Selena clung onto Tori, despite the redhead's flailing hands. "You would be that because I am awesometastical, in fact, I am the most awesometastical person ever, so by hugging you, I am spreading some of my awesometasticalness," Selena said in a matter of fact tone of voice. And Miss VicTORIa could flap her hands alllll she wanted but she was not letting go. Pffft, how was the girl supposed to escape if she was being hugged? Ridiculous, really.

Sighing, she released the girl. "You're really not that huggable anyways," Selena said, sticking her tongue out at the girl, before choosing to cuddle Kent... who was much more huggable.

Oh.

Alex didn't seem to like his sister very much--and they were twins! August was a bit confused by this really. Weren't twins supposed to be like really close and miss each other when they were not together? Auggie brought his racing mind back to the conversation and his smile grew a bit. "Oh well, there's nothing wrong with being a Hufflepuff though." he said looking at the boy. He seemed nice enough as did the many others he had met.

So he knew who Kurumi was? "Yeah she's really cool. We play Quidditch together aswell." Cooking really did seem hard he had never done it really either. "I have to agree. I've never really cooked anything besides snacks in the toaster or microwave. My mother usually does the cooking at home." the Gryffindor nodded, thinking longingly of her homemade lasagna.

Alex wrinkled an eyebrow as it slowly started to dawn on him that August seemed to like Sierra. For some crazy reason. Well...ok. That was a first. Maybe he shouldn't talk about how awful she was, then? Probably. He cleared his throat. "Well, I mean she's not THAT bad. We get along probably as well as any other siblings," he said with a laugh. That was sort of a lie, he couldn't remember the last time they actually TALKED but...oh well.

"And thanks, not many people here seem to feel the same way about Hufflepuffs as you," he added with another chuckle. Especially those stupid Slytherins. "If I wasn't in Hufflepuff, I'd definitely want to be a Gryffindor. I don't think I'm brave enough though," he said with a shrug.

"Oh well that's good I guess." he said not so sure but not letting his voice deceive him. Him and his younger sister Sylvia were really close before he left to come here and he hoped they would stay the same when he returned for the term break.

There were still a few people here that didn't really feel great about him being a Muggleborn either, he could name one right off the top of his head actually--Eino. "Ah well don't listen to them. You were placed in the house for a reason and there wouldn't be a Hufflepuff house if there wasn't something good about it, right?" he said with another smile. "And I'm sure you are brave enough to be a Gryffindor!"

Maddy had been dancing her bunns off at the ATWIAHD, she was exosted and hungry. The kitchen smelled delicious.Sitting down at a table she poured herself a glass of ice cold water and waited for whatever was cooking in the oven.

Little metal egg in hand, Elise skipped off to the kitchens only to find a...

NOTE?!

"No studentsies?!" she gasped, skidding to a halt just in time to avoid collision.

The skidding did, however, make her lose her grip on the egg. Running after it, she picked it up and frowned. Scratches everywhere. Her sister said that they were memories, but they were just marring Ally's perfection.

Wand out, she performed an "excolo," making sure to polish every part of the egg, paying extra attention to the scratches.

Perfect. Now, since she couldn't eat, she might as well get some sleep.

Braeden smiled faintly as Emma guessed that her temper must've been the one responsible for getting her into Slytherin. He couldn't argue with that; for such a small and adorable little girl, Emma could have a horrifying temper at times. Scary as it was, it sometimes amused him as well; the boy just took things too lightly, having the laidback personality that he did.

As the girl went on to express her relief over Braeby's friendship, Brae chuckled softly. Merlin… she'd really been worried, hadn't she?

And then she was asking about the redhead.
"Try to get reactions out of others?" the boy repeated. "What do you mean? Do you mean, does she… do things on purpose? To upset other people?" he asked, his expression turning thoughtful as he thought about this. Did she? He'd never really thought of Ruby's behaviour as a call for attention, he'd always thought she just… was that way, that there was no science behind it. "I… I don't know, really," muttered the boy thoughtfully. "I never really thought about it… I think she's just fiery by nature." He shrugged. If Ruby really was doing things on purpose, Brae was too dull to notice it anyway.

He raised an eyebrow slightly at Emma. "Why do you ask?"

The blonde listened attentively as Braeden explained what he thought about Ruby's behaviour. Generally feisty? Yes, the blonde could see the redhead's feisty side. Not to mention, some days she had felt like stuffing the lioness in a cardboard box. The blonde blinked her brown eyes briefly as Brae asked her why she was asking.

So why was Emma asking? Hmm.. Good question. "I dont know.. You know, I don't really know.. I thought that if I knew that she was just teasing than it would maybe explain a few things in between the two of us, us being Ruby and I... I just wanted to make sure if she was trying to get you into trouble for fun, which it does seem so.." explained Emma beginning to ramble. The blonde was instantly reminded of how Ruby called her his mother. Ugh. Pout. "So if there's nothing- y'know- romantic in between the two of you- I'm fine by it. It's only when people play stuff up then do I find that it gets out of hand," explained Emma with a small smile. The blonde Snake was beginning to feel happy about this conversation, luckily, no bad news.. Yet.

Braeden listened with amusement in his eyes as Emma began to ramble.
Awwww. She was so cute when she struggled to find her point. He simply watched her as he finished his glass of warm milk.

"I understand," muttered the boy as the blonde finished explaining.
Soooooo… it seemed he was off the hook? Emma didn't hate and despise him anymore? Before cheering and celebrating this, though, Brae wanted to confirm it - it wouldn't be the first time he cheered something a little too soon.

"So… is-- is everything okay now?" he asked, a glint of hopefulness in his eyes, "You're not… still mad at me, are you?" Pleeeeeease say no!

Emma nodded and felt like she was going to smile and then Braeden said he understood. YES!! Phew.. The blonde felt if a heavy weight had been lifted off her shoulders. To be exact, she was relieved. Really relieved. Truly relieved. Ahh..

But, then Braeden proceeded to ask her about everything being okay. And was Emma still mad at him? ... Nooo.. Oh wait, the Caroline cousin thing. She had heard what had happened from a little bird. "I guess so! Except... Well, I'm not really mad at you... Okay, well still a little mad because.." Emma paused. BECAUSE YOUR A PLAYAH! Ahem.. Continuing to speak, "Because a little raven told me that my cousin kissed you! Is something goin gon between the two of you?" asked Emma, staring into his eyes and trying to see if it was true. The blonde seriously hoped not because her cousin was one of her best friends....

Braeden remained silent and still as a statue as he listened to Emma speak, eagerly waiting for her verdict.
She 'guessed so'?! GUESSED?! That… that's not a definite, totally-sure-of-yourself answer!
But it got worse.
The girl then explained she was still 'a little mad' at him. Because her cousin had kissed him.

PPPPPPFFFFFFFTTTTTTTTT!!!!

In his shock, the poor lion boy ended up spitting out the last bit of milk he'd been drinking, and, since he'd been sitting directly across from Emma, ended up spraying the girl with milk all over her face and clothes.
OH. CRAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!
Braeden, you bloody idiot!!!!!! The boy nearly had a heart attack. HAD HE SERIOUSLY JUST SPIT ALL OVER THE LOVE OF HIS LIFE?! Oh, she was DEFINITELY going to hate him forever now.

"EMMA!" He jumped up from his seat and snatched a small hand towel from one of the elves passing by. "I--I'm so sorry! I didn't--it was an accident, I swear!" he explained, coming to the girl's side of the table and beginning to clean her up as best he could.
Leave it up to Braeden to forget he was a wizard in a time of extreme panic. He will forever remain 80% Muggle and only 20% wizard.

"I'm really, really sorry…" he muttered, giving the girl a hopeless, pleading look. She was never going to forgive him now. BUT-- HOW DID SHE FIND OUT ABOUT CAROLINE?! Gahhhhhhhhh. He'd been really hoping she hadn't seen or heard of that… but of course someone would tell. And Emma's hint about a 'raven' told him exactly who the little bird had been. He sighed. Oh, Ellie… helping me out with my relationship but throwing me under the bus at the same time!? ;________;

Ahhhh! WOOSH! And the Slytherin was covered in milk. Uggh..... She was drenched with milk. Her blonde hair was kind of bleached in places with milk. The blonde raised her hand to her eyes and wiped off the milk around her. Her brown eyes blinked slowly. And then a look appeared on her face, a confused one. Luckily, Emma had closed her eyes at the last second. OH MY MERLIN! EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! Add some major flailing. This was a new shirt that her cousin, Dianna, bought for her. NOO WAY! Just her luck... >.<

Luckily, her attentive boyfriend was already apologizing and cleaning the mess up with a towel. The blonde raised a blonde eyebrow and put her hand out towards Brae. "Hold on. I can fix this," said Emma and pulled out her wand, pointed it at her clothes, and said Scrougify! And in a blink of an eye, the milk was gone from her clothes, yet, she still was drenched. Brr...Crossing her arms across her chest, she shivered slightly.

The blonde grimaced a little and shrugged her shoulders. "Don't worry about it. Next time, I'll bring an umbrella," she teased, with a smirk on her face and then returning to her interrogation. "And just because I said a 'raven' doesn't mean Ellie, okay? I heard her talking to Caroline about it.." explained Emma, with a curious look. "So, what happened? Just tell me all. The good and the bad. I can handle it."

Like a good little boy, Braeden obeyed as Emma asked him to stop, for she could fix the mess. As he watched the blonde girl pull out her wand and clean the mess with a simple spell, the boy sighed and face-palmed.
Seriously.
HOW had he attended magic school for seven years straight and continued to forget the simplest of spells? It was getting ridiculous.

As Emma shivered - her clothes may have been magically dried, but her skin wasn't - Braeden immediately took action. He knew no warming spells so he went about solving the problem the old fashioned muggle way: he pulled off his jacket and Gryffindor scarf, and handed them both to the shivering girl, placing the jacket over her shoulders and the scarf loosely around her neck.

In all honesty, she looked a little silly.
There she was, dressed all girly and cute, now she had this enormous jacket weighing her down and a long, thick scarf in bright gold and red that matched with absolutely none of the things she was wearing, covering her neck.
But, silly as she looked, Braeden had never been more attracted to her. There was just something about the girl he liked wearing his clothes…

Returning to his seat across from Emma, Braeden fidgeted with his hands absentmindedly and avoided Emma's gaze as the girl explained that Ellie hadn't been the one to spill the beans, and asked he explain everything to her.
WAIT A MINUTE -- How did Emma know he'd thought of Ellie?!
Wide-eyed, the boy looked at his girlfriend in complete horror for a moment: OHMYGOSH, Emma is a mind-reader!!!!! Crap--wait--she can probably hear this…

Braeden cleared his throat.
"Alright… if you must know…" he muttered unenthusiastically. He wasn't looking forward to having to explain this situation to his girlfriend, of all people. "I… I was-- I was outside about to have some lunch, then Caroline came over to say hi… I hadn't seen her in forever - almost literally - so we decided to catch up… We went to the Great Hall, and we were just eating and talking and…" He cringed slightly, "And… she… she--just--sort of… said some things I'd never realized before, and… she kissed me." Having avoided Emma's gaze once again as he told the story, Brae looked back to her now.

He wondered what she thought.
Would she believe him? After all, every time Brae had to explain these uncomfortable situations to Emma, he was always the one being kissed, not the other way around. It was the truth, though; the boy had never purposely gone around initiating kisses with girls. However, would Emma believe that? Or would she think he was just full of excuses and running away from the guilt or something? He honestly hoped she'd believe him, though… She did know he wouldn't purposely do anything to hurt her, didn't she?

And she was shivering and then Braeden quickly put his coat around her and his Gryffindor scarf. He did that as if it was instinct. Red SO wasn't her colour. She needed her greens and silvers! GAH! What would her parents say if they saw her dressed in Lion colours?!

Despite the whole situation about Caroline, the blonde blinked her brown eyes slowly and grinned gratefully at him. D'aww that was sooo nice of him. Something was up. "Thanks Brae," she said with a wide smile as she folded her arms to keep warm.

Emma, now dressed warmly and starting to feel a little sleepy, reclined back in her chair and waited for Braeden to tell the story. Merlin, maybe she should just go around getting kissed by other boys? Hmm..? Tapping the table lightly, she listened to the story. Okay, so they hadn't seen each other and they were catching up? That's pretty normal... The blonde nodded again, content with the answer that she had gotten so far. And then Caroline said some things and kissed him! Her own cousin!??

Her cousin must have made a mistake. Caroline nor Braeden would never mean to hurt her? Or would they? No, no. They wouldn't. Caroline was her own cousin and Braeden was, well, her best friend and boyfriend.

Even though, Emma had heard this from someone else twitter and had been furious, she wasn't really that mad. She was more annoyed at her cousin. But perhaps, Emma hadn't been thinking about her cousin's feelings when she told Braeden she liked him. Was that when Caroline and Carter were dating? Or had they broken up? The Malfoy couldn't remember. But now back to the present, what could she say?

"Okay, I see. Umm... I don't really know what to say.. I'm not mad at you- I'm kind of disappointed with Caroline. But perhaps Caroline still misses Carter?" she said, beginning to speak and a smile slowly appeared on her lips,"But, I believe you," His story had matched what the people that she talked to had said. Why did her boyfriend always have to be kissed by other girls. The blonde paused for a second.

"Do you have anything else to mention?" teased Emma, with a wide smile on her face.

Braeden sat in silence, examining Emma's facial expressions as he waited for her response. He kept his fingers crossed, hoping the girl had believed him.

As Emma finally spoke, the lion boy felt torn between two feelings: extreme relief for being believed, but guilt for causing Emma disappointment with her cousin. Caroline was a wonderful girl, he was sure that the idea of hurting Emma hadn't even been on her mind when she kissed him.

"That's what I thought too," muttered Brae when Emma mentioned that perhaps Caroline missed her ex. Of course, he'd mentioned this idea to Caroline as well when she'd been confessing her feelings for him, but she made it clear her crush on him had been for a while, even before meeting Carter. However, Brae wasn't about to go and tell Emma that. It would only make the situation worse. Let's just blame it on the girl being confused after breaking up with her ex, shall we? Sorry, Caroline!

"Don't be upset with her, though…" the boy added after a moment. "She didn't mean harm. I think she was just… caught up in the moment, or something. She'd never do anything to hurt you, she was for the most part just letting it all out… it's our last year at Hogwarts and there were just things she wanted me to know. But she'd never meant to come between us," he explained.

After making his explanations, Brae allowed the silence to take over their conversation before Emma spoke again, asking if he had to anything else to mention.

He did have something else to mention, actually.
Flashing Emma one of his silly, lopsided grins, he spoke, "You look pretty cute in my coat."

Emma nodded, convinced at what Braeden was saying. It had to be true. Of course her own cousin wouldn't want to come between them- what had Emma been thinking? Truth be known, ever since girls decided to start kissing her boyfriend, Emma didn't know WHAT to think. Merlin. Merlin. MERLIN. WHY ME?!?!? The Malfoy had wanted to yell this from the top of the Observatory a few days ago...

And it looked as if Braeden did have something else to mention. Uh-oh. Emma braced herself for another story about Braeden getting kissed by another girl. All she needed to hear now that Sel, Ellie, or Alfie Or Deus had kissed him. She could do this. Of course she could. It was just another kiss- it didn't mean anything right? Heh.

A signature lopsided grin appeared on his handsome face, and Emma couldn't help but feel that things were going to be all right. She chuckled as he said she looked pretty cute in her coat. "Hah, thank you. Though it looks better on you," she beamed him a bright smile. It was over. The whole drama was over. "I'm so glad that this is over. All the drama," she said with a widesmile as she took a deep breath in. Then Emma stood up and took a seat by the open chair next to him, smiling widely. Then she leaned in and kissed his lips softly.

The sign was still up. Isabelle was concerned about that. Three quarters of the term had gone by and the kitchens were still shut to people. Sure they were getting something for lunch and dinner in the day, but it wasn't the usual standard. And the elves had seemed awfully jumpy lately - rushing around all over the place. Issy had asked for her classroom to be cleared before the next lesson, but had arrived to find it still dirty, so did it herself. Very unusual.

Studying the pear, she decided against tickling it, for fear of being pounced on by an irate elf. Instead she leant as close to it as she could and called out. "Tinka? Nimma? Quirly? Are you in there? I've come to check things are alright, I'm a bit concerned about you all." Was she going to get any response?

Braeden merely shook his head when Emma mentioned the coat looked better on him.
PPPPPSSSSSSHHHHH. Was she blind?! It looked a THOUSAND times better on her! He was just a lanky, scrawny boy with big hair. But Emma? Well, Emma was flawless. She looked absolutely stunning no matter what she was wearing.

With a sort of dazed look in his brown eyes, the boy watched as Emma left her seat. For a brief second there, he thought she was getting up to just randomly leave and abandon him there; however, the girl came toward him instead, and proceeded to sit at his side. With brown eyes fixed on hers, he grinned like a big, happy doof.

And then Emma kissed him.

Braeden felt himself melting away in his chair.
WHEN HAD BEEN THE LAST TIME HE AND EMMA KISSED?!
Her lips felt like something foreign but absolutely wonderful to the boy. When she pulled away, he couldn't help feeling like they were kissing for the first time. It had just been so long ago… How did he make it through the past couple weeks without his daily dose of Emma kisses?! It was amazing he'd survived to tell the tale!

Still looking rather out of it from amazement, Brae merely stared at his girlfriend for a moment before letting out an awkward, dorky chuckle. He was like a giddy little schoolgirl.
And then he was kissing her again.
How could he not? Now that he had permission to kiss Emma again, he was DEFINITELY going to abuse the privilege. !
This was definitely better than kissing Deus.

Angelina headed down to the kitchen to get a little snake after her last class. The note everyone has been talking about was still there, but she didn't care to much to she was to hungry! So she decided to just knock. Doing so she said, "Hello?" and waited.

Was is possible to have a kiss that was just so magical?
The Malfoy guessed it was. Especially kissing someone that you were in love with. It made her feel giddy, bubbly. She felt as if she didn't have to worry about Ruby, or any other girl who tried to kiss her boyfriend because she knew that Braeden was in love with her.

And when the couple broke apart, Emma noticed her boyfriend chuckled a little and then before she could ask what he was chuckling at, he kissed her. The blonde closed her eyes as she kissed him back, savouring the passionate kiss.

And then she heard one of the elves cough. Whoops. As they broke apart for a second time, Emma took a deep breath in and apologised to the little elf with a wide smirk on her face. "So, what about a late Valentine's date?" she suggested, remembering that they had never had one.

Braeden looked dazed as Emma's rosy lips left his.
Wow, he already missed them.

He snapped out of it, though, as the young Slytherin spoke. His bushy eyebrows raised when she suggested a late Valentine's date.

Hey, that was right!
As suggested by Ellie, Brae had decided to set up a date with his beautiful girlfriend, where he would have explained everything to her and, hopefully, save their relationship. He'd already set up most of the things (with help from the little house elves) up in the Observatory. The boy had been taking a quick snack break before collecting food to take upstairs when Emma walked in on him and they talked, their relationship now officially saved. But his date ideas officially pointless now.

Not anymore, though, as Emma suggested the late Valentine's date. It was the perfect excuse. Either way, he didn't need an excuse or a reason to treat his lovely girlfriend to a date, did he? He just wanted to make her feel special.

"Well, m'dear," started the Gryffindork as he got up to his feet and offered Emma a hand. "If it's a date you want, then it is a date you'll get," he announced, like the smooth, charming protagonist of a movie. Except of course, being Brae, he just came off as a big goofy dork, though he still had some adorkable charm in his lopsided smile.

Emma raised a blonde eyebrow slowly and cocked her head to the left a little bit, looking at her boyfriend curiously. Did her really just say: M'dear? Oh Merlin. Emma smirked a little. He sounded like her father or one of the men who worked at the Three Broomsticks. 'M'dear, what would you like to order? A butterbeer, m'dear, how wonderful! Here you are m'dear.'

Then the Gryffindork was up on his feet. The Malfoy had to look up a little higher because she had forgotten how tall her boyfriend was. Or maybe it was the fact that he just got a little bit taller. A blush crept behind her cheeks. Emma nodded slowly and then a smile appeared on her face, as he offered her his hand with that wonderful lop-sided grin. The blonde took his hand with her own and stood up. "Why, my knight of Gryffindor. Where are we off to?" she explained, grabbing the left side of his coat (that she was wearing) and curtsying to him. She felt silly when she did this. The Fair Maiden of Slytherclawin was all smiles.