Olly was on her way downstairs from the Gryffindor Common Room but had stopped to take a closer look at one of the statues. Last time she'd been here she hadn't really gotten a chance to do so. And somehow she hadn't come back here again. She usually had other things to do up here in the tower. Which didn't involve looking at stone statues of strange men.

Today, though, she lingered, not really keen on going back to her own Common Room just yet.

Or her dorm. It was still weird with Bliss there now. Plus, she still wasn't entirely sure what to think of actually making the Quidditch team. Like, she genuinely hadn't expected it. She'd even briefly considered telling Kaiden that he should take her off the roster again. Because honestly, WHAT was she doing? She'd only learned to fly last term.

Running her fingers across the statue's nose, Olly frowned at him for no particular reason.

She was avoiding things.

Library things. Actually, studying things which she was meant to be doing in the library. Yeah, Ella was so done with studying. Why did NEWTs have to be these all-consuming frightening things? Why couldn't they just be...a chat with the professor and a nice shared bowl of ice cream? She...should pitch that to the Headmistress and see what she said. Worse came to worse, she could also throw in an honest compliment to sweeten the deal. The red head in charge seemed to like those, mhm.

And how on earth had she wandered all the way up here? The blonde had been inching her way along corridors and up staircases for a while but thoughts weren't on where she was going so it really shouldn't be a surprise that she had no idea where she was. Or well, that was until she spotted Lachlan the Lanky. Dead giveaway, that was.

And hey, there was an Olly. A frowning one, too.

The blonde, curious and mildly concerned, inched her way over and considered the girl thoughtfully. "His nose isn't that bad, Olly." Kidding, of course, but Ella wanted her fellow Hufflepuff to smile.

While Olly did hear the approaching footsteps, she didn't turn or react in any way. That was usually a good sign for people to stay AWAY from her. Only not everyone got that. More often than not that tactic DIDN'T work actually, now that she got to think of it.

Hmm. She clearly needed a new one.

Today was no different. Though at least the voice belonging to the person who had stopped next to her was a familiar one. Ella. Who as it turned out wasn't really annoying. Not that she really liked her but she also didn't dislike her so that was good. She was okay to be around. Occasionally.

"It kind of is." Olly replied with a small head tilt, her eyes resting on the statue a second longer. Upon turning her head to look at the older girl, she even managed a small grin. "Who is he?" The statue person.

It was a bad nose. Completely. But Ella sort of felt bad saying so, y'know? She did tilt her head the opposite way and observe it intently, wondering why he just didn't use magic to tweak it a bit. Surely that was possible, yeah?

Upon seeing the younger badger smiling at her, the blonde smiled back and replied seriously, "A wizard." Heh. "And honestly, I don't know much about him. Just that he's ancient...and in need of a nose job, maybe. Poor guy. Perhaps he was hit by one too many bludgers." Could be legit.

Shrug.

"Do you go around observing all the statues' facial features?"

A wizard. Well, that wasn't very useful. A name would have been better. Though, Olly was pretty sure she'd read about this statue at some point. That he was here in the castle. So there would be a name in one of the history books about Hogwarts for sure. She would go check that later.

Mainly to see if Ella's theory was right. Maybe he HAD been a Quidditch player.

All she did now was shrug however and after one last glance at the statue, Olly fully turned to the other girl. "No." Pause. "That wasn't what I was doing actually." Not that she HAD been doing anything in particular. Thinking mainly. As for why she was up here in the first place, now THAT was a whole other story. Still, no, not looking at statues really.

"You?" She smirked though to indicate that she didn't really expect Ella to answer that. Not a serious question.

Ella was curious about what the girl had been doing but she didn't want to pry. Something told her Olly wasn't exactly one for sharing and the blonde didn't want to push so she merely smiled and replied, "Oh."

What the younger Hufflepuff said next made Ella's smile widen a bit before she forced a serious expression. "Of course. Someone's got to do it." Did someone actually do this, though? Was there a Hogwarts Sculpture assesser or something? Hm.

She did have something else to talk about, though. Considering she'd meant to say it earlier and Olly happened to be here. "Congrats on making the team, by the way."

Oh really? Olly's smirk lingered for a second longer. "So where are the attractive statues then?" Since she was talking to an EXPERT and all that. Because this one was definitely NOT nice to look at.

Sorry, not sorry.

Right. Quidditch. "Oh, you know..." Olly left her mouth open for a little longer, trying to find a way to finish her sentence. Only she couldn't think of anything so in the end she simply closed it again and shrugged. "You too." Though, no surprise there really. She HAD been Captain for the last few terms after all.

"How's wearing the Head Girl badge?" All the POWER.

"Fifth floor. Boris the Bewildered is a looker for sure." Kidding. Ella grinned at Olly and resisted the urge to nudge her in the arm. They weren't at that point in their...well, they weren't actually friends, were they? Acquaintanceship. That was probably the better word.

...Know what? The blonde raised her eyebrows slightly during the pause, curious as to what Olly was trying to say. In the end it was merely a reciprocation of what Ella had said and she smiled, nodding her head. "Thanks."

The Head Girl Badge.

Ella looked down at it and then back to Olly, shrugging. "It's tiring, honestly." Lots of expectations and worrying that you're letting people down. Though really, the seventh year was sure not everyone would be as concerned about the latter as she was. "Cool too. It was nice someone thought I could do it." Because even if she was stressing sometimes over it, she certainly wasn't ungrateful.

Boris the Bewildered? Olly gave Ella an incredulous look to show that she did NOT agree with her there. Even if they weren't seriously discussing how attractive some of the statues were. "He can't even put his gloves on right." And that was enough for her to say that he was NOT attractive.

Olly was quite glad that the other girl hadn't asked her to finish her sentence. Honestly, she had no idea what she was supposed to say. Or wanted to say. Or what she thought about the whole thing. At first she'd thought Kaiden must have made a mistake. Not because she was being coy but because she'd only been flying for a couple of months.

How was it that she'd made the Quidditch team on the first try?!

Tiring. Yeah. Olly nodded. "So much responsibility..." She couldn't do it. She wouldn't WANT to do it. No. That wasn't for her. "Worse than being Quidditch Captain?" Probably. That sounded like a lot more fun than being Head Girl.

At least she was smart enough to go and see the Healer about her...uh...condition. He was a little surprised that she was willing to wait a whole week though. He didn't think females liked getting grey hair especially when they were only a teenager. Her question almost made him laugh not because he thought it looked bad but because he would never be able to find any kind of fault with her. "Nah, it doesn't look bad at all. In fact I think it brings out your eyes." Okay he was just teasing her with that last part.

"I think it's that one. I've only heard stories." It had been before his time so he didn't know all the facts about what had happened when that ghost had been here. He just figured he would ask because she had said that she had seen a strange ghost. But apparently it wasn't the same ghost. "So Hogwarts has a new rogue ghost running around." So they had a mystery on their hands.

Okay so they were going down the stairs. They just had to find them first. Michael squinted in the darkness trying to see where they were. He would probably be able to concentrate better if his back wasn't aching so much. Just as she asked about the statue, his foot banged into something very hard. "OW! No we haven't passed it."

He just ran into it.

Serious Olly was serious about Boris and Ella couldn't help but laugh, her eyebrows raising slightly. She was amused, especially since the blonde hadn't been serious. "I'll keep that in mind." The not wearing gloves the right way thing. Only she wouldn't really since they were only joking around. At least Ella still was.

"And pressure." Although Ella put a lot of that on herself which was entirely unhelpful. "It's just different. Like, I felt more capable being captain because I'd been playing Quidditch so long." Knowing the sport so well made her feel qualified. "Being this, the Head Girl, I don't exactly know where I stand or if I'm living up to expectations or whatever." It was a lot.

Shrug.

Alexa wasn't one to be completely preoccupied with hair and freaking out about the little changes that happened with it but see...when HALF HER HEAD went grey, she had to ask all the most ridiculous questions--like whether or not it looked bad. She wasn't above trying her luck with hair dyes again...just saying. The Gryffindor was about to breathe a sigh of relief when she caught the eye comment. "You're hilarious. Ever considered a career in stand up comedy?" She asked, giving him a little nudge and a half amused smile. As it stood, she'd rather they not bring out her eyes, otherwise she would get the feeling her eyes were changing colour too. That would be a bit more alarming.

"Rogue ghost." Lex let the words play on her lips, admittedly liking the sound of it. It held a certain edge to it and promised the kind of danger that she was looking for. Not this whole seemingly getting old thing. It was plenty dangerous but not in an epic sort of way. "I dunno, but I hope so. I mean it'd be tragic and all but something horrid happens every year anyway. If I had to choose I'd hope for the rogue ghost, either that or a creature gone wild all over the castle." What? A girl could dream, couldn't she?

There was a loud thud and an even louder Mikey cutting into there walk. "Whoooaaa, shhhhh?" Lex hissed under her breath, clapping a hand over his mouth out of pure reflexes. She squinted in the dim light, trying to see. "Did you hurt yourself? Your foot okay?"

Despite being stealth mose quiet, they still needed to take the necessary precautions. Imagine having to explain certaiin injuries to the Healer in the morning.

If it wasn't for the fact they were skulking around the castle past curfew, Michael would have burst out laughing at that comment. He instead let out a little snicker. "Not until now." He gave her a nudge back. "I don't want you worrying too much about it. I'm sure the Healer will be able to fix it for you." And if she couldn't then he would still like her.

Michael let out another small chuckle. "Of course you do. You're all about the adventure aren't you?" And as she just said, something happened every year at Hogwarts so she certainly was never disappointed. "And if there' none happening then you go and create some." That's what he liked about her. She was fun and exciting. "But back to the rogue ghost. Where do you think it would hide out?"

One minute he was almost cursing about stubbing his foot and the next there was a hand over his mouth and his expletives were muffled. He waited a moment or two before attempting to answer her questions.

He turned his head to get her hand off his mouth and he found that his face was only inches from hers. He couldn't see it but he could feel her warm breath blowing lightly against his face. And he meant to answer her questions, he really did but that overwhelming sense to kiss her overcame him again and while he had wanted it to be the perfect situation in which to kiss her, he couldn't wait any longer.

So without thinking on it anymore, Michael closed that remaining gap between them and brushed his lips softly against hers.

It was nice of him to not want her worrying but concern was still necessary. At first she'd been passing it off as stress but Merlin's beard, she couldn't remember the last time she picked up a textbook to study. With everything going on, OWLs had almost become non-existent for her thus removing the stress but the grey hair was still spreading. "Me too. There must be a spell, I just haven't heard about it yet. Lottie and West think I might have been cursed so it's definitely reversible."

Lex beamed. "Definitely. Life's one big adventure you know, depending on how you go through it." It was no secret that the Gryffindor was a thrill seeking, adventure chaser. The bigger and more dangerous the better. "Umm..." She gave his question some thought. Rogue Ghosts didn't happen often, in fact she'd ever only seen one. "Isfret hid out in a plant and ate people...so maybe the Greenhouses? Or the dungeons could work too right? Lots of dark corners to hide in and not much in the way of traffic. I think we'll have to find out who the ghost is first. That might help." And just like that they made a Mystery for themselves. Something to keep her occupied and distracted from her grey hairs.

Lex left her hand on his mouth until he'd gotten out everything he needed to in a muffled sound. Couldn't risk someone walking along and hearing a cursing Toussaint.

When she did let go, she waited patiently for him to give her a report on his foot. Nothing too bad right? They could keep walking in the hopes of running into the ghost--

.....

...........

What the...holy kneazle....just happened....? There was no doubt the Gryffindor was taken by surprize. It was evident in everything from the lack of movement to the way she just blinked at him after somehow being able to beat the shock and take a small step back. Words. She didn't have them so she stared.

CURSED??

Someone had cursed Alexa Cambridge? His first thought was why would someone want to curse the fifth year? She was too full of life and fun to want to do something like that to her. And his second thought was that if he found out who it was then he was going to punch them in the face. "You'll be alright." What else could he say?

Michael mulled over what she had said. "Hmm maybe. The ghost could be hiding out in the greenhouse but I don't think so. You said it was up in the Tower Patch so I don't think it is too worried about hiding out in dark corners." Just an observation on his part. "Maybe you should try up there again. Maybe it has special meaning to the ghost." Well that did sound like the smartest thing to do but..."How are we going to find out who this ghost is?" If she suggested going to the library he was turning right around and going back to bed.

Or maybe he would just head back to bed anyway.

The fact that she was not saying anything after he had just kissed her was definitely not a good sign. "Er..."

....

......

"Maybe we should pretend that didn't happen." Pause. "Unless you DON'T want to pretend it didn't happen."

MERLIN!!

Lex nodded firmly in belief of Mikey's statement. I reckon I should be. It's just a half a head of grey hair and some joint pain. No one's ever died of that, yeah?" It was a legit question. "Cause I mean, I always thought that when I go it'll be for something more epic than rapid aging." And seriously, who aged quickly anyway...if that was what this was. The Gryffindor still firmly believed it was stress.

Mikey was using advanced logic right now which was good and needed to find the ghost. "You're right. I don't think it has much of a problem being seen." Not with the way it was just sauntering through the tower patch the way it did. Did the place have sentimental meaning to the ghost though....? "I dunno...but if we go off what you say then we have to think of a ghost who might have liked it up there." She paused giving some thought. "I think we'll have to ask a Professor or an older student. Only person, now probably ghost I can think of is Professor Burbage. She used to teach Astronomy and hung out up there before the plant outted her." Probably not very helpful.

And neither was just standing there in shock. She had to say something but the words weren't coming until Michael finally spoke up. Sorta. Er was a lot more than what she was saying so it counted.

He was suggesting they pretend it never happened? That seemed like a waste didn't it? If he was going to kiss her he at least had to mean it no matter what the consequence would have been. He got chocolate frogs points for guts but he was losing them after chickening out after. Be a Gryffindor dude.

Lex gave it another thought. Pretending it never happened? Hmmm...The Gryffindor closed the gap she'd created between them and returned the kiss she'd been too shocked to earlier. "Now we can pretend it never happened." She said taking a measured step back again. "You know, unless you don't want to pretend it didn't happen." She continued with a casual shrug, turning to eye the statue again. The stairs were close by, yeah?

Well he hadn't heard of anyone dying of that but if she had been cursed then it could be some sort of slow spreading thing. And why was he thinking like that? Nothing was going to happen to her. "Of course they haven't." Is what he said instead and then he was laughing because that was a total Lex comment. "I think that's every Gryffindor's wish." To go out fighting.

Michael was listening to what Alexa was saying but he was also thinking of something else. Something that he was sure he had read about in Hogwarts a History. Okay he got bored sometimes and occasionally read over past history events. "There was another Astronomy Professor that died as well." Ugh, what was his name? "Forrester! That was his name. Maybe it's his ghost?" Just throwing it out there. He really didn't have anything else.

Okay if she didn't say SOMETHING soon, he was definitely going back to the common room, he would even accept a punch in the face. At least he woukd know what she was feeling. And just as he was about to tell her that he was leaving, he felt her lips on his and now it was his turn to be speechless.

HE HAD NOT BEEN EXPECTING THAT!

He stared at her for a moment or two or three before his brain caught up with his mouth. "Of course I don't want to pretend it didn't happen. I have been wanting to do that for a long time." And it was so much better than he thought it would be. "I mean I've had a crush on you since my first year."

Okay mouth, shut up now!

SEE??? Confirmation she WOULDN'T die. This was good. Super good. She didn't want to die. It wasn't something she was afraid of, not with there being so many more terrifying things in the world but at the same time this wasn't the most opportune time. There was still so much to be done in life, so much more to live through. "Not every." She said, giving it some thought, "I've seen a few cowards dropped into our house on accident." She remembered that year at. It was actually Michael's first year and he was just about the only one happy to be a Gryffindor.

And he was bringing up a good point. This was why they needed to ask someone else...if they didn't run into it themselves. "I think I've heard of him. Dunno how he died though but they have a plaque of him up in the Tower Patch so that's a possibility." Quite the mystery they had on their hands wasn't it?

Lex was still watching the statue and trailing her gaze along the corridor before them leaving her occupied in the silence that followed. If anything, he seemed as shocked as she was a minute ago. Kinda odd considering he started it.

She was about to suggest they keep walking until they hit the staircase--hopefully not literally like what just happened with the statue--but finally he spoke and was starting to sound like a Gryffindor again. It was certainly an impulsive action, one he'd been meaning to do for however long that might have been. What she absolutely wasn't expecting was the three year crush. Wow. Just wow. She knew exactly how that felt and it sucked. All that waiting and nothing.

"I'm surprized you didn't give up." She muttered, not knowing what else to say. Merlin knew Lex was rubbish at this stuff.

"Cowards in Gryffindor? Nooooooo that can't be."He chuckled softly. Michael was pretty sure that not all the houses had students that filled every single requirement. "You know, there are different kinds of bravery. It doesn't necessarily have to mean putting your life on the line."

He didn't know how the man had died either but if the man had been very attached to his subject and the school he taught at then maybe his ghost wanted to hang out there. It was quite a mystery. One that he wanted to figure out. "Maybe we should head up to the Tower Patch instead of going down?" Just a thought.

Besides they might be able to take the cloak off up there and perhaps they could even talk about what had just transpired between them. Except that Michael didn't want to wait to talk about it. He had waited long enough to let his feelings known to her.

"You're worth waiting for." He murmured, wishing they could take off the cloak and talk properly. Or at least find somewhere not so dark so that he could see her face. He pushed all those thoughts aside for a moment though because there was one question he needed to ask her.

"So...um...what does that mean? For us I mean?"

As much as she'd like to set him straight about his disbelief in there being cowards within their house she was now fixed on his next sentence. "Yeah, I know and I also know that you should be appreciative of a house of people that welcome you instead of being hung up about another house the hat decided you shouldn't be in." There was only one plain exception to this, that being Lottie but even the girl had come to accept Hufflepuff so not even she was that bad.

There were all these teachers that died within the walls of the castle. She remembered hearing that this was one of the safest places to be but after seeing everything she had, there was little to convince her of this. Granted, she hadn't died yet but she wasn't about to thank the castle for that, not when it seemingly housed all the dangers. "Good idea. It might have gone back up there to look at the plaque again like it was when we saw it." Now the question was where to find the stairs leading that way. These stairs here only took them down from this point.

Lex twisted a few times, trying to catch her bearings in the dimly lit corridor before coming to the conclusion, it was further down that way. She took a step in that direction trusting Mikey to follow suit.

Somehow, this conversation had gone really sentimental without her knowing how...or why. After last term, she was wary of anything even closely related to this kind of thing. There may not have been a reason to be cautious but that didn't make anything better. A certain level of detachment and disinterest were both necessary in situations like these and his next question wasn't helping either. So this was what it was like to be put on the spot...Merlin.

In situations like these it was usually good going with honesty so....."I....dunno that it means anything." She started in a smaller voice than usual. She didn't wanna hurt his feelings or anything but at the same time, "Thing is...I'm not keen on getting in on all that relationship stuff everyone else is in. It's," Horrible? Terrifying? Rubbish? Restrictive? Destructive? Set to blow up in her face?, "not something I've ever actually thought of or actively wanted." Relationships were high on her list of 'NO'. They had always been but after last term, they might have taken the top spot.

He figured she was talking about Hufflepuff and he was almost tempted to argue that as well. He didn't believe that Huffies were just the leftovers. How could he when his mother had been one and she was certainly not one would call a leftover, especially to her face. But instead he just merely nodded his head, that was an argument that could probably go on for a while.

Again he didn't say anything just merely changed direction with her and headed away from the statue towards the stairs that were supposed to lead them up to the Astronomy Tower.

Besides his mind was too busy on what had just happened and the fact that Lex was taking an awfully long time to answer his question. Which in his opinion did not bode well for him at all.

And she proved it seconds later when she spoke and while Michael was pretty much expecting it, she was two years older than he was and she had never showed any sort of interest in him, hearing her say the words hurt nonetheless.

He opened his mouth a couple of times trying to find some words that wouldn't make him look like a fool in front of her, but nothing came to mind. So he closed his mouth and stopped walking. "I see." He murmured finally. He wanted to ask her why she kissed him then, but decided it really didn't matter.

"I think I'm just gonna head back to the common room." He would take his chances with getting caught, because right now he needed to be far away from the older girl.

At least for a little while.

There wasn't much in the way of protests or the like and Lex was content with them making their way to the Tower Patch. The girl was seriously hoping they ran into that ghost, otherwise it'd have been a waste and they could have been a substantial way closer to the kitchen. Midnight snacks weren't as good as full on ghost hunts but food was food and she liked food almost as much so it would be fine. Alternately they could have found something to do by the whomping willow or somewhere out on the grounds? Still plenty of time before people started stirring and wondering where they might have gotten off to.

The long silence was making her all kinds of uncomfortable, given what she'd said before everything went silent. She'd tried being as delicate as possible and was hoping he'd understand but at the same she knew how sticky these things could get.

Lex was starting to get accustomed to the silence and thought maybe there might have been a silent acceptance but then he spoke and it didn't sound like the Mikey she was used to. More like a deflated one. It was going downhill rapidly from there with him...ending their plans in favour of going back to the Common Room? But they hadn't gotten anything done yet....

....

..........

"Wait!" Everything needed to wait. "We're...still friends, right?" She was sorry she couldn't like him like that but in truth, she never wanted to EVER like anyone like that. All thoughts of that had been pushed far away and if something like this ruined another friendship then she'd be done. Completely done. This stuff was messy and always got in the way.

This was going to be one of those times when he regretted not listening to his father when he spoke about females. All those times of nodding his head and not taking in one word because he thought his dad was old and had no idea about these things. Yeah sure he had been a teenager once but that was years and years ago. Things were different now.

Maybe there weren't though.

All Michael knew was that only moments ago he had felt as though he was on top of the world when she had kissed him only to be brought crashing down minutes later. He felt stupid to think that she would want him. He was still practically a kid.

He had started to duck out from the cloak when she spoke and he couldn't help the little flare of hope that bubbled up inside of him, but once again he was shot down. Michael took a deep breath, stepped in closer to her again and gently placed a soft kiss on her lips. "How could I not be friends with you Alexa Cambridge?" He took a step back again and smiled at her even though she probably couldn't see him. "I just need some time to get my head together." Or something like that, he just wanted to be on his own right now.

But before he left he just had to say this to her. "Hey Lex? I'm no expert on relationships but I would never rule them out and I don't think you should either. Loving someone can't be that horrible." With that he finally moved out from underneath the cloak and made his way back to the fat lady's portrait.

Lex was very much still waiting on a response to that. Last time something like this happened --nevermind how horrid the other turned out in comparison to this one--she'd stopped talking to one of her closest friends for a month, a whole frickin' month of her being miserable. She wasn't about to let that happen again. Imagine her relief when he actually waited.

The kiss wasn't expected, not after everything that just got explained but it happened and this time he wasn't offering pretense after. That was improvement already.

The girl shrugged and smiled at his response, not sure what to say exactly. She knew the potential situations like this had and the fact that this wasn't turning into one of them. She could give him some time, he could have all the time in the world--so long as he didn't start avoiding her. That was a big no. With him giving his word that they were still friends she was relaxed enough to be okay with him needing time. Time was a reasonable request.

Lex's eyebrows arched a bit when it seemed he had more to say but they sunk and knitted only a moment later. He was gone before she could think of a proper response but that was probably for the best. Truthfully, relationships didn't interest her. She couldn't see the point in them or their appeal and there wasn't much you could do in them that you couldn't do out of them.