Skip. Skip. Skip.

Skipping was really the only way to travel.

At least, according to Anya. And so... Anya was skipping down the hall of the...

Second floor? Third floor?

Where was she anyway? And where was she going? She couldn't quite remember. Hopefully it wasn't important...

Oooooh! Shiny!

In a flash, the easily distracted Gryffindor found herself in a room of suits of armor admiring all the shiny.

Selina had been quite concerned at her daily lunch in the Great Hall. The redheaded Gryffindor Quidditch Captain had always prided herself on her excellent hearing, but what she had overheard that particular day at lunch had disturbed her. She had been scarfing down a plate of waffles and chicken fingers when she heard a couple of underclassmen girls talking about Anya Phillips. Now Selina was fiercely protective of the younger Gryffindor the Ravenclaw match last year was proof enough of that, but what she had heard was much worse than anything she had ever imagined. THREE BOYS were rumored to have a crush on Anya! BOYS, in Selina's book, WERE NOT EVEN ALLOWED TO KNOW ANYA EXISTED! That was the end of that!

But the more the girls spoke at the table the more concerned she grew by the fact that it seemed pretty legitimate. Honestly, Selina had always joked with Anya about the whole boy situation because she thought it was innocent, the hand holding and everything, apparently not! And her Mama Lion instincts needed to protect her from the evil boys of the world.

So with that she went on a hunt to find Anya. When she finally found her she was looking at the armor gallery like a bug would a bug zapper.

Weird....

Slowly she stalked behind Anya and grabbed her by her shoulders. Spinning her around she said, "TELL ME IT ISN'T TRUE!"

Anya wanted to pose like the armor! Until... she realized they were all the same pose. And it would be boring very quickly to imitate the same thing over and over again.

Now... what was she supposed to be doing again...?

Oh yeah. She was on her way... somewhere...

SPAZ!!!

A sudden loud voice caused her jump into the nearest suit of armor. After making sure that the armor didn't fall over, she looked to see what the commotion was.

Yeah... Selina was definitely yelling at her. "I didn't do it!" she said automatically. And for added measure she added in a cute eye bat.

There. She wasn't sure what Selina was going on about... but that look usually got her out of trouble at home. So, it'll work here, right?

Selina jumped back a little when Anya spazzed. She could not help but let out a small yelp, but then she remembered what she was there to do and she could not show weakness. Weakness would give Anya the out and right now they needed to have a, gulp, grown up conversation. The whole idea of it all was crazy, but that was something that she needed to do.

So when Anya batted her eyelashes Selina ignored the look and tried to suppress her need to concede and allow the younger girl free. This was no time to be WEAK! Rome was broken by... well a lot of things... but it could have very well been a moment of weakness! And she would not be ROME!

"The cute eyes won't work, Anya," Selina said and shook her finger in Anya's face. "And you know what you did Anya," she dropped her voice to a whisper, "With the boys..."

"What cute eyes?" Anya asked attempting the look once more.

Then she half smirked and shrugged. "Really? Because that usually works!" Aww. Was she getting too old for these tricks? That was going to put a damper on any plans that she may or may not have to cause a bit of trouble.

She blinked. "With the boys...?" she repeated.

What had she done with boys recently? Certainly not anything she should be in trouble about...

"What boys?" That would help narrow down what she did, right?

"Yes," Selina said waring with her inner demons. Anya was being very cute at the moment and maybe this talk could wait until later; alas, that whole talk she had over heard had Selina very worried and very concerned for Anya's well being. Boys had the ability to make even the best things in life more complicated than they needed to be. It was frusterating at best and she would not allow Anya to fall into that trap.

"What boys??" That statement made Selina's heart stop. What did she mean by what boys? Were there more than Selina knew about? OH MERLIN THIS WAS WORSE THAN SHE THOUGHT??? OH MY MERLIN!

Taking a moment to breath she more firmly grabbed onto her shoulders, "Anya what do you mean by what boys?"

Oh! Selina was angry! Anya mentally ran through a list of everything that she'd done with a boy lately.

But nothing bad was coming to mind!

She hadn't even snuck into the kitchens to make a messy sundae lately!

"Idunno!" she half mumbled as Selina grabbed her by the shoulders. "I dunno what I did or who I did it with. Idunnowhyyou'remadatmeeee!"

*insert wibble face here*

Where was Prefect Gideonnnn? Did he know that his girlfriend was going mental?

"Are you okay Selina?" She wasn't at all used to yelling outside of the pitch. "Should I take you to get one of those "chill pill" things?" Wasn't that the saying?

When Anya seemed genuinely terrified by Selina's behavior the redhead took a second to calm herself down... a little. Personally, her head was too busy contemplating all of the things that boys and Anya meant. It was a terrifying prospect and she was not happy with the thoughts that were swarming around in her head.

Looking down at the floor she gathered her thoughts. During that time she heard Anya ask about a chill or something or other, "Wait, what? No, I don't need that. I just... I mean..."

She was going mad. Merlin, she needed to go and see the nurse. Perhaps she was just over exaggerating the whole situation, but the demon inside her head told her that she was being very logical. Very logical indeed.

"Look Anya," she began, "is it true that three or so boys like you... like have a crush on you?" She hoped not.

Anya blinked. She didn't need... that.

Oh! But Anya did know what she needed! What everyone needed actually. She squirmed out of the Captain's grasp and dug into the pocket of her robes. She pulled out a bag of gummy bears and held it out to the redhead.

That should make her feel better.

She tilted her head and looked the older lion over. Then she burst out in a fit of giggles. "This... was all... about you thinking.... *giggle* That I give boys those giggly butterflies?"

She thought she was in trouble!

She took a few seconds to compose herself. And failed. After several more attempts, she managed a semi-straight face.

"I don't think so." she said finally. "That would be weird, don't you think? And not very nice. I don't think I could have butterflies for three different people at once."

In fact, as far as she knew, she didn't have any tummy butterflies.

Selina took a step back when Anya started to dig deep into her pockets for something. What was she doing exactly? The redhead tilted her head to the side as she watched Anya going deep into the darkest part of her pockets for something. When she finally pulled out a bag of gummy bears, Selina paused. Gummy bears... really?

Not even looking at Anya she took the gummy bears. Maybe, although she would never admit it, there was a method to this whole gummy bear making everything better mantra thing. Anya was always happy and pleasant... then again maybe that was the sugar. Food for thought.

Then she was giggling? Wait, why was she doing that? Giggling at this SERIOUS MATTER? She said seriously, "This is not funny. The... butterfly feelings... are serious. And apparently some boys feel that way about you. That could be bad for you, Anya."

Awww! Selina looked much happier with gummy bears in her system. It was a miracle cure, it really was.

And now that Selina was calm...

... she was still not rational.

"Fine. I'll stop giggling then..." she replied. And she'd even put on her serious face! She scrunched up her face a little and drew her eyebrows together. Okay. Now she could concentrate.

Wait... what?

She raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean it's bad? I like it when people like me! It's wayyy better than when people hate me."

Not that she'd know. As far as she knew, nobody hated her.

It did not seem that Anya was done giggling. Although her face did look sort of constipated.... only slightly, but she was not going to bring that up because she had stopped laughing.

Regaining her composure she said, "No I mean, when three boys like you things could get complicated."

Shaking her head she said, "Let me explain in simplier terms. Okay so you like Gummy Bears. But wouldn't you get overwhelmed if you liked more than one type of candy, right? Wouldn't you feel like your Gummy Bears would feel bad if you dabbled around in chocolate and other things." Personally Selina would like it if Anya didn't like ANY CANDY.. um boys.. she meant boys, but that was beside the point.

"What I mean is... ugh.... how do I say this?" NO BOYS FOR ANYA!

Three boys wasn't complicated. 27 boys were complicated. Or... one of those weird maths problems with the letters... those looked complicated.

Three boys, however, was countable on one hand.

She even had room for two more!

But... her outlook completely changed when the story came.

She frowned and eyed the bag of gummy bears Selina was holding with teary eyes. "So... sundaes make my gummy bears mad? Because they're not the only candy on it? I... I can change that."

She wibbled a little. Poor poor gummy bears! She pulled out another bag from her robes pocket and gave it a snuggle!hug.

She hurt the gummy bear's feelings! ... And she also completely missed the point.

AND Anya had completely and utterly missed Selina's point. It was true that she was not exactly making the most sense with her reasoning, but she seriously thought Anya would understand the whole candy analogy- all she got was a gummy bear snuggler. They were talking about serious things and all Anya wanted to do was snuggle a gummy bear because she felt she had hurt their feelings. Merlin, this conversation was not going the way Selina had intended at all.

Trying to regain the reigns of the conversation Selina said sweetly, "Anya, sweety, I'm not ACTUALLY talking about candy, it was a metaphor." Then she took a deep breath and tried to tackle her point again. How was she going to communicate this to Anya in a delicate matter? She did not want her to get any ideas, she just wanted Anya to never, EVER touch any boys. Was that such a terrible thing? She did not think so...

"Look," she began, "I know you're a really friendly person, but people could misconstrue that. Anya, you are growing into a very pretty young woman and I just want to keep you from ever liking any boys ever, I mean... Erm keep you educated. You just need to be mindful what signals you send out because if a boy likes you he could get his feelings hurt if you don't like him back and the more boys that like you the more people's feelings could get hurt." And if Anya had as many boys after her as Sekina had heard this was a distinct possibility.

Anya was busy snuggling her poor, poor, poor, poor, heartbroken gummy bears when Selina started talking again.

She blinked. A metaphor.

Ohh... right. Yeah. Anya completely knew that...

She casually opened the bag and popped one in her mouth. Yeah. She totally meant to do that this whole time. Mmhmm.

She smiled. "You think I'm very pretty?" she asked. Yup. In typical girl fashion that was pretty much the only thing Anya heard.

"But... don't I want people to like me?" And she happened to like people back. She was pretty friendly afterall.

Pretty? Was that the only thing Anya had heard from Selina's very long and very well articulated speech? Merlin, why was Selina even trying? It was not like Anya, at the end of all of this, was gong to stop being herself. That was what the boys apparently liked anyway...

...Gummy Bear Eating, Topiary Garden Climbing, Crazy Flying, Crazy Period Anya.

But still Selina wanted Anya to at least try to understand her point. It was something the redhead was sincerely worried about- boys and Anya.

Time for a simple approach, "Yep, your pretty. Look listen, just promise me that you will never kiss any boys unless you sign a contract with me first? Okay? Because boys are gross."

Yeup.

Oh! Right. They were supposed to be talking about boys...

Anya couldn't help it though! She got sidetracked! She tried a new lipgloss that morning. It must have sidetracked the Captain too though. Since the redhead mentioned how pretty Anya looked today.

The pretty, pretty, pink princess color really lived up to it's name.

She blinked and attempted to hide a slight blush behind a hand. She... looked like she was just playing with her hair right?

"I... umm... can't." she said sheepishly.

"I... kinda gave Alec a kiss last term after he gave me the championship snitch he caught..."

And... that might have been the second one she'd given him...

Selina almost threw up when she heard that Anya had kissed Alec. She was a baby! She was an itty bitty baby and was eleven when she had her first kiss. And it was with a Puffier...

The older girl must have looked very foolish because her mouth was hanging open like a fish out of water. She could not figure out how to even process the news. All she kept thinking was gummy bears fixed everything. So, in an attempt to make everything clearer, Selina popped a gummy bear in her mouth from the bag Anya had given her earlier.

And the little girl was right... gummy bears did help because Selina spoke on impulse, "You did what? Does your brother know this??"

Anya was gradually turning more and more... the color of her red robes.

"Well... erm..." she began while playing with the tips of her hair.

"He... was kinda there the first time it happened..."

She bit her lip a little. "But! It really wasn't my fault! I... I... I thought we were saying goodbye for a whole year!" She lowered her voice. "I... just wanted to make sure he wouldn't forget me. He's my bestest best best friend."

Anya wiped her eyes a little. She shouldn't be freaking out like this. Everything turned out just fine. But just thinking about the day they said goodbye to each other made the little lion want to cry again.

She looked down at the floor. "He doesn't know about the one from a few months ago..." She'd just been happy at the time... and... it just kinda happened after the hug. It was possible that it even could have been because she missed his cheek... and... ended up in the mouth region.

Oh... why were they talking about this?

She nommed on a gummy bear. Gummy bears would make this... bearable.

Hahaha. Geddit?

Yeah... Anya just needed a distraction to keep her from blushing any more.

She had kissed a boy twice? Was Selina hearing her correctly? Merlin, she hoped not because that would just make things worse for the older lioness to swallow. Anya was a little bitty baby and she was NOT allowed to kiss boys. The fact that she had kissed TWO boys made Selina wanted to throw up.

"YOU KISSED TWO BOYS?" Oh my Merlin, where is the barf bag when she needed it.

DING!

Then a thought popped into her head and her lips furled into an evilish smile. She was Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch, which mean that she had access to the beater bats. Oh yes, this could be good. Maybe she could scare boys into never looking at Anya ever again. Yep.

Much calmer now she said, "Who were the two boys that you kissed?"

Anya's eyes grew wide. "What?! What? Of course not. I've kissed the same boy twice!"

In Anya's mind that was completely acceptable.

She just ignored the Captain's last question.

This HAD to be the weirdest conversation she'd ever had.

Kissing boys was now starting to really wear on Selina's ability to be in a standing position. Anya was only twelve and she had already kissed two boys! Selina was thirteen going on fourteen when she kissed her first boy and it was for a very different reason than the way Anya was making it sound. She had to hide her away in a tower somewhere to stop the aging process... Rapunzel.... Anya... same difference.

Then when Anya said that she had only kissed one boy, Selina felt a little bit better. She was not thrilled with the fact that Anya had kissed anyone for any reason, but one boy was better than two any day.

"Anya," Selina said trying to regain her wits not that there were many to regain, "who was it that you kissed?"

Anya tilted her head to the side. Who did Selina think she kissed? There was only one boy that she was close enough to. It wasn't like she decided to kiss some random boy or something.

It wasn't that big of a deal. Really. They'd known each other their whole lives.

She shrugged a little. "Blakey, of course." she said lightly.

Captain worried too much.

Blakey. Who in Merlin's name was Blakey. Selina had always prided herself on knowing most of the underclassmen's names, but she had never heard of a Blakey before. Was he knew? No he couldn't be knew because Anya had kissed him when she was ickle and... shutter... no need to expand on that thought.

But still! Who was Blakey! It was driving her crazy as she flipped through her memory of the younger students trying to figure out who this person was.

Perplexed she asked, "Anya... who is Blakey?"