Olivia couldn't sit still. After spending what felt like an eternity in the dreaded library (only four hours), she made her way back up to her common room. Fortunately, it was still light outside so she shouldn't be stopped by any Parole Officers Prefects. She had no plans on causing any trouble today or tomorrow. Perhaps she would pull a few pranks here and there but trouble? Nope. Not her.

She continued up the staircase until she made her way into the corridor. As she continued walking down, the view of the Quad caught her attention. She paused by the window, letting her hands touch the windowsill as she saw younger students bustling around. Ah Hogwarts. She was really back. She moved her fingers along the smooth surface of the windowsill until she noticed something rough. She glanced down at her hands to find something etched there. Ooh. A secret message? What could it say? She squinted at it, trying to determine what it said. "RIP FW?" Huh? She quirked an eyebrow.

What could that mean?

Etta was on her way to the creative study room to get some light reading done. She was a bit tired of the library at this point so the study room would be a welcome change, she thought. Having to walk all those stairs though.. she gave a small sigh of relief once she reached the seventh floor corridor. Finally. She leaned back against the wall to relax for a couple of minutes before starting to walk down the empty corridor.. wait. Not empty.

She spotted Olivia near one of the windows.. doing what exactly? The prefect grinned as she approached her friend, feeling rather curious. "Hi." She greeted cheerfully, her eyes shifting to the window for a moment. "What are you doing here? Alone?"

She chuckled. Olivia could tell that voice anywhere in the world. Etta. Olivia turned to her friend and grinned. "Alone?" Olivia raised an eyebrow as she played with the bag strap on her shoulder. Oh yes, she was alone. She glanced down at her hands where the engraved words were found. "I was walking back, stuck in my thoughts once again, and I saw this."

"I wonder what it is or what it meant..." She shook her head. It was probably silly to wonder. "Anyway, how have you been? You're a Prefect. That's incredible." Now she had two good mates that we're Prefects.

Etta raised an eyebrow when she noticed Olivia looking at her hands... okay. But.. Why? "Saw what, exactly?" Frowning, she moved a little closer to give the engraved words a proper look, wondering what they meant. "No offense but those letters make no sense." Etta commented, although the curiousity was clearly visible on her face.

Ah, yes. She beamed at her friend as she leaned against the wall. "Yes, its very exciting." More exciting and amazing than she could ever explain. Etta couldn't stop grinning as she continued talking, "A lot of things happened over the summer." Best summer ever, really.

"RIP FW," repeated Olivia with her mind fixed on the possible meaning behind it. Perhaps they could ask the History of Magic Professor or consult Hogwarts, A History. Merlin. She was starting to sound like her brother and his mates. Sheesh. Where had her troublemaker street gone?

Olivia tilted her head curiously, noticing how wide Etta's grin was. Something clearly was up. Was there a boy? "A lot of things?" she repeated before hooking her arm into her friend's. "Like what? Good things, I hope." And with that, Olivia smirked. "Summer romance?" she asked, winking. Olivia had plans of her own with a certain boy but that could wait.

"You know.. maybe we could ask a professor about it sometime? Maybe they can help?" Etta suggested with a raised eyebrow, her gaze flicking down to the engraved letters once again. Hmm, weird. Why did they mean? Were they supposed to signify something important? She was definitely curious.

-- And she was blushing. Her cheeks turned bright pink at all the questions, her smile only growing wider. "Very good things, actually. I have a boyfriend now." She was starting to get slightly flustered at this point.. ahem. Anyway. She side-eyed her friend, nudging her lightly with her elbow. "What about you, hmm? Any boy-updates I need to know about?"

Etta's suggestion to ask a Professor was certainly a fantastic one. Olivia nodded in agreement. "Sounds great to me!" A Professor would have to know, right?

In the meantime though, she raised an eyebrow, watching her friend BLUSH. That was adorable. At the mention of "boyfriend", Olivia's eyes widened. "Boyfriend? Oh. Wow. Who? Are they nice? " she asked. If they weren't nice, then Olivia would see to it that they were. Etta deserved only the best and Olivia needed to know who they were to make sure that they were okay. When Etta turned the conversation over to her, Olivia shrugged. "oh no, no. No boy updates here. I doubt the guy that I like even know that I exists," she said with a chuckle. Well he did know that she existed... they were friends but still... she didn't know if he even liked her in that way.

"He's actually very nice." Etta grinned, giving Olivia another look. He was nice to her, at least. And handsome too. "I'd like you to meet him sometime." They'd get along, she felt so sure about that. Olivia was one of the friendliest people ever and Levi was too.. most of the time.

WAIT WAIT WHAT. She abruptly turned to look at her friend, the surprise clearly visible on her face. Olivia LIKED someone? Obviously, Etta wasn't surprised that her friend had a crush.. it was natural and so normal. But, how did she not know about this?! "Who do you like?" Maybe Etta could help.. maybe. It depended on who the boy was.

This kid was very nice? Olivia would certainly be the judge of that. Mhmm.. Don't you worry, Etta. Yes. Yes. She smiled. Well if Etta thought the kid was nice, then he HAD to be nice. "I'd love that! I think it would be nice to meet your boy," she said, smirking and even with a wicked wink directed towards her friend. Hehehe. Olivia would tease them BOTH so much. She couldn't wait for the chance. "Also! What's his name?" Hopefully she could get a full name and hopefully the kid had a social media page that she could stalk check out to make sure that he was a okay.

Who did she like? Well....... She played with a strand of her dark wavy hair, curling it around her index finger as she glanced away briefly. She tried her hardest not to blush but she felt her cheeks growing redder by the second. "You know him quite well from......." Olivia pointed to her friend's badge. "From work." Yes. Yes. That was exactly it. Then she nodded her head several times awkwardly and slowly. She was always the worst at putting her thoughts into words when it pertained to how she felt about someone especially when the two were in a rather public place. She eyed her surroundings, making sure a certain someone didn't appear out of the blue, before leaning in and whispering the name of the person to her friend. Her heart beat increased and she felt it pounding against her ribcage.

She whispered so softly that she hoped that her friend caught it. "Tenacius." She had even sent him a candygram last year though he had never asked her about it which was a good sign because he was probably completely clueless and she would get over it eventually and now she was just rambling....

Etta giggled, covering her mouth almost immediately. She almost never did this.. never. It was kind of embarrassing, really.. but that was the kind of effect he had on her so it was his fault. Yes. "His name is Levi, fourth year Ravenclaw." She grinned this time, her face turning bright pink once again. Really, how did he have such an effect on her? Anyway, ahem. "I'll make it happen soon, okay?" She said, nudging her friend once again. They could meet over lunch, maybe.

Oooooh. A prefect too?! Wait, WAIT. Did she mean Henry? Well, that would be rather... well, not good since he had a girlfriend already. It was clearly obvious why anyone would crush on him ( but she never did, surprisingly ) but she wished it hadn't been Olivia. Because she'd get her heart broken and that would make her unhappy.. her thoughts rather wild and random at this point. But then, when she finally did mention his name.....

ACE?! Etta looked at her friend in surprise. HUH. That boy with curly hair, huh? She considered him for a moment. He was alright, she supposed. Good at academics, not sure if he played Quidditch, a good prefect.. would he be right for her? She pulled her friend over to the side, just to doubly make sure no one could hear their conversation. "First.. do you really, really like him? Or are you open to meeting other nice boys too?

Olivia smiled when Etta giggled. It was so nice to see her friend so happy. If Levi made her friend THIS happy, then perhaps he'd be alright. Ravenclaw? That somehow made sense to Olivia. She wondered what he was like. All she knew that he was probably nice if Etta had fallen for him. "Brilliant! I'll go easy on him. I won't interrogate him or anything," teased Olivia, folding her arms as she imagined herself suavely and politely interrogating Etta's boyfriend. Hehehe. This was going to be too much fun.

Her stomach had been doing flips as Olivia awaited to see what her friend would say based on the name that she had whispered. Would Etta approve? Did Etta know if he was seeing someone? Oh Merlin. If he was seeing someone then se would feel like an idiot... But hopefully that person was good enough for Ace cause he only deserved the best. Etta's reaction would have made Olivia's eyes widen to the size of saucers if they had been in a cartoon.

Woah. Had Olivia said something funny?

Then she was yanked towards Etta so that the two of them could talk without anyone overhearing them. To her question, Olivia shrugged. "I don't know... I think so. He's a lot of fun and he's a great friend and..." She paused, shaking her head. "I don't even know if he feels the same way. It's silly." She folded her arms. Feelings were stupid. She didn't like them. "Are you trying to set me up with others?" asked Olivia, arching an eyebrow. She was curious to see who Etta would set her up with.

If Daisy was being perfectly honest with herself, she would admit to never having spent so much time on the seventh floor before this year - and it was only early October. The Slytherin, however, was very much in denial about certain parts of her current life, so she consciously chose to ignore the amount of time spent in these parts of the castle.

Or she choose to tell herself that the only reason she did was because of the view.

Coming from the general area around the Fat Lady portrait, she couldn't help but to stop in front of one of the big, massive windows the Gryffindors and the Ravenclaws were lucky enough to walk past everyday. As much as she loved Slytherin House, and she really did, the dungeons really didn't compare to this. Especially when the sun was hitting the Quidditch pitch like that.

Her one true love, let's be real.

The Quidditch pitch. Not the sun.

Matt felt like he had spent enough time in the Common Room that day, so he was off. Where to, he did not yet know, but he was off somewhere.

Right after he walked through the Fat Lady's portrait he noticed someone just... standing there. By now, he was used to people just standing there, as it seemed to be common practice to lots of people at Hogwarts for some reason. He still didn't fully understand why people could just stand there and stare through a window or whatever. He could never do that.

Though that wasn't just any person. It was a Slytherin. And a very specific one, for that matter. The boy frowned when he realised who that was and held his gaze for a second as he wondered why the heck she was up there. Random. And not really the type of random Matt was a fan of anymore, which was saying something as random was usually pretty awesome in his opinion.

But not that kind of random.

Rolling his eyes, the fifteen year-old resumed walking towards Merlin knew where as if he hadn't seen anyone just standing there.

It was to be expected, really. There was only Gryffindor that Daisy really, really didn't want to see again and there he was. Sure, she had a bunch she liked to ignore and/or avoid; others (few, so few) she didn't mind hanging out with, and one she liked. But none of them were around at the moment, no, Matt Solo was around. Merriwether. That was his name, after all.

She saw him approach by the corner of her eyes and heard his steps stop but remained focused on the Quidditch pitch. Well, not focused. She was perfectly aware of the moment he resumed walking. But she was pretending to be focused there and completely ignoring him.

Until he started walking away, that was. She turned around to face him and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"So. Still not ready to apologise, Matthew?"

How Gryffindor of him.

See, Matt was ready to move on. As in move on and ignore her for the rest of his life, probably. Something like that. Sounded doable.

Unless she kept doing what she just did.

Which, by the way, wasn't just speaking to him, but accusing him too. He felt his blood immediately boil as he turned around to face her. "Are you for real??" He asked incredulously. "After all YOU said and done, I'm the one who needs to apologise?"

So Matt had heard how ridiculous and unreasonable Slytherin girls could be, but he wasn't expecting it to be to that extreme. "I'm hoping you didn't come all the way up here to get me to apologise. If you did, let me save you some breath and time," unlike someone he knew had done to him, "and tell you that I won't be doing any of that." Blunt Matt could be blunt some other ways too, and he was having none of it.

Aaaaah, the smell of Gryffindor entitlement in the morning. Or evening, whatever. It didn't matter. What mattered was that Matt was still completely irrational, despite the fact it was October now and the thing had happened in April. It was ancient history as far as she was concerned and yet, as she stared at him, she felt that fire burning in her stomach again.

He had destroyed her safe place, he had kissed her without asking, he had gotten upset over the fact that no, she didn't want to be his girlfriend. Or kiss him.

It was perfectly clear now that that had been the right choice.

"What are you even talking about?" She raised one eyebrow towards the younger Gryffindor and shook her head. Delusional. Matt was absolutely delusional. He had been fun once but Daisy just couldn't understand why or how or what she had been thinking. "I didn't do anything wrong." She had talked to him, had a snow fight with him, went on a date with him and all of a sudden he thought it was okay for him to kiss her and then get mad she didn't want to do that? Please.

She had forgotten why she had been all the way up here for a second, but Matt's words quickly reminded her and she fought the urge to glance around. Audibly, she snorted and shook her head again. She had been wrong, then -- he was still capable of being hilarious. Walk seven flights of stairs for him? It was physically painful not to roll her eyes at him. "No, it was just very bad luck. But since we're here.." As always, Matt didn't listen and kept talking and talking and talking until all that existed was the sound of his voice. This time, Daisy did roll her eyes and moved slightly forward towards him. How could he think he didn't have anything to apologise for? "I thought we were friends. I never realised you only hung out with me to kiss me or that the second that was out of the question, you'd leave, sulking as if I was wrong." Not that, it should be noted, she wanted or needed Matt's friendship; she was fine in that area, thank you very much. It was hurtful and maddening, though, to think that while she had been trying to build a friendship he had probably been looking somewhere else.

He thought she had wasted his time, but hers had been wasted too. Not to mention the disrespect he had shown towards her. Hah.

"So yes. You SHOULD apologise for that."

Waiting.

Etta looked slightly amused at the thought of Olivia questioning Levi. In fact, that would be quite hilarious because knowing him, he wouldn't know how to react. But she couldn't be that mean to him, though. She adored him way too much. "I want you to be friends with him!" She chewed her lower lip for a minute before giving a light shrug of the shoulders, a smile tugging the corners of her lips. "I think you guys will get along. Definitely."

But, coming back to Olivia's crush.. "Maybe he does feel that way about you.. you never know. I can find out if he's single and if he is..." Her voice trailed off, already formulating a plan to set them up on a date. Assuming Tenacius is single, of course. Heheheh. This was going to be FUN.

--- sorry, what? Oh. Etta frowned, considering the prospect of eligible bachelors close to their age at Hogwarts. "Well.. there is Tenacius, whom you like, of course.. and Olly, I don't know much about him but I can find out.. there's the other Levi -- I don't know anything about him either but his brother is rather interesting and weird. He's older, though. A seventh year.. Henry is taken, of course.. aaaand um.. yeah. Oh and there's Carl! He's cute.. but I think he might have a girlfriend. Sam is with Junia.. that's about it, I think."

Maaaaybe. Olivia wanted to say maybe but she couldn't bring herself to say that to Etta who looked as if she wanted her and Levi to be friends. "Alright. I'll try, especially since he makes you so happy" she added with a wide grin. However, questioning the boy would still be fun. "So when do I get to meet him?"

And now the attention was back on her and her crush. Olivia's cheeks turned pinker. Ehhh.... Her eyes widened when she offered to ask to see if Ace liked her back. Y'know maybe that would be a good idea. "I think that would be a good idea but could you do it in a way to make sure that he doesn't know that I like him?" she asked. Maybe he would get freaked out by that. She didn't really know boy's minds. Boys were confusing and she didn't want to lose him as a mate.

After the list of boys that Etta mentioned, Olivia shook her head. Sure, they were cute but none of them... She didn't really know any of them. "Alright... I'm pretty sure Olly is dating Noelle or at least they were last year. Olly IS cute though," she nodded her head. "I don't know the others really.... Ace may be the best option." He was a great option in her mind but only if he reciprocated her feelings. Unrequited love was something that she was terrified of.

Wwwwwhhhhhhhyyyyyyyyyy did people feel the need to go on and on about things? Matt was happy to just drop them completely and move ON with life. Some people just wouldn't get along and that was FINE. He didn't careeeeee.

But some people felt the need for drama, and Matt was so not up for drama. Such a waste of time.

"Yeahhhh, you didn't do anything wrong, and I didn't either. We're even." That said, why was she even there anyway? Oh, right. Drama llama.

Bad luck? "You are aware you're standing right in front of the Gryffindor Common Room's entrance, right? And that Gryffindors often use that door? Oh and wait a minute, lookit, I'M a Gryffindor!" He pulled a fake!surprised face and GASPED for effect. "What a surpriiiise!" WHO would have thought, huh? Small world...

Not.

'I thought we were friends. I never realised you only hung out with me to kiss me or that the second that was out of the question, you'd leave, sulking as if I was wrong.' Matt held both his hands up. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, don't you play that game now, Daisy." Matt pointed his finger at her because he wanted to make a POINT. A VERY VALID one, for that matter. "You knew how I felt about you and you even agreed to go on a date." WHO JUST WENT ON A DATE INTENDING TO STAY FRIENDS??? Not Matt. "But instead of being straight forward and saving us both time and effort, you just let me carry on. How's that my fault, hm??" Hint: IT WASN'T. "And who's sulking, mate? I'm fine, I've moved on. I didn't even speak to you in the first place. YOU started this conversation."

Demanding. Women were so flipping demandingggg. She was adamant he had to apologise. "Nope, I don't think I should. And I won't."

Wait all you want, woman, you're not having it.

Daisy Carden was actually waiting, foot tapping and arms crossed, in a display that simply proved that Gryffindors weren't the only ones capable of being delusional. And yet she felt like she was owned some kind of apology, some kind of sign that actually, Matt was capable of being sensible.

She should have known better, really.

Right now, all her strength was being used on keeping herself from slapping Matt's fake surprise off his face. It was a struggle. But she found herself nodding at him, slowly, as a smile stretched across her lips, almost cruelly. "You flatter yourself. A Gryffindor you might be, but don't think I'm here for you." She wouldn't walk up all those stairs for him, or for anyone else, really. Except for a select few. One. One of those.

Play that game. A snort was audible across the corridor and this time she did reach forward to swat his hand away. "How dare you?" Point his finger at her like that and accuse her of those things. "Are you that insane? That out of touch with reality, Solo?" Everything he was saying was technically true, and she knew that, but he was missing a very important part of the equation. HER side. HER feelings. It wasn't surprising to her, not really; who walked out in a huff simply because they got told kissing was a mistake? And who thought that one date, one date they had spent laughing over a rubber chicken, was reason enough to call someone their girlfriend?? And who, at fifteen, named themselves after a fictional character? "I went on that date to figure out how I felt! You never even gave me a chance!!" No. The next time she had seen him he decided to plant a kiss on her and get upset and offended and sulky over the fact that she had not wanted to kiss him. Good thing that kiss had been washed off long ago, now.

Her arms left her sides and she threw them in the air in exasperation. "You should've asked. Asked to kiss me, asked if I wanted to be your friend, asked what that date meant to me." Because in all honesty? All it had meant was that Matt could be funny and make her laugh. That's all. Maybe she should've been more honest but, at the time, she didn't have the tools to understand what was happening. Hm. Maybe she needed to thank Matt, actually, because now she definitely had those same tools.

Hah.

"But since you're talking about honesty, how about this?" She took one step closer to him, because possibly, Matt would only understand what she was trying to say if she said it right next to his face. Or screamed it. Or hit him in the head. Something like that. "You should've told me what you wanted. "Hey, Daisy. I don't want to be your friend, I just want to kiss you. I don't care about what you have to say, yeah?" She finished that in a very bad, very shrill imitation of his voice.

But Matt truly was a riot.

Again, the smile. "You're awfully angry for someone who is over it, Meriwether." She didn't even know why she was persisting with the conversation, if she was being completely honest. This summer had proved to her that yes, you could kiss someone, and then tell them you didn't want to do it anymore and a friendship could remain. Clearly, her taste had improved since last year. "I might've started it, but you're still here. Talking. Sounding awfully mad." Dramatically, she moved her hands and directed him towards the end of the corridor.

Yeah. He could go because she was not moving.

"I didn't." Think she was up there to see him, that was. "You said it had been bad luck. Rubbish. As I said, this is the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room, so don't you get that smug either." Again, Matt was having NONE of it. None. Thinking he thought she was there for him. Yeah, right.

He snorted. That out of touch with reality? "Not at all." And he knew she knew he was right. See, no arguments there. He had never given her a chance? "Heck, how much time did you need? And, if I remember correctly," and he was only using those words to be polite because it was a FACT and he DID remember correctly, "you said it yourself you kind of liked me too before I kissed you, alright." This Gryffindor played no games and he wasn't going to do so now either.

Honesty time, there we go. "About time!" He said between her asking if he wanted honesty and blurting out her thoughts. It was Matt's turn to give a cruel smile. "See how it pays off? You're completely right. I don't want to be your friend and I don't care about what you have to say. Not one bit." He said as his facial expression went back to being serious.

Oh, he was dead serious, alright.

He couldn't help but roll his eyes at her next remark. Yes, he was angry. "You know why? Because you're wasting my time AGAIN. And I do not like my time being wasted." And there, she was right again in that conversation. Finally. "And you know what's so good about not being friends with you? I don't have to waste my time anymore." And with that, he turned around and started off on his way to Merlin knew where again.

So. Delusional and in denial. What a good combination. "It is bad luck, trust me. I've been up here often and never saw your sorry face." Which was true, she did spend a lot of time around these parts nowadays and hadn't seen him around. Maybe she got too comfortable. Maybe she thought -- hoped -- he had left the school and spare her his frown. She shrugged. "So my luck ran out. You've always had a knack for finding me, anyway. Stalker." Remember when he said he had been looking for her and found her in five minutes?

Yeaaah, good story, Matthew.

Delusional, delusional, delusional. "More than what I got!" She exclaimed, irritated, trying her hardest not to stamp her foot on the ground lest she look like a child throwing a tantrum. Which she definitely wasn't. She was a young woman trying to get her point across to a hard-headed BOY that just needed his head swatted. Seriously. "Kinda liked you. And the kiss made me realise I didn't like you like that." She audibly groaned again and turned on the spot before facing him again. "How can you not understand that? The second I knew for sure I told you. You just got offended like a LITTLE GIRL." Had she yelled that last part? You bet she did.

She had been as honest with him as she could have been. The fact he hadn't done the same -- still wasn't doing the same -- was infuriating.

The smile on his face just made her want to laugh, and so she did. Loudly and cruelly and unabashedly. "Don't you get so smug now. A friendship with you would be the worst thing that could happen to me." Not really. Not at all. There were a bunch of worse things that could happen to her. None of them involving Matt. But a friendship with him was something she did not want; hadn't wanted since that day in the trophy room.

She had told him to leave. She wanted to him leave and yet the sight of his back was maddening. It reminded her of him leaving the trophy room simply because she had been HONEST, making assumptions about her and giving her no time to explain. So, she didn't keep her mouth shut. Not at all. "WOOOOOW!!! What a surprise!!" She called out after him and started slowly applauding. "There he goes, ladies and gentlemen! The brave Lion, doing what he does best. Escaping."

Etta blushed, awkwardly tucking a few strands of hair behind her ears. "He does. I think he really likes me too." She tried to not smile too much.. but it was obvious, really. Gosh. Ahem. Anyway, moving on. "Maybe soon? We could meet up for lunch one day? Have a picnic somewhere in the grounds?" If that was okay with her? She looked at her friend with a raised eyebrow.

"Of course not!" Etta might be very new to the world of boys and their behaviour but she did know that much. "He won't know.. I'll be very careful." The fact that Olivia had been crushing on him for so long meant that she really liked him and Etta wanted to help. She really did. It was the least she could do for her friend.

"Uh.. Noelle is or was dating someone else, I think. Not Olly.. they're just mates." .. yeah. Ace might really be the best option for her. How were there no nice and single boys at a school as big as Hogwarts, though? How were everyone dating?! It really made no sense. She frowned, nudging her friend lightly. "Hey, I'm sure he likes you back.. I mean, who wouldn't? Look at you! You're so pretty, smart, friendly, a wonderful human being.. anyone would be lucky to be with you."

Awwww... That statement was just adorable and filled Olivia with joy. She liked seeing her friend so happy. This boy must have been a good egg. Must be a good egg. Yes. Lunch with Levi and Etta? That would be third-wheeling but....Olivia had questions to ask. "That'd be lovely. I'd like that."

Etta would be very careful? Oh good, good. She smiled, very relieved by that notion. She was unsure that Ace knew about her feelings. She knew that he had received the candy gram last year but he had never asked her about it. Maybe one day he would? Or not? Both were possible.

WOW. She and always thought that Olly and Noelle were a thing. "Colour me stoked then!" she said in an almost monotone and half-surprised way. "I wonder who they're dating then..." She thought that Olly and Noelle would be cute together. Charlotte and Henry were together now too. Everyone was pairing up, huh? Olivia blushed at Etta's kind compliments. She smiled. "Thanks Etta, I appreciate that. I did get an interesting candygram about me being prettier than a Veela. I still don't know who that is from." She shrugged her shoulders. Ah well.