"Good, Louis." Smiling, Lux was happy that Louis was okay since it was her fault that he had fallen off of his board in the first place.

Rolling a little on the board, she smiled more as Louis agreed that Bay would like to see her skateboard. Surely it was something else that she would be a natural at; she had been good at skating and dancing right off the bat, so why not skateboarding as well?

"It's okay, Louis. I got this." Shaking her head, she let go of his hand and started pushing with her left foot as he had told her to. Push. Push. Push. Constantly gaining speed, she was having so much fun. "Look at me gooooo!"'

Giggling, she did not notice the small stone until the board crashed into it. Propelled into the air, Lux hit the path face first.

Louis was walking slowly alongside Lux, keeping a firm grip on her smaller hand. Last thing he wanted was for the girl to fall like he'd fallen, or worse. He may have survived it because he was used to landing on his face every time he did this, but Lux didn't seem that resistant to concrete-paved paths.

And then she released his hand and pushed WAYYY harder than he had instructed her to, soon zooming off down the pathway.

O_O!!!
"Lux, stop!"
Too late. The little redhead was now flying through the air, and her pretty face met the ground with a horrifying thud. "LUX!" Lou ran as fast as he could to the girl, dropping to his knees beside her. "Are you okay?!" He gently pulled her by the arm so that she was sitting up in front of him.

OHMYGOSH.
There was a nasty scrape on her forehead and her nose looked like it might've been... broken. Louis felt his heart sink in horror. LKJHKFGJHKFGH. SH--. WHAT HAD HE DONE?!

OUCH!!

As Louis pulled her up by her arm, all Lux could feel was pain. Her forehead felt like it was on fire, and her nose... what was WRONG with her nose? It hurt like crazy and it did not FEEL right at all.

"It really hurts." Eyes watering, she began to cry. It just hurt so much.

Louis felt a nasty twisty feeling in his gut as Lux whimpered about the pain, her large brown eyes filling with tears. He didn’t consider himself THAT sensitive, but to see his little Lady all teary-eyed like that made his heart ache. And then she was crying! Oh, he’d really done it this time.

“Oh no— Lux, I’m so sorry. Don’t cry, it’ll be okay, I promise.” He felt so bad. Could a hole just open up in the ground and swallow him whole? He’d probably never be able to forgive himself for this. “We have to take you to the Healer,” he decided a second later, wrapping an arm around the little girl’s waist and the other behind her knees as he proceeded to pick her up while bringing himself up to his feet. He didn’t trust her to walk without tripping.

Slowly lifted up from the ground, Lux wondered how easily she could make it to the Healers. "It's not your fault. It's mine." Ignoring how weird her voice was sounding in her ears, the girl tried to offer her friend a weak smile through her tears.

Term had only just began, and she had already hurt herself. This was perfect. Siiigh.

"You don't have to tell me," Genevieve shrugged and perched against a low branch. Merlin, but Lex was so BIG now. It sort of made Genevieve feel ancient, which was a rarity. Mo didn't even make her feel ancient, and he was of age. He was making post-graduation plans. Stop growing.

"I'll be here constantly. Let's plan on eating together, if we can make my shifts and your meals coincide. Not all the time, but... occasionally?" She didn't want to cramp Lex's style. Baby Lion might have a boyfriend or something. Merlin. Genevieve made eyes at the Gryffindor, trying to figure out if she looked like she'd been snogged recently.

Merlin x2. "Oh, Lex. I..." She slid off the branch so she could be properly near the younger girl, reaching for her hand. "You're so clever. I... hm. Vickers and I haven't spoken for over a year. He's furious with me, and I don't really think I want to see him either. I tried to make good with him, but he's... maybe you could owl him and ask about it?" She just didn't have the heart to break the news to Lex, who had always idolized Vickers. How do you tell someone that their hero isn't really admirable at all?

Right, she was right. Lex didn't need to tell her. She'd been here, even if only one year, and her brother was always here. It provided enough information for people to know that this place wasn't as safe as people kept making it out to be...but in some funny way, it had to be safe, because she was still here.

For a few seconds Lex was at a loss of words. She'd be here constantly..........THEY COULD EAT TOGETHER!!! Had she heard the part where she said not all the time? Nope. Her brain didn't process that bit, she was too busy thinking about having the best rest of term EVER. "We definitely can, we'll have to! I can make myself free when I'm not. Just did OWLs, nothing'll mess up my record til next year. You could probably meet Jun too." On the odd occasion he wasn't sitting with her friends. She didn't make a habit of sitting with him then. Nodnodnod--PAUSE. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

She watched her slide off the branch. Something told her she wasn't about to go telling her Vickers would be ready to travel within a week. She listened because yes, she was clever and appreciated that people could see this. Slowly the Gryffindor's brows crinkled. Last she'd heard of them, they were together and now they didn't want to see each other? "Wow." That was her initial response. Just wow. "Was it like he cheated or something?" Vivi had said he was angry at her and she'd tried fixing it but she wasn't willing to blame her so.....asking off questions. "Why would I owl him about it?" Or maybe she should have? She didn't know anymore.

Wow.

Was HE? Was he what - a FIRST YEAR? Caleb had to physically restrain an eyeroll. He had to be nice. He was just a firstie, he was probably just a naive little kid. "No, I'm a third year. I'm Caleb. And you are?" he asked, figured he should probably introduce himself and whatnot. Maybe the kid would be all happy and honored to have an OLDER, cooler friend. Might as well let him know who he was!

"Well congrats," he said in regards to the fall that hadn't resulted in DEATH to the little dude. Obviously. Didn't he know what a figure of speech was? "Are you a Ravenclaw by any chance?" he asked.

As in, you're kind of being a know it all, sassy child.

Well, hello positive overreaction. Genevieve grinned SO broadly at how excited Lex was, and it only really struck her then how weird this was. This shouldn't happen. Littles grew up and became bigs, but their own bigs never were supposed to come back to them like this. It sort of felt like it was out of the order of things...

But she was here, and she was going to make the best of it. "I'm not going to take up your time, Lex. We'll find some time to hang out, but I"m not willing to usurp your friendship time. And who... who is June?" She tilted her head and regarded Lex cautiously. June was a girl's name, and also a month, but MORE LIKELY just a girl's name. "Is June your... girlfriend?" Because she was cool with that, but Genevieve didn't want to jump into labeling things that weren't ready to be labelled, ok?

She held tight to Lex's hand, now that she'd claimed it, and made faces over the question. Had he cheated? Well, sort of... since he'd been in love with a Vivi who didn't exist and not with the real Vivi at all. But strictly speaking, no, and it would be terrible to suggest otherwise and give Lex the wrong impression. "No one cheated. We just grew apart and then hurt each other about it. It happens all the time." After what felt like a horribly long pause, she added, "I'm seeing someone else now."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lissy Longbottom

Was HE? Was he what - a FIRST YEAR? Caleb had to physically restrain an eyeroll. He had to be nice. He was just a firstie, he was probably just a naive little kid. "No, I'm a third year. I'm Caleb. And you are?" he asked, figured he should probably introduce himself and whatnot. Maybe the kid would be all happy and honored to have an OLDER, cooler friend. Might as well let him know who he was!

"Well congrats," he said in regards to the fall that hadn't resulted in DEATH to the little dude. Obviously. Didn't he know what a figure of speech was? "Are you a Ravenclaw by any chance?" he asked.

As in, you're kind of being a know it all, sassy child.

A third year, hmm. Seemed about right. Ezra wasn't an expert or anything but he looked like he might be thirteen. "Nice to meet you Caleb." he held out a hand for him to shake, still hanging upside down.

"I'm Ezra Earnest and nope, I'm a Gryffindor!" he beamed. "My mom was a Ravenclaw though." Caleb hadn't asked but he thought he'd share that bit anyways. "What are you?" He wasn't a Gryffindor, the first year was sure of it.

She was going to take Vivi's grin to mean she would have been just as excited for all the time they could potentially spend together. It wouldn't be anything like before...back when she was 11 but she bet it'd still be fun! Maybe now she could even hear all about that epic Auror training the older girl busied herself with.

Hang on, she was worried about messing with her friend time? "I've got my friends in my classes and see them outside of meal times but I suppose I can't hog all your time anyway." As much as she wanted to, Vivi was here on official Ministry work stuff and Lex could bet the Head of Law Enforcement whoever wouldn't appreciate her wasting her time with with an inexperienced, disaster prone...Gryffindor....wait what? Alexa blinked at her, not sure what she was on about with girlfriends before it hit her. "......No. Jun. No 'e'. He's a boy, my boy toy according to the Aparecium." And she mentally facepalmed every time she remembered him owning up to it. Sigh.

Despite the line of conversation, Lex felt...comfy. It really was like old times with Vivi making faces when she was trying to word an answer right. Merlin, she actually missed that. She gave a small nod at the explanation. "You got bored of each other then." Wasn't that what growing apart was? It was what most of the world did, what her father did and possibly a flaw of humanity. Her next statement confirmed that, even if she didn't mean to. "You are? Someone you're not so bored of?"

Oh, Jun was a BOY. A boy toy, in fact, and Genevieve couldn't fault Lex for having one of those. After all, hadn't she sort of had that in Milton during her seventh year? At least, unofficially? "A boy toy... is that true, or just fun speculation? Or no, don't tell me. Enjoy it, regardless."

Funny how it was so much more objectionable to people when it was a girl rather than a boy.

People in general were stupid. Genevieve let go of Lex's hand and settled back on her branch again, needing space from these questions. Plus her legs were cramping up. "No, we weren't bored. We just wanted different things from life, and loving each other wasn't enough. I wasn't bored of him." She wouldn't have fought so hard to stay together if she was bored. She couldn't speak for Vick, but he hadn't seemed bored. Just disgusted, honestly, since he hadn't really liked her much at the end. "But yeah... someone else. I'm not bored of him either, but we're better suited temperament-wise."

....Blink.

Before she could actually explain what idiots the Aparecium writers were, Vivi was using words that basically suggested Jun was a boy toy. Enjoy it regardless? "I am but he's not my boy toy, he's a proper boyfriend." Because she kinda felt she needed to clear that up. A boy toy would have been more convenient, Merlin knew that but no, she didn't have one of those.

If she were to nod and say she completely understood what Vivi was on about she'd have only been lying. The Gryffindor wasn't by any means 'knowledgeable' when it came to relationship stuff and how they ticked but she could try. "Kinda like you wanted to pursue different things in life? Did he want to be off doing all sorts of reckless things while you wanted to work on establishing yourself as an Auror?" She could maybe see that causing problems...kinda...

The new guy was better suited temperament wise. "Really? Who? Do I know him? Would I approve if I ever met him? I reckon he's got a brain or you wouldn't be with him but I still gotta ask because Vickers had a real brain on him and that didn't seem to help." WHAT IF VICKERS HAD MADE VIVI INTO DUMB GUYS NOW???? jsfdkdgvysdgfjd.

Caleb eyed his upside down hand for a minute before extending his own hand and awkwardly shaking it. It was all backwards since the kid was hanging up upside down and all.

Ezra? Didn't their dad have a step sister named that? One that he never talked about but Caleb had found out about through old photo albums anyways? So Ezra was a BOYS name too? Or maybe it was just a boys name. Or just a girls name. Wait what was he doing again? OH RIGHT. Talking to monkey boy.

"I'm a Slytherin," he answered. "Gryffindor eh? My dad was a Gryffie. My mum too," he told him. Maybe he'd seen their pictures or something in the common room. Caleb had obviously never been in there, but he was certain that his parents were such legends that a giant portrait of them had been put in their common room or something.

"Alright," she held up her hands to ward off any more arguing. Or discussion about boyfriends, since Lex was far too young and impressionable to be seriously dating a BOYFRIEND. With a dumb name like June, which was a girl's name. "Proper boyfriend. Got it."

Not another word on that subject. Instead, Vivi let Lex lead the conversation, AGAIN, back to Vickers. And she laughed. "No, the other way around. He wanted to settle down and be grown ups, while I wanted to enjoy being young and badly behaved. My job is very serious, but the rest of my life is absolutely what I want it to be." That was such a very oversimplified version of events, but maybe Lex would finally accept that answer.

She was so tempted to protect Max's name, although they hadn't done a single thing wrong in starting up a new relationship. Vivi had been single for almost a year before she and Max started dating, and she'd never looked at anyone the entire time she was with Vick. She had no doubts about her behavior. "You remember Max James? He played Keeper and went on to play for the Arrows? He's very clever, yes, but he's also very funny and kind and dotes on me like he's getting paid for it. That's what you want out of life, ok?"

Derry was restless. SO restless. Before Quidditch she'd been able to get rid of her excess energy through just karate and running, but now that she'd had it and it was banned? Now she just had extra energy all the time.

So she'd come outside to go running. Again. In the chilly Scottish Autumn. In shorts. Because she was Scottish and she could take it. And because it wasn't like any of the other enjoyable extracurricular activities were available to her... Meh. Burn off the energy, Derry.

She'd had every intention to run, honestly. But the restlessness had brought with it a very short attention span, and as she wandered down the pathways she was distracted by the feel of the cold wind against the back of her neck. It was the little enjoyable things like this that were keeping her sane at the moment... She pulled the tie out of her hair, and let her curls fall down - feeling the wind move them was even more satisfying than letting it chill her.

Józsua had got fed up of moping about in the dorms. His attempts to read or to study were futile. He couldn't concentrate. Information just went in one ear and out the other.. and reading was frustrating. Going over the same paragraph again and again and not making any sense of the words..

It was quite cool outside, but he found it refreshing. It would help to clear his head a little. ..He thought this bleak feeling would have eased by now.. and at times he was able to forget, but it would come back in waves and he'd be able to think of nothing else. Back to square one.

He shivered, huddling his jacket tighter around him.... and then he saw her. All red curls and legs and pale skin. His stomach lurched in horror.

There was no way to avoid her seeing him at this point..

He continued to walk towards her. They had to meet eventually.. but Józsua really wasn't ready for this..

*Pause* “...Derry..” He murmured quietly, looking as pale as she naturally was. Another shiver.. Cold or nerves.. it was difficult to tell.

Derry was, as usual, in some kind of fantasy world. She'd been doing that a lot lately, it was escapism. Very useful, and sometimes pretty fun. She'd almost mastered the whole lucid-dreaming-mind-palace type situation too... which was nice. Meant she could retreat somewhere nice and peaceful sometimes.

But something dragged her back from the story world in her brain, and plonked her, unceremoniously, back into her own skin. Maybe it was the footsteps...

Or the figure walking towards her.

Oh...

Derry swore internally and shoved her hands into her pockets. She'd decided talking to him wouldn't be a great idea... but... ... part of her wanted to.

Ugh. Make up your mind, brain.

"..........hey...." she mumbled, pausing and looking at him. ...... What was she supposed to say? She opened her mouth to start a sentence but no words happened. What could she SAY? ...The only sound she could make was... "Hi..." Again. You'd said that already...

So they were here..

And seeing Derry and hearing her voice was so familiar.. but now they were detached from one another. Torn apart because of his actions.

The first thing he wanted to say was 'sorry' once again, but he knew how lame it would sound, and saying it over and over made it sound like just a word in the end. But it wasn't. He meant it, every single time he said it, with gut wrenching conviction.

But now he was aware that there was an awkward silence and he was responsible for filling it. He shoved his hands in his pockets, unconsciously mirroring her.

“How...” His voice came out in an unexpected croak. He swallowed. “How have you been?”

Awkward.

This was so awkward.

And her feelings were all over the place. Everywhere. Just.. a big massive mess of "what even" that was rolling around in her brain.

........

She stood there, staring at her feet, waiting for him to say something but....

Oh.

"Honestly..?" she asked, glancing up at him. "I've been... awful." No point sugar coating it.

...

She wasn't going to ask him... no.

Józsua had frozen to the spot. He had had so many things he wanted to say to Derry. Rehearsing them in his head and now? Now that he was standing in front of her he couldn't think of a single thing to say.

He nodded to her honesty. Kind of expected.

“I... need to talk to you.” He hesitated, watching a couple of Hufflepuffs walk past..

“Just.. not here. In private. ..If you'll let me..”

Talk? Really? Derry stared at him in silence for a moment, weighing up whether or not this was a good idea. She followed his gaze to the passing students and chewed on the edge of her sleeve... this was... hard...

What if it just made things worse again? She was still so angry... but...

...

She was also curious. So, after waiting a sufficiently painfully long minute or so, she half nodded her head. "Fine..." But if she had to, she would leave. Simple as.

The silence was endless..

And Derry was doing that chewing thing to her sleeve that he'd always found so incredibly endearing. He made sure his eyes stayed on Derry's. Little things like that... the little gestures that reminded him of being with her were going to be the things that really got to him.

A nod. And a fine from Derry.

A sigh of relief from Józsua.

He inclined his head towards the trees. He knew a spot there where they could talk without being disturbed.

Vivi was so much easier to convince and she could appreciate that. It meant there wouldn't have to be any long drawn on conversations on such topics. Lex gave a nod, happy to have this accepted and moved on from on account of it being a little weird given she'd done just about everything Vivi told her not to do.

Alexa was doing her best to internalize the information as it was being offered. Yet again it seemed like she'd gotten the wrong idea about how things had gone. "That's odd. He was always the one going on about adventures. I don't reckon you'd know if he's still into those...him wanting to be an adult and all." But she could already guess that Vivi would tell her she should owl him about it. A response like that would never do. "And your new boyfriend is all for you doing what you want...right?"

The new boyfriend that turned out to be...Max? OOOOooooOoooo that Max!!! He was good people from what she remembered. He'd always been nice to her and so had his mum when she was Quidditch Official. "I always figured he'd have stayed with Emm but she turned into a nutjob sort of....and I mean if he makes you happy then I guess it doesn't matter." Wasn't meant to be anyone else's business either.

"How much do you know about this threat?"

"There's a difference between occasional adventures and a life of adventure. He and I did a lot of traveling together, and it was fun, but he was ready to settle down sooner than I was. It wouldn't have been an end to adventure, but I just wasn't there yet." Maybe she'd never be there, although it felt easier to imagine with Max, who never pressed her. "I don't know what he still wants, but I don't think he'll answer your owls. He's... very damaged. I don't think he's the person you think he is."

But then... who of them were? Wasn't that the problem?

Vivi rubbed her hands against her knees and tried to smile bracingly at Lex's memory of Max. "Em and Max were in the same boat. She needed more from him than he could give her." Like time and affection and attention. Lucky Vivi didn't need as much of those, she supposed. "He makes me very happy, though. He likes all those weird and wacky things that make most men run away. We'll just have to see what happens."