Cassie jut looked at him and chuckled, “Oh goodness, you have clearly never seen me walk in flats. I learned early how to get around in my heels.” Had she ever really been without them? She wasn’t sure, but she’d try it for today. “Two sisters that sounds exciting.” She had a sister and two brother, but he probably just adored having sisters.

Wet? She looked at the boat, “Oh it won’t be too much water will it?” She could handle her toes wet, but not soaked. She looked at the wiggly worms a bit longer, “So we just dump them into the lake and the fish come towards them?” She really had never been fishing before so it just seemed a bit odd to have a bucket of worms. Plus they looked all slimy and icky, she wasn’t touching them he knew this, right?

She smiled sweetly at the librarian. Wasn’t he just as sweet as butterbeer. She took his hand and looked at that boat once more. Carefully stepping in as it rocked a bit. Hurrying and sitting down she giggled. “This is fun already.” She couldn’t wait to go out further.

Louis watched with slightly raised eyebrows as Justine suddenly sat up, panic clear in her delicate features. The shock in her green eyes was beyond obvious, there was no way Lou would have missed that, and as she explained that she’d only been joking, the words felt full of air to him. He hardly felt her finger playfully poking his chest, his blue eyes watching her unblinkingly.

“You look pretty shocked for someone who was just joking…” said Louis, his brow furrowing suspiciously.

Louis and his stupid unflinching look was making her very nervous, even more so than his questions, but Justine didn't look away from the boy, if she wanted to keep up her little facade than she needed to act as if everything was fine and hunky-dory.

She'd let her emotions show too easily, it wasn't her fault, she'd been completely caught off guard by Louis' sudden change and now she had more damage on her hands than she knew what do to with. Swallowing slowly, Justine looked Louis in the eye and smiled sweetly at him.

"I am just shocked zat you didn't catch on to my little joke.. I zought you vould understand," Justine said, carefully taking in Louis' furrowed brow and determined look, Louis was many things, but he was NOT a pushover, or stupid, and if she was going to preserve herself than she would need to think quickly.

No.
No, no matter what Justine said, Louis’s mind had been set. All the puzzle pieces had come together. The funny accent, the broken stories, the unwillingness to speak with Paloma at the feast about Beauxbatons - to speak to him about Beauxbatons. The whole thing had been a lie. A charade. His mind wasn’t even on ‘was this real or not?’ anymore. He knew it wasn’t.

His question now was, “Why?”
Completely ignoring Justine’s failed attempt to seem casual, Louis continued, “Why did you lie?” What was the point? Unless… she was like an undercover spy or something? An agent for a new dark lord? Ohmygosh!

Why? It wasn't a question Justine wanted to answer, partly because she didn't have an answer, in the back of her mind there was a little nagging voice telling her she knew very well why, but Justine ignored it. She didn't need Louis' pity after all. Justine flipped back her long hair, and straightened out her back, holding herself in a dignified manner, because despite being caught out, she still had some pride.

"Louis, I'm not lying, about anything, 'onestly! vous êtes ridicule," Justine slowly said, her heart was hammering away at her ribcage, and she was debating holding the kitten hostage in order to save herself from this situation. No, that would be awful, really awful, even for Justine.... There had to be something else... A way to quiet Louis for a long while...

Welp. Another day, another homework assignment to avoid. And what better way to avoid assignments and interactions with Professors than to head out to the lake. Besides, his only true friend resided here and Zander owed him a visit. "Hey, Henry? You awake, pal?" He looked into the lake, but alas, there was no luck. Where was the squid when you needed him!? So instead Zander just sat, alone, in front of the lake. Sat and waited and occasionally vented to his not-so-present friend. He'd probably turn up eventually.

The moment Jasmine's eyes met his, Cris' heart skipped a heartbeat...or two. She had the most beautiful pair of eyes and he found it hard to look away from them. But then she broke the spell with just one downward glance. Blinking to get his bearings, Cris tried to focus on what she was saying.

He nodded in understanding. Not that he knew how early army fold woke up but more about the regimen. It was almost like that in Durmstrang. He chuckled when she mentioned that the fresh morning air was akin to her first morning breakfast.

"I know that feeling very well. Only for me the fresh morning air back in Norway is like getting splashed on the face with icy cold water," Cris grinned back at Jasmine. "I would definitely prefer a hot cup of coffee over that any day."

When she agreed to join him when he visited the magical creatures, Cris smile just got wider. If he could break into a song right now...this very minute...it would have been "Oh What A Beautiful Morning, Oh What A Beautiful Day, I've got a wonderful feeling. Everything's going my way."...but since he didn't want to embarass her, he sang to himself.

"You would?" Cris sqeaked out in excitement before quickly lowering the tone of his voice, an octave lower. "I mean, that's great. I know you mentioned getting a pygmy puff one day, but I was wondering what kind of magical creatures did you work with when you were attending Beauxbaton?" Cris asked always eager to know what students in the other schools learned.

Ellinia carried her snow globe in her arms. It was about time one of them saw more of the outside world. The first year lion polished the top of one with her sleeve as she walked towards what was called the black lake. Which was weird because she was pretty sure lakes were supposed to be blue. Her mommy didn't tell her that it'd be black. Just filled with weird stuff in it.

As she continued down towards the lake she noticed someone talking to the lake.

Was he okay? Were there snowmen in the lake? Or was he just nuts? "Are you a loony one?" Ellinia asked the boy there, still holding her snow globe. "If you are you need to tell me. My mommy said not to talk to the loony ones in the street who try to give me candy."

So he wasn't allowed to try to give her candy because if he was, she'd have to scream stranger danger. That's what her mommy told her to do. Yup.

“I don’t believe it,” Lou decided, shaking his head as Justine insisted that she wasn’t lying. It even seemed that the more nervous she became, the clearer her real Canadian accent showed. There was a dangerous sparkle in her green eyes that sent an uneasy wave over the Gryffindor boy. That look… it wasn’t the look of someone who was about to admit defeat. No, it was a look of determination. Louis had a feeling Justine would be capable of anything to continue with her lie; admitting simply wasn’t an option.

Suddenly a little more aware of the kitten cuddled up in her hands, Louis began picking at the grass absently. The gesture caught Luna’s attention and she bounced from Justine’s grip toward her owner’s hand, attacking it with vicious little bites and claws.

“You can just admit it, y’know…” said Louis softly as he took Luna into his hands, just in case Justine was considering catnapping her.

His exploration of the grounds continued.

Grayson had been walking at a slow pace, stopping every now and then to take a closer look at something here and there. It wasn't until he reached the lake that he actually stopped still and stayed there for a while. Something that Delilah had said about him finding a new hobby. And the first thing she had suggested? Swimming.

Ugh. Why was he listening to her again?

And he wasn't going to go swimming in the middle of October. No thank you.

The boy scowled as he picked up a couple of rocks and pebbles near the edge of the water. The girl had even suggested reading. READING. That was mind-numbingly BORING, that was. Especially if he didn't have the right book, which he doubted this library had. He didn't want to be spending his free time from homework only to be reading some more. Not that he had done any of that but whatever.

So. New passtime. Grayson headed over towards the dock, holding as many rocks and pebbles as he could. He sat down near the edge, setting the items down next to him. Skipping stones it was. Picking up a shiny pebble, he gave it a quick glance over before chucking it as far across the water as he could.

And............................... SPLASH!

Justine watched Louis closely as he expressed his disbelief and she realized that nothing she could say would change his mind, it was too late to try to cover up for herself, but admitting her lie was the one thing Justine couldn't do. Because Louis would hate her. He'd hate her and he'd tell everyone and they would hate her too and then she'd be as alienated and unhappy as she had before.

The Canadian watched wearily as Luna crawled out of her cupped hands, pouncing eagerly on her owner's hands in a way that would have made the girl laugh only a few minutes ago. There went that idea. Justine thought in a moment of dark humor to herself. She hadn't ACTUALLY been about to catnap Luna, but it had been an option... What else did Louis care about? There had to be something she could use against him (just in case), but what? There was his lovely girlfriend that he cared so much for... But how could she use that to her advantage? I'm an awful person for even thinking this..

His voice. He sounded so... Hurt, naturally someone as honest as Louis would think lying a betrayal. Justine cursed her own cowardice."I 'ave nothing to admit, Louis, I 'aven't lied," Justine firmly said, wrapping her arms around her chest defensively.

Louis absentmindedly scratched the top of Luna’s tiny head with his index finger, a gesture which caused the kitten to purr happily, curling up snuggly in his other hand. He watched Justine with an expressionless look on his face. He wasn’t sure what to say or even think. The girl had seemed so genuine! For Circe’s sake, she had been his French professor for a while, too! It absolutely blew his mind to think that every detail she had shared about her life had been one big fat lie. How could someone lie to effortlessly, so easily? Lou could hardly lie about the weather without breaking into a sweat.

“Fine,” decided the boy suddenly after a few moments of silence in which he tried to process the shock. “I won’t insist… but I know the truth. You’re not convincing me otherwise, Justine."

All comfortable conversation had gone right out the window, and in the place of the two friends laughter was a tenseness that Justine was finding more and more unbearable. Along with Louis' kicked puppy gaze, seriously, she couldn't take his big sad puppy eyes just then. She should just give in, tell him and then beg for forgiveness.

Even if Louis didn't forgive her, she owed him the truth... Didn't she? After all, he was her first friend here at Hogwarts, he had treated her with such kindness and at a time when she had felt so alone... No, she had to tell him the truth, or fess up or whatever, because Louis already KNEW the truth, he just wanted to hear it from Justine.

"Fine.. I... Lied to you Louis. I vas born in Giverny like I told you... But, I've lived in Quebec, Canada for most of my life... Not Paris," Justine said, her bright eyes still staring down at the kitten in Louis' hands.

"But," Justine added, looking up into Louis' blue eyes. "I'm not sorry for it, it vas my choice," she spoke resolutely, a stubborn gleam to her eyes.

Louis listened attentively as Justine started speaking. He was still a little wary, but the girl sounded honest enough… at least she wasn’t faking a French accent on top of her English anymore. That was a start. He continued petting the kitten in his hand absentmindedly as she explained she was Canadian, and had never lived in Paris.

Ah-ha. So THAT’S where the French was really from. Lou had never met any French-speaking Canadians before, so it had been a little challenging for him to recognize it right away.

Justine seemed genuinely apologetic, though, and the sight of her bright green eyes staring so solemnly at Luna twisted his stomach into a guilty knot. Why had he pushed her? This obviously wasn’t very pleasant for her, he should’ve just let it be. “I’m sorry, too…”

AND THEN.
The accent was back and apparently Justine wasn’t really actually sorry?! Wait—what?!
“W—What?” Louis blinked, completely caught off-guard by the 180 the girl just did. Wait, so was she sorry or not? And what was up with the spontaneous losing and finding of her accent?! Was the accent even real anymore?! WHAT WAS GOING ON?

Marigold had the idea of going to dip her feet in the water, and that was exactly what she was going to do. She took her shoes and socks off, then slowly dipped a toe in. Merlin it was cold! This was not a good decision... She dipped another toe in, then her whole foot. She. Shivered, then put the other foot in. She kicked a little, admiring the ripples caused by her feet.

Then a rock landed next to her and splashed onto her torso. She shirked and jumped up. Looking for the source of the frigid splash, she wasn't altogether surprised to see Gray as the culprit. She raised her eyebrow at him. That wasn't nice.

Jasmine laughed when Cris compared the morning air in Norway to a splash of cold water in the face. She could only imagine what that cold air must feel like. "I bet I wouldn't have any problem waking up if I lived in Norway."

Cris seemed surprised when Jasmine agreed to join him at the playpens. She couldn't imagine why. Why wouldn't she want to hang out with him and a bunch of cool animals? "Of course I would", Jasmine replied. "I'm looking forward to it already," she said with a smile.

On the topic of magical creatures at Beauxbatons, Jasmine shrugged. "Oh we just had the typical garden variety creatures there. Nothing really special." That's why she was excited to visit the animals at Hogwarts. She anticipated seeing something new to her and hopefully unusual. Gathering the courage to look directly at Cris again, Jasmine asked him a question. "Did you like it at Durmstrang? Beauxbatons was.......interesting. I wasn't that crazy about it. I never felt like I fit in there." Jasmine frowned for a moment thinking about her time at her old school. Just as quickly it was replaced with a smile. "But I'm here now so all is well."

He was looking at her like she was crazy, which actually, Justine preferred over the puppy dog eyes, those puppy dogs eyes were the worst, they had made her feel like a mustachioed villain stealing a child's candy.

Which she wasn't. Right? Justine wasn't evil, she was just... Dealing with things in her own way, right? Yeah. Yeah. It wasn't like she was hurting anyone with her little deception, not yet anyway. Mentally shaking away these thoughts, Justine turned her attention back to Louis.

"I am not sorry for lying, I mean, I'm sorry zat you vere effected by it.. But I'm not going to stop," Justine said, going back seamlessly to her pristine Parisian to prove her point.

"And you can't tell anyone, not anyone Louis," Justine said, panic welling up within her at the very thought. No one could know, and especially not Andrew. Nope, nope, nope! Louis was going to keep this secret, Justine was going to make sure of it.

Louis’s jaw dropped to the ground when Justine, in the most flawless Parisian accent he had ever heard, decided that not only was she NOT sorry for her whole little act, but that she wasn’t going to stop! OhmyGod. She was literally insane! On instinct, Louis pulled Luna closer to himself.

“You’ve got to be joking…”

And there it was again, that crazed look in her big green eyes, as she warned him not to tell anyone. WHAT?! Aw hell nawh, he wasn’t going to be an accomplice to this craziness! “I… I’m not going to help you continue lying to people, Justine…” he decided softly, shaking his head with horrified blue eyes. She was mad. No, she literally was mad. Like, this was really bad. And ohmygosh, what about Paloma?! There he had been at the feast introducing her to Justine, assuring her they’d be great friends and she wouldn’t be lonely at Ravenclaw tower. She would hate him for life if she found out he was trying to friend her up with a psychopath!

Gulp.

"I'm not going to attack you Louis, 'onestly you're acting like i'm going to 'urt you or something," Justine said, rolling her eyes at Louis' horrified expression and the way he clung fearfully to Luna. Then again, she was threatening the boy, so maybe he reaction was appropriate, but wasn't he a Gryffindor? Weren't they supposed to be impossibly brave? So much for that.

She did feel a tad bit of guilt though, and the longer she looked at Lou's freaked expression the more it grew. No, it was too late for guilt, she needed to keep going, there was no turning back.

Justine had expected that, because if there was one thing she knew about Louis Bolton it was that the boy lived and breathed integrity. She would have to do resort to dirty tricks to keep the boy quiet, she didn't want to, she reallllly didn't want to, but Louis left her no other choice. "Louis... You don't have a choice," Justine said, using her real accent to accentuate her point.

Okay. So. Maybe this idea was rubbish, but it was the only one she had. "Sorry," Justine briefly said, before grabbing Louis by his robes, pulling him in closer (she made sure they weren't too close lest she crush Luna) before leaning in herself and pressing her soft lips to his. Hmm, actually, this wasn't bad at all, 'course, Justine had nothing else to compare it to, but it felt very nice.

“It’s not like I know what to expect from you anymore,” said Louis, still holding Luna closely to his chest. Justine was a stranger now, and he had no idea anymore what the wrong or right move to make might be. With the girl he thought he knew, he could’ve easily laughed anything off… But this? This was a crazy-eyed stranger he didn’t know.

Khkjshdgjkhdf.
”You don’t have a choice.”
UM. Was that a threat?! That was totally a threat. “Justine, wha—” Lou began despite himself; honestly he was a little scared to find out what she had planned for him. But before he could utter another word, she had grabbed his robes and pulled him toward herself. Louis cringed, certain she was going to meet his face with her free hand in the form of a fist. But instead, she met him with her lips.

… Wait what.
WHAT?! Was Justine… KISSING HIM?!
Louis felt like someone had just turned a bucket of cold water above his head. He was sure she would punch him, hex him, anything! But kiss him? Yeah, he wasn’t ready for that. It took the boy a moment to react, but when his brain finally snapped out of its initial shock, he pulled back abruptly, blue eyes wide. A bright shade of red had begun to spread over his cheeks, like a drop of red ink in a glass of water, and it extended over his ears and even the back of his neck, like a bad sunburn.

“What—why—wh—what did—are you mad?!”
No need to answer that, he already knew.

Back when Justine had first met Lpuis last term, she had, for a millisecond, fancied him and in that millisecond she had wondered what it would be like to kiss him. Kissing him now was not quite what she had in visioned. Certainly, his lips were as soft and sweet as she had suspected, but the circumstances of the kiss were VERY different.. For instance, she was doing it for blackmail purposes and Louis was clinging to a cat the whole time.

Justine gasped for breath as Louis pulled away from the kiss, a small laugh slipping past her lips at the boys expression of utter and complete shock and the way his face had turned more red than a beet.

"No, I'm not mad, I did that for a very logical reason," Justine said, resisting the urge to touch her still tingling lips, she didn't have time for that. "If you tell anyone about my little.. Deception, I'll tell your girl about this," Justine said, speaking very matter of factly, acting as if this sort of thing happened all the time.

Well, this was certainly going to make things awkward between them, blackmail, she supposed, had that effect on friendships.

Zander had almost given up on his tentacled friend, almost. WHEN AH A RESPONSE-- Wait. Squids don't talk. Wellllll they can't speak english anyways. Yeah there was no way that this was the voice of a squid. Instead it came from a small girl behind him. What was she calling him? A loony one? What in the name of Merlin's beard was that? "Excuse me, I am NOT a... loony one? For a fact, I don't even know what a 'loony one' even is, little girl." A loony one? What? Is this some form of new 'firstie' lingo?

"I was just looking for the giant squid. That is highly un-loony like behavior." A loony, whatever that was, probably wouldn't be able to find the squid without falling into the water. So HA. Not a loony one. End of discussion. "Are you a loony one? Because why are you carrying a snow globe?" Pft. Who does that anyways? Wasn't she afraid that it would break? Especially with so many clumsy, running-around-y students loose about the castle.

Louis’s horror only seemed to grow as Justine laughed. Laughed. Like this was some very funny game they were playing. Except it totally wasn’t, at least not for the boy, who now felt a pang of guilt for secretly not hating the kiss. Yeah, that was as far as his acceptance would go. Non-hatred.

And apparently Justine had a very ‘logical reason’ for this? Oh, he wanted to hear that. By this point, Louis highly doubted Justine was capable of logic. No, she was insane, and insane people weren’t capable of that. However, her following words managed to prove him wrong.

She was… she was… she was BLACKMAILING him!
“What?!” Louis could hardly believe his ears. Justine was mad, that much had become obvious in the past half hour, but this was simply… Had not a single moment he’d shared with her been true? She’d seemed so genuine. This girl in front of him, though… she was just bonkers. And evil. Pure evil. To threaten someone’s relationship like this was just the stuff of dementors.

“You wouldn’t do that.” But Louis could hear the doubt in his own voice. By now, Justine had proved she was capable of anything to make sure her secret never got out.

As he laughed along with her, Cris savored the sound of Jasmine's laughter. He had almost forgotten how much he loved hearing her laugh. He also liked the way her eyes scrunched up when she laughed and the way they sparkled...and the...

'Okay Cris stop staring at her. She'll think there's something on her face,' Cris silently admonished himself, temporarily breaking eye contact with Jasmine.

"You would love Norway, especially where I live. My house overlooks this huge lake and the sunrise and sunsets there are breathtaking. Maybe one day, you'll allow me to show them to you," Cris smiled at her.

Then it was his turn to answer her question. He paused for a moment to think before replying with a shrug. "Durmstrang? It's as a fine a school as any, albeit a little strict and regimented. One thing is for sure, they don't take kindly to people playing pranks there," Cris inwardly winced as he recalled the last prank he played there.

"Other than that, the Professors were great. I made a couple of friends there, some I'm still in contact with. But like you, I never felt like I belonged there. Mostly because everyone there was into Quidditch. They live and breathe it. I mean I like it but I wouldn't be disappointed if I didn't play it. So it's going to be interesting to see how Hogwarts deals with this no playing Quidditch ban.

Having said that, I'm glad that I decided to come here though and I'm glad I met you," Cris told Jasmine as he made eye contact again.

He was thinking about it. Thinking about making that brief stint he did last year a yearly tradition, but as it was Cassia's last year, he decided he wouldn't force her to behold the paleness that was his backside. It seemed pretty downlow and he expected that much from the house of spies to to whom secrecy was of the utmost importance, but still he had to wonder ...




Was that what Vesper Bayliss had meant about him being like West?





Cutty had to have been kidding himself here, though, but he wasn't. He so wasn't. Thus was the size of his ego. Skinny, pale twerp got into the Lake, appropriately attired (thank you, Merlin!) and went for a swim before it cooled off too significantly.