Returning from classes, the boy kicked off his shoes, placed them neatly upon his bed in the boys dorm before sighing and flopping back onto his bed. His head hurt. There were things that he had yet to resolve in his head that kept on giving him a headache. He STILL hadn't spoken to Inkeri and Ronan after objecting at their wedding. Sheesh. He didn't trust Ronan. Slimey git, indeed, he thought as he rolled his eyes. His mind wandered to happier things, including Islay and Kimmie and Minjae and... He took in a sharp breath. Aboli. His stomach flip flopped when he thought of her, not knowing how to feel. Of course, he had feelings for her. He had liked her way back before school had started and... well... She had liked bad boys, such as Christian. This had led Noah to pretend to be a bad boy and even offered to pretend to be Christian so she could practice hitting on him. He smacked his hand against his forehead. Stupid boy. Stupid boy and those feelings... Then he had been convinced that SHE didn't like him. .... until that day in Hogsmeade when she said she liked nice guys.

Noah's cheeks flushed remembering that day. Of course, he had been overjoyed at her confession but then remembered the situation. She was single. He was not. It wouldn't be right..... After her confession, he had awkwardly laughed as his heart beat raced. Noah had been afraid that the sound of his racing heart would get Aboli's attention but fortunately it didn't. It should have been wrong, right? He had a girlfriend who he adored but her confession... it made so much sense. He groaned. Then there was the time where she touched his arm and the two of them jumped away from each other as if they had touched a kettle of boiling hot water that had just been taken off of the stove.

He held his right hand in his left, remembering the touch, but feeling weirdly burned by it. Sighing, he reached for a book on his bedstand table, hoping to get these thoughts and feelings out of his head.

Man. Feelings were overrated.

Coming back to the dorm after his afternoon workout on the pitch, Josh was feeling more than a little light headed and in desperate need for a bite or two of those protein bars he kept under his pillow. He still had about 50 things to do on his to-do list for the day, only a modest exaggeration, and among those was finishing memorizing his lines for a scene he was performing with Fiona for Drama Club and then actually starting all of his homework....including a hefty essay for Defense Against the Dark Arts and another for Transfiguration. The latter was going to be nothing short of a disaster considering the fog his brain seemed to be constantly in. He probably should have listened to Eliza when she told him he was insane for taking NEWT level Transfiguration. He partly blamed her for his struggling right now though - she always seemed to happen to distract him right when he was pretending to study for it and apply himself.

But...anyway. AnYwAy.

Pushing open the door to the dorm with a grown, his shirt off and pressed against his face with both of his palms, Josh made a beeline for his bed ... or what he THOUGHT was his bed. The half spin he took unintentionally as he entered the door had him a bit disoriented and therefore the bed he just so happened to flop down on was not his but Noah's. So, uh, eeeeeeeeeerm...incoming?

Incoming.

Right into your lap, Nam.

Sup?

Noah had been reaching over for his book, not paying attention when the door to their dormitory opened. He was more focused on trying to be lazy and reeeeach for the book. Why couldn’t his arms be longer?? Sad. He unballed his right fist and stretched his hand, reaching out for the book, and staring at it intently. If only he had magical jedi skills that allowed the book to come to his beck and call. Oh duh! Accio puh-leeeease. His eyes widened when he thought of an idea. Sure, he didn’t have the force like a Jedi but he certainly knew a spell that could work. The only thing now was whether or not it would work without a wand. Hmmm….

Minjae had been practicing wandless magic the other day so how hard could it be? Psh. If Minjae could do it, I can do it. He thought cockily before mentally preparing himself to speak the word in his head. Not that he was super competitive with his best mate but still…. Ok. He lied. Maybe he was competitive. Well... Maaaaybe he had become more competitive because the whole Aboli/Minjae thing but he was trying to be cool with it. He was the one to suggest it after all. Before it had been because the two were his best friends and it made SENSE for it to happen but that was before the Prefect’s bathroom thing….. No. Don’t think of it. If you think about it, you’ll only make it more awkward than it already was? Or IS? He tried to push the thoughts away. All he needed was an adventure to a place where he didn’t need to think about relationships and THINGS that made him feel a certain way that SHOULDN'T. Concentrate Noah...…… Acci---

ACCCCCCCK!

Insert a wild flailing right arm as someone landed on him. Yes, siree! Said concentration was VERY much derailed this time by a BOY instead of a girl. A SHIRTLESS boy, in fact, who happened to be umm…. In his lap? And it was Josh? A light blush crept to his cheeks at the ummm... this... situation. OH. OH. UM. OH. OKAY. The first place that his mind went too was.... please don't make me a poster.... He froze, trying to run through the possibilities of why this was happening. He hadn’t spent much time in the Lion’s dormitory last year as he had been occupied with a certain blonde Puff so he had often felt like he was on the outside of the inner dorm room shenanigans that happened. So perhaps this was normal? He wondered in that split second before opening his mouth to speak - well- joke. “Er… Hey! Is this the initiation I missed?" he joked, offering the boy a carefree lop-sided grin.

FoR tHe ReCoRd. Joshua Alphonse Miller had never made a poster in his life. His face just happened to be plastered on them for one reason or another whether that be quidditch related or because of the artistic endeavors of Skeet. The latter of which had not happened again in recent memory...unless by the grace of Merlin the memories had been erased during last term. Something he supposed was entirely possible.

It would really be in everyone's best interests right now if Noah did NOT mention that certain blonde Hufflepuff...because Josh was already tip toeing around landmines and fallen broomsticks trying not to say anything to his dormmate about ANYTHING. He liked to think of himself as trustworthy, but he would never EVER encourage ANYONE to perform a Fidelius Charm with him. Like, you know, he liked living and all that. AnYwAy. Just...best not to bring it up, only it was absolutely inevitable, because this Gryffindor had entirely too many opinions about things.

Including how little time Noah made for his dormmates and, well, Josh just found that aspect kind of unhealthy and couldn't entirely get behind it.

Lucky for them both, Josh was shooting back up as though Noah's lap were made of hot coals. He was even wiping and smacking his bum as though putting out some flames and wiping away soot. Just, well, he couldn't handle another miscommunication and copious amounts of awkwardness with another one of his dormmates. Thanks but, no thanks.

"Initiation? Huh?" Now that the flames had been put out, so to speak, he turned to look at Noah and then towards his own bed. So...yeah. There was his bed. Just...chillin there. "Uh...no. No? No."

A couple of finger jabs later to his own bed, Josh was heading over to it to sit down and tossed his shirt into his laundry hamper.

And then his stupid mouth opened again.

"So...swimming..."

And there was Josh shooting up out of Noah's lap as if he had been burned. OH THANK MERLIN. Luckily none of their roommates had been here to witness such an... a thing? He didn't have a great word to describe what had just happened. It was an accident. Nothing more.

He'd been a boy in love... Or infatuation. He didn't know. The time spent outside of his own dorm made him feel incredibly uncomfortable back in the dorm but he had ignored it. He didn't feel part of the group.... He had Minjae after all, didn't he? He had at first felt upset with the first interaction with his dormmates - especially when he had asked about a Ravenclaw girl who had.... well.... It had gotten him into a mess and he felt horrible. That was part of his reason for avoiding the dorm because he felt awful about that. Even though he SHOULDN'T have felt bad about that.... he STILL did.

"Oh good! Skeet or Spence had mentioned something last year and then... things happened," he said with a shrug, not wanting to go into further detail because it really wasn't important now. Standing up, he grabbed his book. Standing up was simpler. And it was easier. He turned to gaze over his shoulder at Josh. "I was joking about the initiation thing, y'know..." And he would have said more but then Josh mentioned something about swimming. Why on EARTH was he talking about swimming? What an odd topic, indeed.

He fully turned around, perplexed by such a question, not knowing that Josh was referring to any incident with HIS best friend and Slytherin Prefect. Noah shrugged. "I like swimming. What of it?" He didn't know what Josh was getting at with such a comment but perhaps Josh was merely attempting to break the silence like a polar bear broke ice. Icebreakers... Right. "Do you like to swim?"

Remarkably...by this point Josh was unfazed by any opinion of his dormmates. Mostly because he had always proven his loyalty to the bro code, picking that side of any and all conflicts, and there was a whole repertoire to be had among them now. Josh had long accepted that Noah's circles would steer elsewhere, he had always read like a puppy on Kimmie's leash to Josh bUt ThAt WaS jUsT hIm and the conversation with Aboli had NOT helped this imagery lessen, and it just ... was what it was. Josh and Spencer were even good friends again. Possible double date in the future...which would be nothing short of an absolute awkward disaster, Josh was sure of, but it was still likely going to happen.

"Skeet and Spencer say a lot of things," Josh found himself chuckling as he bent forward to peel his socks off his feet and toss those into his hamper next. The next comment seemed a tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiny bit contradictory, but it really didn't matter in the grand scheme of things how Josh interpreted it. He was laughing anyway. "I figured. Not like we have a round robin set up or anything where one of us has to play Santa. Don't worry about it." He was hardly the uptight personality anyway.

"Oh...uh...well I do some for training. Quidditch stuff. It's a break from the usual wind springs and weight training. But...well...getting cold out there. And I do like me a good polar bear swim now and then. Boston, you know..." Drums on his chest with his fist for a bit of Bostonian pride and almost comically ignoring the fact that he was consciously aware he was rambling. "Sooo...you know...can't exactly go in the Black Lake for it. Especially with it all frozen over...was just...wondering if maybe you know anywhere else in the castle I could...possibly take a dip?"

He was going to stop talking now. Though he was somewhat pointedly eyeing his fellow sixth year up and down knowingly.