, feeling slightly ashamed. Uh. What was wrong with her!?

HUNGRY. Oh, yes! Delilah nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, I am. I haven't had anything to eat since morning.. Wait, what? YOU made? Really?" Her smile turned to a bright grin. He cooked for them!? Awwwwwww!

Louis knew he should’ve expected her question. Still, it didn’t make him any less awkward. “Everything good, of course,” he confirmed with a nod. “Just… that I’d met a girl who liked pink roses and looked great in photographs,” he confessed with a shrug and a small smile, his memory going back to that day he’d first met Delilah. It felt like both a distant and recent memory at the same time, he wasn’t sure why.

”I’d love that, too.”
The Gryffindor boy grinned stupidly at this, much like any typical boy would. The thought was such a tease, though. What if the date failed horribly? What if by the end of the afternoon, Delilah decided she actually couldn’t stand him? Then this daydream would remain just that. A dream. Best not get his hopes up.

Louis chuckled softly when Delilah grinned delightedly at the idea of him cooking. “I mean— I just made a few sandwiches and cupcakes,” he explained, just in case Delilah thought he was going to randomly pull out a three-course meal or something. The boy began to pull out napkins and a plate from the basket (which had been enchanted to fit a lot more than it normally would) and set them up between himself and the blonde girl.

“So, I’ve brought… turkey sandwiches, cucumber sandwiches” - these had been the result of hanging out with Lux too much, obviously - “spinach wraps, and chocolate cupcakes.” He placed each food item between them as he listed it, creating a neat little display of small tea sandwiches and wraps surrounded by frosted cupcakes.

Delilah continued smiling. She was excited and nervous at the same time. Did this mean that he was actually serious about her? The girl could tell that he liked her.. but she wasn't sure. What if he just liked his kisses? What if he thought she was boring? Or weird?... The smile on her face faded slightly as she mentally shook her head. Yeah, no. She couldn't panic now. "That's nice. It makes me happy that.. you told her about me."

... Oh, yeah. Back to foooood! Which obviously made her grin, forgetting her earlier nervousness. "Sounds fantastic." She watched curiously as he began to set the contents of the basket on the blanket, trying not to look TOO excited. This was so lovely, though! He really didn't have to go through so much trouble. She'd been have been equally happy if he'd just given her a chocolate frog. "Thank you. You know..." She looked down for a moment before she raised her eyes to meet his. "For all this." It just had to be said.

... Turkey sandwiches? UM. She flushed slightly, suddenly feeling bad. Oh, gosh. He didn't know, did he? "... I'm a vegetarian so.. if you don't mind..." Delilah said, hoping that she didn't sound incredibly rude. The girl looked away with a small sigh. He was going to hate her now, wasn't he? Yeah, she could everything else but still! He'd made them for her and she felt like a complete idiot.

Caelen couldn't believe how fast time had flown. And next year, she would get to be at Hogwarts with her best friend in the whole wide world! Spencer! That was exciting. The redhead couldn't wait to joke around with him. It'd be like at Nate's place, except they'd actually be learning something. Although the short Ravenclaw DID have to attribute half of her flying ability to the pair. Not that that was something to brag about. She wasn't the best flyer, to say the least.

Taking some candy out of her bag, the girl with the braid sat in the grass and popped some in her mouth. The sweetness filled her tongue and the child bit down on the sugary treat to let more come. Nom, nom, nom.

Thinking of the impending end of the school year actually made her homesick for some odd reason. Maybe because she was anxious to go back home to her family. Or maybe she felt guilty that she .... kind of forgotten about them halfway through the year. The blue eyed girl still wrote notes to them and got letters back, but she hadn't been reading them as much. And for some reason that made her sad. Some reason that the little dramatic kid couldn't explain.

Louis’s eyebrows raised slightly. She was happy? Really? He thought she’d find him a total weirdo for writing about her, so hearing her words was definitely a pleasant surprise. Whew. So he wasn’t as creepy as he thought. “Good, because she’ll probably want a full report on this date later,” he said with a soft chuckle, half-joking. No, really, she was probably going to ask him about it next time she wrote.

When the girl proceeded to thank him for the food, Lou grinned. “You don’t have to thank me.” It was his job as the person setting up the date to make sure they had food, right? BUT. Then. Delilah shared something Louis had no idea about. At her words, the boy’s blue eyes widened. OHMYGOSH, Delilah was vegetarian and he didn’t even know! What kind of date was he?!

“D— I’m so sorry, I had no idea,” the boy apologized, mentally smacking himself on the forehead for his stupidity. Right, he probably should’ve asked her about this or something before the date. How could he forget people had allergies and made food decisions and stuff?! Not everyone is a glutton like you, Bolton. “I—I’ll just eat those myself, don’t worry about it,” the boy decided with a sheepish grin. Strangely, this had sort of worked out to his advantage because turkey sandwiches were Lou’s favourite thing ever. Seee? They totally made a good team. They balanced each other with important things like food, yeah?

Full report on the date? AHEM. Delilah smiled shyly, absently running her fingers through her messy hair again. "Well... I hope I get to meet her someday." 'Cause his grandma seemed pretty cool. She was pretty sure she wouldn't ever be able to talk to her family about boys. Like, how do you even tell them in the first place? It'd be so weird.. And her sisters just liked to tease her so much. Oh, well.

"Of course, I have to thank you! I mean.. this is quite a spread and.. I'm honestly touched that you bothered.." Delilah looked away, feeling quite embarrassed at this point. She might have made things awkward by saying that.. WHY. Why did she have to say the stupidest things at the stupidest time? But, Lou's voice distracted her from her thoughts.

What, why? It wasn't his fault! Maybe Delilah should have told him that before or something. He wouldn't have known, obviously. The girl looked at him apologetically, internally wanting to kick herself for being such a ridiculous person. She opened her mouth to apologise once again but closed them when he said he'd eat them... OH! So they won't go waste. "Thank you." The girl looked slightly relieved as she picked up a cupcake and started to nibble on it. "This is delicious. You actually made these?"