Ivan sighed heavily and shook his head as he brought his hand away from Neptune's face. "Trust me this is anything but convenient. I think Lexi did something but...I don't know what. The last thing I remember is her handing me back my water after I put your necklace on." She HAD to have slipped him something but what.

"Alright fine, I'll meet you here. It's a date." Hmm yeah he could do that. "And for the record. I wouldn't have done that. Not on a proper date." Since he AGREED to do this. "But I'm going to go find Lexi now and find out what she did. I'll meet you around 6." He smiled at her before leaning over and giving her a kiss on the cheek and getting off the chair. "No make that 7," he said with a small smile before heading out of the common room.

He was a dead man. He now had an official date with Neptune and somehow it only made him smile. Whatever had happened had seemed to make him not care about telling Neptune how he felt and now he didn't have to worry about that.

That ruddy knocker! Honestly! It could never ask her a straight question, could it? Noooo.... it had to be sphinxified. Wordy, and twisted, and making no sense at all. All Ellie could ever hope was that it would accept her argument for an answer. She found out long ago that it never accepted her answers plain. One day, she was going to hex it. It better watch itself.

Maybe James could teach her a good hex? She didn't really want to have to bother with...a book or something.

Ellie's mood brightened a bit when she saw that the common room was nearly empty. Less people meant less books. It was totally a good thing.

She walked over to the table, though, as opposed to her normal couch, and pulled out writing equipment. It was letter-sending time. Correspondent of choice? Nia.

Eino walked into the Ravenclaw Common Room with someone in mind. He had been looking for her for the whole day. He had been to the Great Hall, Quidditch Pitch, empty classrooms, everywhere! If she wasn't here he wouldn't know where else to look. Plus, he was tired of carrying a tall and heavy plant after him throughout the school. He knew he should have done this in the common room and carried it down, instead of preparing it in the grounds and having to carry it all the way to the seventh floor. He had tried to charm it so he wouldn't have to manually carry it, but that wasn't working because he couldn't control it as well as he wanted to and he had hurt several people with it.

Finally, there she was! Eino made his way towards her, carrying the plant, as he greeted her. "Hello, Ellie!" He said as he set the thing next to him and wiped his sweaty forehead with his sleeve. "To show you my appreciation and the meaning of friendship, I made you this!" He had no idea what he had just said. He was tired and panting, so hopefully she understood what he said.

Her attention was taken from the letter first by something large moving out of the corner of her eye. Of course, she thought it was something big and bad that was going to attack her, but when she whipped her head around, was relieved to see it was only Eino.

And he wanted her, apparently. "Hey Eino," she responded before he'd set the enormous plant beside her. Ellie opened her mouth to ask just what it was and why in Merlin's name had he brought it in here, but he spoke first.

For her? Even more...friendship? Sure, she wasn't completely angry at Eino for what he did to her, but...friend? "That's...that's really nice." Sort of. "Thank you, Eino." She might have even put on a smile.

But, really, WHAT was she supposed to DO with it?

He was very pleased to see that she liked it. At least she didn't Incendio it, right? That was good. "It is made of three different flowers..." Well, technically arbor vitae wasn't a flower, but also used in floromancy, so in that case it was a flower.

"Arbor vitae, that's the green brush, alstroemeria, the orange flowers, and, of course, sunflowers." She probably knew that last one, he didn't have to explain what it was, but he had to explain what it meant. Not that Ellie wouldn't know, she was a year older than him after all. "The arbor vitae stands for everlasting and unchanging friendship, and that shall be the basis of our friendship." He explained with a firm nod. Just like it was the basis for the arrangement. "The alstroemerias mean devotion, and I will be at every single Quidditch game to support your snitch seeking! Finally the sunflower stands for loyalty, admiration, appreciation, and gratitude." Needless to say, he admired and appreciated her talent as a seeker. That was it for the plant's meaning. He hoped she liked it even more now.

Merlin's beard, she just couldn't stop crying. Sure, she had known about this blasted curse for years, but for some reason, this time it hit her the hardest. She stepped into the common room but didn't go anywhere, she just stood there. Her makeup was streaming down her face with her tears.

Ellie had just come back inside from the Whomping Willow after talking with Dallin. Well crying was more like it. They had only just become such good friends and now it was all being ripped apart by some stupid curse. Why? Why did she have to die? And so young?! Ellie was mad; she was fuming. She wanted to throw something across the room!

Three flowers? Ellie's gaze dropped to the plant. There were three flowers? Was the last one just really, really tiny? She squinted. Or...maybe it was invisible? Though, she couldn't imagine why there would be such thing as an invisible flower...

Ohhh. The green part counted. Okay.

She listened intently to what they all meant. That was what Preston had done, as well. And it was sooo sweet.

Eino's was simply amazing, as well. And, yes, she WILL consider the third year a friend. A very good friend, as he seemed to think that of her. Everlasting friendship and whatnot. She grinned.

...And the devotion? That was... Ellie was so incredibly grateful of that. She much appreciated people attending Quidditch, and Eino's support was amazing.

Ugh. WHY were Hogwarts boys so sweet? Seriously? "That's amazing!" Really. She leaned over for a hug, kissing his cheek as she pulled him in. She honestly didn't care about the flowers themselves - she wasn't much of a flower person - but she loved what they meant. And the thought Eino must've put into it was impressive. "Thank you so much."

She felt most special right now.

GRIN.

Dallin felt drained. Emotionally, physically - he didn't know what to feel. His eyes were very red and they hurt to close and they hurt to stay open. He wondered idly how long it had been since he'd cried as he trudged up the stairs to the common room. It had been a long time - he couldn't remember the last time he had felt like this.

After a few frustrating minutes he answered the riddle and entered the common room, rubbing his eyes. He walked right past Ellie without seeing her and he went straight for the couch. He sat on one side of it, hugging his knees to his chest and staring at the fireplace. He didn't care if others saw that he'd been crying. He was sad and for once in his life he didn't mind showing it. Because other people should be sad too.

Sniffing and rubbing away tears, he lay his head on his knees, tuning out the noise around him.

Alfie was sitting in an armchair, working on some homework that she had nearly forgotten about, when someone came and plopped down onto the couch that was right next to her. Her large blue eyes looked up from the parchment absentmindedly, only to find that someone had trudged in here...very upset, by the looks of it. Who was this boy? Was he...crying? It was only upon further inspection that Alfie realized it was Dallin, someone she had met once or twice. "Dallin?" the girl said softly, mild concern on her features. She feared that she might've been overstepping her boundaries, but her eyes remained glued to the boy. "What happened? Are you alright?"

If she hadn't been right next to him, Dallin probably wouldn't have even heard Alfie. And if she hadn't said his name, he probably would have ignored her. But she did say his name, and she was sitting right next to him, so he really had no choice but to answer her. Well, respond to her, at least.

He wiped his arm across his face, sniffing in a very unattractive way. He stared at her for a few seconds before lifting his head, still holding onto his legs. Had something happened? Yes. Was he alright? No. He didn't want to tell her what was wrong though, because saying it out loud would somehow make it worse. Plus, it really wasn't his problem to tell.

"I'm not alright," he said finally, his voice slightly hoarse. "How are you?" It was polite to ask, right?

Alfie's eyes were beginning to fill with concern; it wasn't everyday that someone sat on the couch in the Common Room crying silently to himself. Dallin had always seemed perfectly nice to her, she didn't like seeing him like this in the slightest. But she remained silent as she listened to him explain very simply that he wasn't alright, a statement that got her to open her mouth just slightly to respond. Before she could, he'd added the polite conversational addition, asking how she was doing as well. The blonde stopped in her tracks, letting out a soft, though somehow sympathetic chuckle. "Better than you, I'm sure," she muttered with a weak smile, examining him for a moment and quickly gathering that he had no desire to elaborate. But, just to make sure. "Do you...Do you want to talk about it?"

"I'm glad you li--" Eino began but was interrupted by Ellie's hug and then-- A KISS! Eino blushed and covered his warm cheeks with his hands. He was not expecting that. He didn't even know how to react! None of the girls had ever kissed him on the cheek, or anywhere else, so he was very red and uncomfortable, but happy. Plus, Ellie was famous in the school for being the Seeker and all, so he was especially blushy.

He knew she was just a friend, but this kiss thing was all so new to him he didn't know how to react?! Should he kiss her cheek in return? Thank her?! WHAT WAS HE SUPPOSED TO DO?!?!? He needed to talk to an older, more experienced, boy for advice.

There was an awkward pause shortly afterwards, where Eino kept his hands over his cheeks and made a weird sound as he rocked his body side to side with his eyes closed. He really didn't know what to say in response to that. "Y-you are... very w-welcome..." He finally said after chocking on his own tongue.

Now he really had nothing to say. He tried to avoid eye contact with her, so whenever he looked at her he closed his eyes, then opened them and looked away, the closed them again and faced her. "G-good luck with the Quidditch match..." He was finally said as he slowly opened his eyes.

Wow... awkward.

Dallin blew out a huff of air, sort of like a short, non-humorous laugh. He guessed that he must look pretty awful, if Alfie was assuming that she was feeling better than him. Although for all he knew she could have had a fantastic day. Meh. It didn't really matter. He shrugged one shoulder; all he knew for sure was that he wasn't feeling too great.

He tried to smile as she asked if he wanted to talk, but it turned into more of a grimace. "I - I c-cant, really." For a moment he waited to be embarrassed by the quiver in his voice, but he didn't. He took a deep, shaky breath and looked over at Alfie. "It's - uh - my friend." That was all he could say. He knew that would sound cryptic and that Alfie was only trying to be nice and concerned but... he couldn't help it.

Alfie watched, her large blue eyes curious and set on Dallin, as the boy before her explained that he couldn't really discuss the matter, that it had to do with his friend. She gave a brief nod of understanding, assuming that it wasn't necessarily his business to tell people. "Alright," she said softly, immediately assuring the boy that she wasn't going to press further. "Well...here," she gently picked up her box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavoured Beans and offered them to Dallin. "Have some candy," she said with a weak smile, knowing there wasn't much else she could do for the boy if he didn't want to discuss it. But maybe eventually he would want to. Or at least, the candy would make him feel better in some respect or another.

As she released him, she finished his sentence in her head. Hopefully she'd come to the right conclusion of what he was trying to say. That he was glad she liked them, yeah?

Oh, well. It didn't matter. What did matter was that Eino had gone completely RED.

Ellie'd decided to let him speak first. Aaand...maybe she shouldn't have? Because he wasn't exactly talking. So she waited...and waited...

And he stuttered! Heh. "Thank you. I look forward to seeing you in the stands." Which wasn't completely true. She did look forward to him being there, but she never really payed much attention to the stands or those in them...hence why she often tore through banners and came rather close to decapitating the spectators. "I'm going to hold you to that, you know? What you said about going to every game." She totally would, too. So...he'd better not miss a single match.

Still half covering his face he nodded, then finally lowered his hand and spoke like a semi-normal person. "I will, I will!" He reassured her. He hadn't gone to every single Quidditch game in the past, but now he would never miss one. Just like he would never wash that cheek! He would also dress in his crazy outfits just so that she could notice him in the multitude of students. Sure, he wasn't very good at flying and terrible at Quidditch, but he could at least support his. This wasn't about supporting Ravenclaw though, this was because he had gotten a girl from a popular girl.

"So... umm... Good luck on the next match against Slytherin." He hoped he had gotten that right. He usually didn't even pay attention to who was playing. In fact, he didn't even know who had won the Quidditch Cup the last two years. He stood there very awkwardly not knowing whether he should go away or stick around.

Yeah, weird.

Smiling weakly, Dal accepted the box of Bertie Bott's. He stared into the box, searching for one that looked like a normal flavor. He thought idly that he was sorry for Alfie; she was being really nice and he was acting weird and not being friendly or talkative. Frowning, he dumped a few beans onto his hand and held the box back out to Alfie.

"So," he said, swallowing and trying to get his voice to sound normal. "Uh, how've you been?" He put a red bean in his mouth, relaxing a bit when he tasted cherry.

To some extent, Alfie seemed to know that Dallin was making conversation for her benefit, which of course wasn't necessary and normally she would've told him that. But the girl didn't want Dallin to have that excuse to fall back into silence, most likely no good could come from that. So as he asked her how she'd been, she gave a weak smile and shrugged, falling back into the cushion of the armchair with a sigh. "I've been alright," she answered softly, giving an amused smile at her own words. "I finally know my way around the school, for the most part," she announced with a small grin. "I no longer get lost in the dungeons, and I can make it to the Common Room on most days."

Dallin looked away from Alfie, eyeing the Every-flavor beans in his hand. He picked up a white one and bit into it, instantly making a face and dropping the bean back to his hand. It was milk flavored.

Biting his lip, he looked back at the girl. One side of his mouth twitched up, as if he was trying to smile. "That's great." Sigh. That was all he could get out of himself at the moment; he didn't know what else to say without rambling pointlessly like an idiot. And that wouldn't be good at all.

Alfie seemed more amused than anything as Dallin gave her a simple, small response, sighing just a moment later. This conversational tactic wasn't going very well. She evaluated him for a moment, her large blue eyes scanning over his expression, watching as he rifled through the beans in his hand to find one that was appealing to him. "Is it...about a girl?" she asked softly, hesitant even. But she hadn't been around Dallin very much so she didn't know how to go about this. Before, she'd pretty much assured him that she wouldn't press, but it didn't seem like that was getting them anywhere. She wanted him to feel better at least! But she also didn't want to get snapped at, and so she waited cautiously for an answer.

Was it obvious? Dal straightened up, stretching his legs out and turning slightly toward Alfie. He nodded before leaning his head on his hand with his elbow on the arm of the couch. "Yeah," he answered quietly. It took him a moment before he realized that by asking that, Alfie probably assumed it had been a break-up (or something along those lines) that had made him like this. He had the bizarre urge to laugh. No - he'd gotten through the break-up already. That was nothing like this.

Alfie gave a brief nod of understanding as Dallin confirmed that this whole situation was indeed about a girl. She watched him, examining his expression thoughtfully as a couple moments passed. Well, there were plenty of things that could make a guy upset, anyone upset really, when it came to relationships. And so the blonde across from him could only make guesses as to what exactly had happened. Of course, her first instinct was that they had broken up, but she had other theories. "Did you...break up?" she asked softly, her delicate voice gentle as it always seemed to be. "Or...something different?" She paused, thinking for a moment before continuing, "Have you not dated yet? Does she not know of your feelings?"

Dallin was quiet for a while, listening to all of Alfie's guesses as to what was wrong. He laughed shortly again. He sort of wished it was one of those problems. "We dated for a few months," he said slowly. "And we broke up a few months ago. We're just friends now. Really good friends." His voice cracked and he shut his mouth quickly, looking at his hands and the beans he'd forgotten about.

"She knows how I feel about her, and I know how she feels about me. That's not the issue." He looked up at the blonde, an apologetic look on his face. She probably didn't want a confusing back story.

Beth sighed, sitting on the sofa, her back sort of bent over the arm rest quite uncomfortably. It was her fourteenth birthday, and she had nothing to do, and no friends to do anything with. Except William, sort of but he was eleven and he had about a zillion other Gryffindor friends, so basically she knew she would be spending her birthday alone, and probably bored.

Alfie listened as Dallin gave a bit of a longing scoff after her suggestions; apparently the problem was a bit more complicated than that. Her blonde eyebrows furrowed out of pure interest, as though trying to solve a puzzle he was giving to her piece by piece. As he explained a bit more, explaining that they had broken up months ago and were good friends, the blonde grew a bit more confused. If they were friends, what was the problem? She bit her lip softly, evaluating his expression for a moment. "Okay," she murmured more to herself than anything, "Well, did something happen? Is she...with someone..else now?" She wasn't sure what sort of friendship Dallin and his ex-girlfriend had. There were a lot of different kinds of friendships people could share. So they could have a friendship where they told each other everything and a new significant other wasn't a big deal; but there was also the kind of friendship where you just said hi to one another on occasion. If that was the case, jealousy could possibly arise.