Krissy felt like a dunderhead. "Oh right... well I'll get the next round." she slipped the coins into her pocket. "Why haven't I heard of these new creatures yeh a both raising?" She twisted in her seat rather uncomfortably. "Oh and don't think yeh are getting out of sharing yer theory with Helios lass!" Turning to Helios Krissy added "`tis too funny, me cousin has gone mad." She gave the only genuine smile at the table.

Mariska looked around for a moment, blushing somewhat when Elizabeth mentioned her being busy. " I think we're going to have to talk about that today too," She said, muttering a bit because she wasn't quite so sure she wanted to reveal her duplicitous nature as of late.

" I'll get the drinks," She said quickly, her attention suddenly commanded once more when Elizabeth made a rather secretive remark. She grabbed a bit of change and went up to the bar, getting two butterbeers and paying quickly. She walked the same way back to the table, setting down the bottles. " Okay. You go first, I'm sure what you've got to say is much more interesting since you don't want anyone to know." She said with a smile.

Helios blinked his cloudy blue eyes several times. What a strange question.. "I call him kneasel, bugger, or other words that are not to be used in polite company." It never occured to him to name pets. Should he name his socks next?

"Have you ever wanted to fly? Helios said wistfully, perhaps he was wishing to fly away from his uncomfortable feeling.

Elizabeth's interest was piqued when Mari muttered a response to her comment about being busy, but she didn't have a chance to ask about it before her friend was leaving to get drinks. "Um, okay," she said, then sat fidgeting a little as she waited. She wasn't exactly sure how she was going to talk about any of what had happened to her. And she was nervous that Mari would freak out anyway.

When she came back with the drinks, Elizabeth took one of the bottles quickly and took a sip, using it to stall, especially when Mari spoke, indicating she had caught the comment earlier. But she could only use the butterbeer for so long, and finally set the bottle down. "Um, how do I begin?," she said hesitantly, before taking a breath. Maybe it would be easier just to say it. At least, it would be over with. After a few seconds, she closed her eyes as she blurted out, "Ludo kissed me." After she spoke, she quickly reopened her eyes in order to grab the butterbeer bottle and take another drink, trying to distract herself as she felt herself starting to flush.

"Oh it's part of the COMC assignment, we have to look after some baby animals" Kayla said in the hopes of steering her cousin away from the whole betrothed thing. Alas it was not to be as the very next thing to come out of her mouth was exactly that and Kayla shifted uncomfortably in her seat and refused to look at Helios. "Er...I think he might already know" she finished somewhat lamely.

Kayla chuckled, she couldn't help herself. "Very original Helios and does he come when you call him bugger?" Kayla continued to giggle until she could sense the strain coming from Helios and she stopped. "You know maybe I should leave...you...uh...two have a lot to talk about." Oh please someone come and rescue her from this situation, she wished wholeheartedly that she didn't know anything.

Krissy sighed. "Oh yeh aren't any fun. I wanted to see him look at yeh as yeh were mad." shrugging she turned back to her sketches and started playing with drapery. "don't be silly lass, I hardly see yeh now that yeh are a prefect." Krissy giggled at the bugger comment. Her mum had always called their pet cat "bugger" when she was still living in the muggle world.

Mariska settled back into her chair, sipping quietly at her drink as Elizabeth took one as well. However she gave her friend a look that said she was sure she was stalling and Mari wanted to know what needed to be kept so secret. No cajoling was necessary though it turned out because a few moments later, her friend had confessed. Mari's eyes widened and she set down her bottle somewhat calmly. " AreyouseriousLudoSnicketLUDOSNICKETkissedyou?!?!?! ?!?" She said in a stage whisper, her surprise and elation at being privy to such information obvious. She quieted down for a moment and composed herself again. " So. How did the um, kiss take place?" She said, remembering that this was supposed to be secretive, not obvious.

"Oh I don't think that Helios would think I was mad somehow" she said suggestively. Kayla watched as Krissy started to doodle some more and she sighed, "I'm always around being a Prefect doesn't keep me that busy" she chuckled softly. "No it's the boys that are doing that" she teased, knowing full well that Krissy would take that the totally wrong way.

Krissy kept sketching. "Yeh are always getting busy with boys..." Krissy realized what she said and straightened up blushing. "Err, umm. yeh know what I mean. Boys are always distracting yeh." taking a swig of butterbeer she tried to cool her cheeks of the blush. "What do yeh mean Helios wouldn't think yeh are mad?" she looked back and forth between the two. "Out with it." she hated when people kept secrets.

Kayla simply laughed at Krissy's comment. "Not like it used to be though but I seem to have a few more male friends than female ones" she shrugged her shoulders still amused. "But they're always there when I need them especially Cayden..."she gazed a Krissy for a moment..."I think you would like him and I don't mean in that sense. Just as a friend, he really is quite funny and Maddox..."at this Kayla stole a furtive look at Helios..."he's my best friend and my unofficial bodyguard. Helios can attest to that."

Oh she had put her foot in it once again and she squirmed under Krissy's stare. "That you two are betrothed to each other. Helios, is the one who led me to this conclusion." Kayla didn't care if he yelled at her or hit her or whatever he felt like doing at that moment, it was time for the secret to come out.

Helios' mind was drifting but Mads name brought him back to Earth. "He's a real tough guy. I think he would make a great frie-- WHAT!?" as he was about to admit he had somethig other than contempt for another male student, he nearly spilt his butterbeer on the table.

"Where would you get such an idea?" Helios said, a bit more calm this time.

Kayla had been waiting for it and his reaction came as no surprise to her. She turned to him calmly, "That day out by the whomping willow, when we had our little talk and I told you to tell Krissy how you felt about her." Kayla couldn't help feeling a little smug at this stage. "Do you recall what you said to me?"

Krissy smiled, here it was. Helios would finally dispel her cousin's crazy conclusion.

"Wait what?! Tell me how he feels for me?" She looked back and forth between the two. "And why in bloody hell would Helios have any feelings for me?! I hate bloody secrets and now yeh are both keeping them from me?!Why are yeh talking about me behind me back?!" Krissy picked up her sketchbook and pencil. Looking at her friends she said in a very cool voice. "One of yeh explain this to me right now or I am leaving." She tapped her foot expectantly.

"Stay, Krissy. I can leave." Though it wasn't her fault, Kayla seemed to enjoy torturing the prince. So, he stood up, wanting desperately to be anywhere else.

"Kayla got me to admit I have..have feelings...for you." Helios spoke slowly, barely managing to form the words. "And..I told her that you should forget about me, and forget about your arranged marriage. You should be allowed to make your own decisions on who you marry. And as for me, well, I just do not deserve a girl like you." He finished with a gentle sigh.

Inside he wanted to scream and throw a tantrum without peer, but for some odd reason he couldn't muster the strength. The proud prince actually looked rather pitiful, or pathetic, depending on how you looked towards such things. And for once, those cloudy eyes looked as if they would rain.

Krissy looked at the prince as he revealed something she had been dying to hear for the past four and a half years. Gentle tears streamed down her cheeks.she reached out and touched his shoulder. "I will marry the man to which I was promised, but yeh are the only one I've ever dreamed of." wiping the tears from her face she walked out to the street. If the prince chose to follow her that was his decision, but she wasn't going to make an even bigger scene in the middle of a pub in front of her cousin.

In his fifteen years of life Helios had been hit, cut, bit, beat, whipped, trampled, burned, crushed, and probably even stabbed once or twice. This though, this was the worst of them all. Physical pain was felt in the nerves, but this went straight to the heart where anger and adrenaline did nothing to hide the feeling.

Helios stood dumbstruck, the color slowly draining from his face. If only the Earth would open up for him and swallow him whole. "I-I told you to trust me, Kayla. I was only trying to keep her safe.." The Greek boy choked out, on the verge of a break down.

"Curse it all to Hades!' He finally snapped as he slammed his fist down on the table. In truth, he was not angry with the situation, but with himself for not being angry.

What was this salty, sobering taste on his lips? Bewildered, he did not notice the twin tears that rolled down his cheeks, something he thought he was incapable of doing.

The boy was an island unto himself when he arrived at Hogwarts. Now, thanks to Krissy and Kayla, color had entered his gray world. They made what was once a flat plain into a land filled with high peaks of happiness...and deep valleys of despair.

Mari's response to her announcement made Elizabeth feel a little better about everything. At least, she was forced to hold back a snicker at the stage whisper. "No. Some other Ludo," she teased in the same stage whisper. "How many Ludos do you think I know?" She set her butterbeer back on the table as she waited for Mari to calm down, but then snickered again at the question. "Do you want the whole story, or just that part?," she asked. "Cause there's professor invasions, weirdness, points loss, mortification, amusement . . . the whole thing."

She sat back in her chair as she started remembering everything that had gone on. "Did you know there's a secret room in the castle that has a mirror inside it?," she asked, semi-randomly. "Cause that plays into the whole story. But short form, we were up in the observatory, and he told me he wanted to know if there could be something more than friendship between us. Then he kissed me." She grinned, and then added, "And then Professor Forrester showed up." Again. Even though she had been extrememly freaked out when it happened, looking back, it really was quite funny.

Kayla's eyes went back and forth between the two as she hid slightly behind her bottle of butterbeer and she sat silently simply watching the two finally get it together...well sort of. It seems they still needed a little hand in the love department not that she was an expert or anything.


Kayla watched as Krissy left and she turned to Helios with a calm expression. "No point in getting all upset about it, the cats out of the bag now. She wants to be with you and you want to be with her...so what is the big deal?" Okay that might not have been the right thing to say. "Look I told you at the whomping willow, that you only get one chance at true love and you should seize it with both hands" she looked at Helios once more and slowly rose from her chair. "We all want to keep our loved ones safe Helios but she's a big girl and can look after herself" Kayla placed her bag onto her shoulder and gave Helios a smile. "Just get it together will you" she patted him on the shoulder and made her exit from the pub.

Mari let out a little sigh and rolled her eyes as Elizabeth teased her. " I know, I know but I mean...he's always so shy. It's so adorable that he would be so forward." She said, blissfully living vicariously through her friend for a moment. Oh, but to have something so simple instead of what Mari had gotten herself into. She sighed again, then gasped at the description that Elizabeth gave her. " Oh, you were cauuuuught." She teased, laughing a little before drinking more of her butterbeer. " But how many points did you lose?" She asked more seriously, wanting to keep the points in their favor. It wasn't that distant of a race anymore.

She listened more, shaking her head when Elizabeth asked her about the mirror. " No, but now I want to find it. Maybe we can go looking later." She said nonchalantly. She grinned right back at her friend, noticing the girls obvious delight in having been kissed by Ludo. It made sense to Mari; Ludo and Elizabeth, it just sounded right. Plus he was so adorably quiet. " So. Do you want to be more than friends with him?" She asked bluntly, her green eyes focusing on her friend now again.

Elizabeth tilted her head and looked at Mari curiously as she talked about Ludo being shy. Especially this term, but she wasn't sure she'd ever seen him as extremely shy. Maybe she was just more unobservant than she had thought. Since she hadn't figured out he liked her before he had told her, and now, apparently he was supposed to be shy. Although she had to admit to herself that his actions in the observatory had surprised her.

As Mari teased her about being caught, she flushed again. "Okay, yeah, maybe," she stammered, before getting a little defensive. "It didn't get very far. And that's not what I lost the points for." She did still feel a little bad that Forrester had assumed Ludo had taken advantage of her, but it was true that she hadn't lost points for the kissing. "I lost ten points for trying to, sort of, run away from Professor Forrester after he had upset Ludo. Cause I wanted to get Ludo away so we could talk. Between the mirror room and us getting caught, Ludo lost 20 points. So I guess, the whole thing lost Ravenclaw 30 points, but I look at that as tiny. We're still ahead."

At Mari's comment about finding the mirror, Elizabeth smiled. "I know where it is. As long as it doesn't get moved so students can't play with it anymore," she said, amused by her friend's feigned nonchalance. But her amusement trailed off into confusion at the next question asked of her. Biting her lower lip as she tried to figure out an answer, she finally spoke hesitantly. "I don't really know. I mean, I liked it. And I really like him." The fact that it had actually bothered her to think about her theory that he had liked Asteira told her that. "But it's hard to get used to the idea that someone likes me that way." She scrunched down in her seat a little as she went back to chewing on her lip worriedly.

Mari giggled slightly as Elizabeth caught on to her teasing and she shrugged. " Well, I'd say definitely because you both lost points," She said with a smile and a little look over at her friend. " But, it was so worth it right?" She said, giving her a knowing little smile. She thought a moment or two before deciding that thirty points was't really too horrible, as long as they were in the lead. " You ran away from Forrester? " She said, smiling at the thought. Quite amusing indeed. " How did he take that, hmm?" She asked, laughing a little bit again at the thought.

At Elizabeth's mention of the mirror being moved, Mari made a little noise of faux despair. " I hope not. I'm very curious as to what goes on in this mirror." She said honestly, tapping her finger against the butterbeer bottle contemplatively as Elizabeth's tone and demeanor changed. She gazed seriously at her friend, her expression growing a bit concerned looking. " Elizabeth! You're smart, pretty, and good at conversations so you should get used to boys liking you. Especially the one's worth going after," She said, counting her friends attributes on her fingers as she spoke. " So, just right there are a few reasons why. And if you like him so much, tell him. Being forthright is so much easier than...guessing and games." She said, her own voice trailing off into confusion as she realized she should be taking her own advice. So why was it so much easier said than done?

Elizabeth caught the look Mari sent her, and flushed again. "Some of it was good. But some not so much," she muttered, remembering how Forrester had assumed Ludo had taken advantage of her again. "Scary yelling glaring professors are not so much fun." But she cracked a smile at the comment about running away from Forrester. "He didn't take it so well," she said. "He took points off for it, remember? And, it wasn't so much running as physically dragging Ludo out of the situation. And having the professor not accept my attempt at giving him an excuse for why we were leaving."

She took another sip of her butterbeer as Mari talked about the mirror, and smiled again. "To be honest, I'm curious about it too," she said, grinning at the memory. "I never really tried it out, even though Ludo kept trying to get me to. And then Forrester had come in and freaked out, kicking us out of the room after saying we shouldn't play with it." She scrunched up her face in embarrassment as Mari started listing off reasons why guys should like her. "Yes. But I haven't exactly had guys clamoring to be anything other than my friend." Before now. And then she sighed. "I think he knows. We managed to find somewhere to talk without being interrupted after fleeing the wrath of Forrester. But it's not like it's that easy to just outright say it."

Mari nodded sympathetically as Elizabeth recounted her time with the angry Forrester. " I've had my share of being yelled at. For the same thing too, just not at this school. Yet." She added, accentuating the 't' at the end of the last word. She took another drink of the butterbeer, listening as Elizabeth spoke. She laughed slightly at the image of Elizabeth dragging Ludo away from Forrester...and she laughed some more. Two of the least likely people to be caught kissing and then get into trouble for it, but they did just that. Amusing, she thought with a little smile.

" It sounds like this mirror is definitely worth finding," Mari said to Elizabeth, her eyes lighting up with a definitely intrigued gleam. She leaned forwards a bit and she sighed. " Well, now one guy is definitely clamoring to get after you." She said with another smile. " I think you should go for it." She said, her smile widening at the thought of helping her friend along. " I really do." She said, thoughts of matchmaking already moving through her mind.

Kayla strolled into the three broomsticks and headed straight for the bar. She ordered herself a gillywater as she was a little over butterbeer at the moment. She sat herself onto a stool and sipped her drink, thinking over things.

Cayden stepped into the three broomsticks as he had a green scarf around his neck and his normal black fedora on. He looked around as he spotted a certain hufflepuff sitting by herself. He snickered a little as he made his way over to her as he put his hat on to her head a little crooked as he sat down." What are you having?" he asked as it didnt really like anything he had ever seen. " Looks like something you wouldnt want to drink..." he looked at her a little weary.