It Just Sort of...Happened?

[Ariah Zhefarovich]

Ariah sighed to herself as she stepped into the Hogwarts Garden with a fairly bored look on her face, classes had just been dismissed and she unfortunately had fallen asleep in class again but she was up late last night. Usually she was in a much more hyper and chipper mood all the teasing that was being issues by the students for various reasons, it was all getting a little old so she pretty much ignored everything they said to her because there was nothing she could say to defend her from it. Yeah she liked muggle-borns, and yeah she was a bit of an air-headed klutz but why should that matter to any of them what she believed or what she liked because it was her personal opinion and not there's. "If only they could all get eaten bear or something." She muttered to herself as she plopped herself onto the soft grassy ground and sighed to herself. Thankfully she had at least a few friends that were loyal, if it hadn't been for them then she'd probably ask her father to become home-schooled instead of going to a school anymore because it. Recently she hadn't had much contact with any of her friends and was wondering what they had all been up to during the Holiday Break.

'In fact I seriously need to ask Hilde what was up with her and Xavier at the Dance thing next time I see her.' Ariah blinked and scratched her cheek, she had saw them leave together but wondered what was up because she didn't exactly understand what had happened between them or anything. Ariah sort of liked Xavier, he was nice to her and didn't treat her at all like all the other kids did. It scared her that maybe he had a thing for Hilde, would her forget all about her and pay no attention to her anymore?

 

[Hilde Lindstrom]

Hilde had just gotten done with class and decided to go out and take a walk on the grounds. It was a bright, sunshiney day and she wanted to enjoy a bit of it. Plus, she was hoping to run into Xavier and distract herself a bit before her next class. Heading out to the grounds, she wandered about for a bit before kicking off her heels and walking barefoot across the grass. She had really not had much time to catch up with her room mates since they all returned. Seeing Ariah not far ahead of her, she hurried over and nudged her from behind. "Hey stranger! What'cha up to?" she asked quickly. Hilde didn't nudge her hard enough to push her over, but just enough to make her jump hopefully.

 

[Ariah Zhefarovich]

Ariah almost jumped when she felt someone nudge and talk to her, being a klutz that could have been seriously bad if she were standing or was near anything sharp but thankfully she wasn't. Tuning her head she saw her room mate and friend Hilde standing behind her, so far this girl had been one of the very few who had not teased her or made fun of her for being different so Ariah really liked her. "Whoa. You scared me!" She laughed softly showing off her perfect pearly white teeth as she laughed to herself, it always struck her as funny that she could find almost anything funny even when she was in danger or was is trouble. Even when she was younger and was being yelled at by her parents or by her teachers she could remember that she had to try and hold in her laughter because she always found it extremely funny.

"I should be asking you the same thing? Miss I leave with Xavier Snow at the Yuletide Dance." She grinned, she remembered telling Hilde that she sort of had a crush on that boy and man was she curious to know what had happened between them on that night. Actually as she liked the both of them she knew it would break her little heart to be rejected like that, maybe they were just friends or something though?

 

[Hilde Lindstrom]

Hilde plopped down on the grass next to Ariah, a blush tingeing her cheeks. "Um, yeah. He was making sure that I was okay. Did you notice the little breakup scene that I had with Tohoru just before that?" she asked. It wasn't that she had planned on leaving with Xavier, but he had come to her rescue and pulled her from the prying eyes of people around her. He had made sure that she was okay and not hurt -- and then really made her feel better.

Then a thought hit her. A conversation that he and Ariah had once last term in their room. She had a bit of a crush on Xavier Snow. Dammit. How could Hilde have forgotten that? Well, hopefully she would be able to smooth this over with her room mate. She wasn't going to say anything just yet about how they ended up kissing that night, or how they were going to be doing a lot more kissing in the future. Hopefully Ariah wouldn't be too mad at her over this.

 

[Ariah Zhefarovich]

Ariah thought back to when she had seen Xavier and Hilde together, she didn't observe them long because her stomach was practically begging her to grab some of those cookies before the night was over. To her it didn't look like anything was going on, but she wasn't a complete idiot and knew better than to just let the situation slide by easily. "Awh that was nice of him, isn't he adorable?" Ariah giggled, a light red color taking over her cheeks as she thought about what a handsome smile that boy had, granted it wasn't caused by something weird that Ariah would prefer to pretend he wasn't happy about because it totally killed the cuteness factor. When Hilde asked if she had seen the whole scene she had with Tohoru, she blinked as she tried her hardest to think back to that night once again, it wasn't until now that she had wished that she paid more attention to things instead of walking with her head in the clouds all the time. "Huh, I only remember yelling actually." Ariah also though she remembered someone getting slapped, but she couldn't be all that sure if it was something she had really seen or if it was her imagination or not. Focusing her darkened mint green eyes onto the grass she wondered carefully exactly what had happened that night between all of them.

"Are you sure nothing else happened?" She asked with a small grin, her usual chipper self finding it's way back onto her face once again, oddly enough Ariah figured she was going to go Pixie hunting tonight just for the hell of it. The only issue was getting back in after curfew without getting into trouble again, if she got caught again it would be her third time this year that she wasn't sneaky enough.

 

[Hilde Lindstrom]

Hilde stretched her legs out in front of her, crossing them at the ankles. She leaned back, tipping her face up to meet the sun. "Yeah, he is rather adorable isn't he?" she agreed, a smile on her face. "Hadn't really noticed him until he came to my rescue that night. Such a sweetheart, that boy." Bringing her head back up to look at her room mate, she explained what all happened that night. "Can you believe that creep was cheating on me? And with that muggleborn? It makes me sick! I am just glad that Xavier came and got me out of there before I chased that dog down and beat him some more. He deserved everything he got and then some for that." Flipping her hair back over her shoulders, letting it cascade down her back Hilde continued. "I need to talk to that Hufflepuff girl. I said some really mean things that night and, well, the more I thought about it over break the more I realized that she wasn't at fault. How was either of us to know what kind of creep he really was?"

When Ariah asked her if there was anything else that happened, Hilde paused. She really hoped that there was not going to be any issues with the younger girl. "Well..." Hilde started then paused. "Yeah. Something else did happen." Sitting up and turning to face Ariah, she continued. "We, well, we kind of kissed.....a bit." She scrunched her face up and gave her a shy little smile. She really hoped that this wouldn't drive a wedge between them.

 

[Ariah Zhefarovich]

Ariah was happy and shocked that Hilde agreed with her that Xavier was not only sweet but adorable as well, pushing the jealousy out of her mind she tried to refocus on how her room mate and friend was reacting to what Ariah had said about Xavier earlier. "How could you not notice him?" He was probably the loudest and most open person she had ever met besides herself, and she still had a very strong shy side that kept her from being as open as he was most of the time when he was around people. In fact the first time she had met the air-headed blonde he scared her a little with hold bold and sure of himself he was, what amazed her even more was when she looked at how his siblings acted them how he acted because they didn't act at all like they were related to one another. "Hey, what's wrong with Muggle-borns?!" Ariah was upset that her friend was cheated on and Tohoru deserved to get smacked for that, but she hoped Hilde wasn't upset about it just because the girl was born with muggle parents, it's like she could really help at all what blood she was born of. Blinking she shook her head, she knew a lot of kids hated her and made fun of her for standing up for those kinds of people, but she was raised to think that everyone was equal to one another.

"Oh my god...no way?!" Ariah asked in disbelief, shock, and slight horror at what Hilde had just revealed to her a moment ago, suddenly it felt like all the air in her lungs was sucked dry and someone had stepped on her little heart over and over again until it was successfully broken into little tiny pieces. It wasn't that she didn't think that Hilde deserved it or she wad mad at her it was just...well Ariah had thought that he liked her because of how nice he treated her and everything. "Are you sure you guys kissed? I mean..uh..well I sort of thought he liked me." She rubbed the back of her head shyly, averted her mint colored eyes to stare at the ground as if she was trying to burn a hole in it with her gaze. Ariah was unsure if she wanted to cry, kick, scream, or run and kick Xavier for leading her on like that...but she felt no anger towards Hilde for actually being happy.

 

[Hilde Lindstrom]

"Ariah, I'm sorry. I honestly didn't mean for it to happen. I actually had tried to set him up with you." Hilde reached over and put her hand on Ariah's shoulder. She felt bad about the whole thing and had said as much to Xavier over break. Both of them hoped that the younger girl would, in the end, be okay with everything. "Really. He does love you, but like a sister. Actually, I think he would rank you above a few of his real siblings." She gave her a soft smile, hoping that things would be okay. "You are actually the only one we are trusting with what is happening between us. We both feel that we are able to trust you." She hoped that this would be enough to lift her past the fact that her crush was now with her room mate. "It's not like we are going to be telling everyone." Hilde giggled. "You know as well as I do now that Theodore would torture both him and I to death, and if Aleyha knows, well, they share everything. Hannah and Heidi know, of course, but with Heidi at home still recovering, that limits the number of people here that can say something." Hilde held back the information for right now that they would still be seeing other people, that she would disclose only on a need to know basis -- and right now Ariah had enough to deal with that she did not need to know that.

 

[Ariah Zhefarovich]

Taking in a sharp breath like she was going to yell or scream instead she just held it in for a moment, she really had nothing to be upset about because really he was just some stupid boy but no matter what she tried to tell herself she still felt like her heart was broken into a million pieces. So all those nice things he said to her was nothing but leading her on, was that boy nothing but a huge flirt who liked to get attention from girls or what? "Just a sister?! What a huge fricken creep!" Ariah cried out, obviously just a little upset about what she had just heard, not any of it was directed at Hilde though because it wasn't like she had led her on like a certain Hufflepuff boy had done. Pushing herself up to a standing position she began to pace she tried as hard as she could possibly manage not to start crying because she felt like it was just so unfair that this happened to her, was she really that repulsive? If he only liked her as a sister than it definitely ruled him out as being that secret admirer of her that kept giving her gifts.

"Don't you think that Theodore will find out anyways? He isn't an idiot, Hilde! He'll catch on quick and then what'll happen..I'll be screwed too!" Ariah said in a hushed upset sounding tone, not only was she hurt by this but now she feared that she was going to get in trouble with Xavier's younger brother who wasn't all that nice when he was unhappy about something. Suddenly a single tear fell from her mint eye that she brushed away quickly so it wouldn't show that she was really that upset. "So...do you like him?" Ariah asked after a moment, if Hilde really liked him then she figured that this was meant to be, after all she was closer to his age and was probably trying to distract herself from the whole Shane having a girlfriend Thing.

 

[Hilde Lindstrom]

Hilde sat on the ground, watching Ariah's reactions to the news. She was not sure what to do. Does she get up and try to comfort her or does she just stay put? She stood, but stayed put, a bit on edge at how the younger girl was acting. Hilde couldn't quite tell if she was upset with Xavier or if Ariah was upset with her. Then she mentioned about Theodore finding out anyways. She was right, he wasn't stupid, but if anyone was going to be his target, it was going to be the happy couple not the accessories. "You won't be the one that gets the brunt of Theodore's reaction if he finds out. I'm sure he would much rather torment us instead. Hopefully if he thinks that Xavier is helping me with my classes and I in turn am helping him prep materials for his NEWTs, hopefully that will buy us a bit of time before we are discovered."

She wasn't quite ready for the question that Ariah posed to her next. Did she like him? "I do, actually. At first it was kind of meant to be a distraction for both of us. Me from Shane and Xavier from his ex. But I really like hanging around with him. He is just so fun and totally sweet." Hilde smiled, thinking of the time they had snuck in over break. They managed to get away from their families for a couple of afternoons and just hung out. It was nothing out of line for a couple of their age, but a lot of kissing and some shopping. They got along great and only solidified their arrangement.

 

[Ariah Zhefarovich]

Ariah watched as Hilde stood, but that did little to nothing to calm her down or make her feel any less stressed and upset about the Situation that was going on between her room mate and her ex-crush. It was all like a bad dream or a scary movie all playing out to end up badly for her, no matter what she did it just kept getting worse and worse and it seemed like the world was against her now. "Trust me, Theodore will go after us all...and....YOUR LYING TO PEOPLE?" Although she wasn't so much upset that they were meeting up in secret, but on top of it they were all lying to everyone about it too which wasn't very smart of them to do. Now Ariah was angry at the both of them, she was only upset with Hilde because she thought lying was very wrong to do, on top of that they were lying to the wrong sort of people to ever lie to. "Lying is so not cool." Ariah put her hands on her hips and stared at Hilde through her mint green eyes, however her voice was much calmer than it had been a minute ago. After all she had suddenly realized that if Hilde really liked him then there was nothing she could really do to stop them from being together.

"I'm sorry about getting upset it's just that...I liked him and I'm sure you know how that feels." Ariah apologized as she began to focus on her feet from being a little embarrassed about her outburst. It wasn't like Ariah to go out and get upset like that, but no matter how hard she tried to remain sweet and bubbly there was always this side of her that wanted her to be mean and hateful towards others when they upset her. "B-but..why wouldn't you just go out and try to date Shane instead of getting distracted. It's pretty obvious that you like him enough to do so." She stated not really understanding boys, love, or anything really in that area. Ariah had never had a boyfriend, never been kissed, nor did she really ever have a first hand experience at how relationships and flirting worked. As far as she was concerned a boy had never really had feelings for her either.

 

[Hilde Lindstrom]

"Don't worry about Theodore. Xavier and I will handle him if the need arises. Besides, what business is it of his who I date or even who his brother dates? It really isn't. Plus, we are not lying...just not filling them in on all the details. So what if they see us studying or talking to each other. The fact that we are actually seeing each other as well just is not public knowledge. That is not lying." Hilde crossed her arms and looked at Ariah with concern. "I know you are hurt by this and I'm sorry. I didn't realize that you liked him liked him. I thought it was more of a big brother kind of like. If I had realized, I would have turned him down."

She closed the few steps between them and placed her hands on Ariah's arms. "Yes, I do know how that feels. Shane has done that to me. He has a girlfriend. Did I tell you that? Some chick from Durmstrang that he met." She stepped back and hugged her arms around herself. "I do like him. A lot. But he has made it clear that he wants nothing beyond what we have right now."

 

[Ariah Zhefarovich]

Ariah had figured by this point that she didn't understand how families like Theodore's worked when it came to knowing and involving themselves in each other's business. The Snows could care less about personal privacy and if Xavier was bending a rule or making his brother mad then Ariah knew the Veela Male would most likely not care regardless because he seemed to think that overall he was the boss of everyone when his father wasn't present. "Alright then, but when they get involved and everything don't say I didn't warn you." Theodore was also a very highly persuasive person so she doubted he would be alone if he wanted to bother his brother, whether or not Hilde would get any of the heat or not was the real question because she had thought that Theodore didn't mind her all that much but she knew that he could easily change his mind if she were into his brother that he hated with a passion. "I thought I told you I liked him, was my flirting not obvious enough?" She asked worriedly, she had never really flirted or anything before so when she made an attempt at it she figured she was pretty bad at doing it correctly. Then again she was also only thirteen years old and she shouldn't be all that into boys, but one day she hoped she would fall in love or something along those lines so she needed to have some experience.

"Have you asked him? Maybe he likes you but he's just afraid to tell you." She stated as her mint grin eyes glanced at the hands that were on her arm, sometimes she did not understand how relationships worked and the situation that Hilde was in made it even harder for her to understand how anyone was able to last in one or even think that dating was okay to begin with because it was just so frustrating.

 

[Hilde Lindstrom]

"Ariah, the thing is that I know he likes me. He just doesn't want to be with me yet. I don't know what the issue is but I am not waiting for him. I'm too young to be pining over a guy that doesn't want to be with me." Hilde turned and began to gather her bag and shoes. She said what she did as much for her benefit as Ariah's. They both were too young to be waiting for boys that didn't want to date them. Hilde had confidence that someday Shane would want to be with her and that now was just not the right time, but what was to hold her back from having bit of fun until that time came?

"Look, I'm sorry that you got hurt in all of this. I like Xavier, and he likes me." Hilde reiterated that fact to make sure that the younger girl didn't miss that detail. It was the truth, they really did like each other. Neither family would really be upset if they found out about the pair. Both came from respectable families and the match would guarantee the purity of their bloodlines. "I might not like him the same way as I like Shane, but Xavier knows that. He is still hung up on his ex from Beauxbatons. We both know this going in. We are okay with the idea that we each might flirt with others, maybe even kiss others. For right now, this works for us and we are both happy. I hope that you can be happy for us." Hilde slipped her bag on her arm and held onto her shoes. She really wanted to have Ariah on her side in case things did explode between Theodore and Xavier at some point.

 

[Ariah Zhefarovich]

Ariah cocked her head to the side, obviously a little confused by the whole situation, how could someone have strong feelings for a person but not want to be with them? No wonder Ariah's father wanted her to stay away from boys for as long as she possibly could, they were nothing but trouble and confusion for the poor ladies that fall for them and try so hard to win their affections. "That makes nooo sense though. I say you go up to him and demand for him to open up his heart to you." Ariah stated putting her hands on her hips and giving Hilde a serious look that meant she was not playing around by saying this. She knew straight up that if she liked someone and he liked her back then she would stop at nothing to get that boy to be hers, before it was too late and they lost one another. Though her father said she was a special case and it was never going to be up to her to decide the man she wanted, Ariah had no absolute clue what he meant by this whenever he said it to her.

Sighing softly Ariah let her head drop. "I know and I'm happy for you guys. It's just that..well someone claiming to be my secret Admirer is sending me gifts and I thought it was him. Now I'm lost again." She lifted her head to glance around behind her, the gifts were so cute and sweet that she really wanted to know who had such the mind to do something like this for her. Especially since almost every boy around here was awful mean to her and liked to pick on her about her eyes and the way she admired muggles and muggle-borns like she did.

 

[Hilde Lindstrom]

Hilde chose not to respond to Ariah about just demanding that Shane open up to her. She knew that if she did that, he would be gone faster than you can apparate. The relationship that they had for the moment worked for them. Eventually, she hoped that he would realize that he wanted no one but her, but until that time came she was willing to just let things be.

"Why haven't you mentioned these presents before? I want to help figure this guy out. Give me details! We can put our heads together," Hilde said. She was super curious. Never had she heard Ariah mention anything about this before. Hilde wanted to help, and maybe, just maybe, if they found out who this secret admirer was, she would be able to move past Xavier and maybe onto this secret admirer.

 

[Ariah Zhefarovich]

"If you don't say something I will." Ariah stated after a moment, her arms falling to her sides as she stared at Hilde warmly but comfortingly with her mint green eyes. If it was one thing she wanted to see her friends happy, and her father had once told her that being in love and having somebody care for you often made people especially girls really happy and much more enjoyable to be around. "You just have to promise when you guys get married and have like a gazillion kids you'll name one of them after me...or something." She snickered, teasing Hilde slightly at the idea of her older friend actually getting married and having lots of adorable children with Shane someday, the funny part of this was that Ariah could see herself with neither. Ariah didn't think she would ever get married because she didn't think any guy would ever have interest in her and she also didn't really want children right now either. Of course she adored babies and little kids, but she couldn't picture herself having any unless she was in love with someone first.

Hilde seemed very excited and enthused about this secret admirer thing, it made her curious as to how big of a thing this really was becoming. "O-okay then." She thought for a moment, it was hard for her to explain exactly everything about it because it was just overwhelming to actually have someone willing to do all of this for her. Cocking her head to the side she tried to recall anything she could remember about the person whether it was by their writing, the comments, even the type of gifts the person bought for her. "Well, I figure he's got to be a fifth year or younger, possibly wealthy, and someone that might look at me or see me around a lot. I also think it may be a Slytherin because the gifts are often left by my door or in the common room but it could be anyone and...whoever it is really likes my eyes." She breathed out almost with a girlish sigh, Ariah thought her eyes were ugly because people always commented on her eye color being weird and funny looking. But the boy who had written this made her feel better about her eyes, and totally deserved a huge hug or something when she found out whoever had the heart to come out and say it..or even have the guts to like her.

 

[Hilde Lindstrom]

"Ariah, you know what I always say when you crab about your eyes. Green eyes are always better than any other color, and the more interesting the color the better," Hilde said, a smile gracing her own green eyes. She dropped her shoes back down and took her bag off and set it back on the ground. Grabbing a spot again on the grass, she patted the ground for Ariah to join her. "Tell me, what kinds of presents have you been getting? Maybe we can get an idea if we put our heads together. Only thing is that I would not limit it to just the Slytherins. It could be anyone that has a friend with access to the girl's dorms."

As she stated that fact, she realized that could be just about anyone in the school. Groaning inwardly, she decided that maybe the kinds of gifts would be more of a clue. "You said you think he has money?"

 

[Ariah Zhefarovich]

Ariah softly sighed, well at least one person other than her secret admirer liked her eyes enough not to call them weird or funny looking, to Ariah she wasn't even one hundred percent if her eyes actually were fully green. As Hilde sat next to her she also sat down and made herself comfortable in the plush grass as she tried to think of more clues that could help them figure this out out other than the gifts. "Well I started receiving the gifts in December...if that helps any." She had a good idea on who it wasn't, those with girls already were definitely ruled out because she figured that whoever it was had to be single. This narrowed it down even more because it had to be someone had met or had spoken to once or twice in her time at Hogwarts because this person seemed to know some vague things about her but the person also could have asked around. Whoever this secret admirer guy happened to be...was pretty a good at covering himself up.

"Well the gifts have been things like, jewelry, perfume, flowers you know a lot of really expensive looking things. On top of this, the person must also be a fairly good writer or something because of the notes that came with them." She stated sighing again, they were too sweet that she kept them in her jewelry box to read on occasion when she was feeling a bit upset. Never before had she been this girly hearted about something, but it was just too cute to pass up so she allowed herself to be like she was about it.

 

[Hilde Lindstrom]

Hilde thought about it for a minute. "Ok, so we should probably look at the things you got and try to figure out where they were bought at. That might help us out a bit." Hilde jumped up and picked up her things, then reached over to put her arm out to Ariah. "Let's go. I wanna see this mystery man's stuff and we can try to figure things out." She waited for her friend to stand up before taking off for the castle. She was totally curious now as to who this boy was and exactly what he was giving her.

 

[Ariah Zhefarovich]

Ariah was a first a little worried at Hilde's sudden statement about wanting to see the gifts because Ariah hadn't shown anyone the gifts she had been given yet, she was actually sort of protective over them and didn't want so many people handling them because they were so perfect and gorgeous looking. "Um, okay." Ariah took Hilde's hand and pulled herself up so that she was standing next to her taller friend and was able to brush all the dirt and bits of dried grass off her pants. Even if the gifts were a personal matter for Ariah she figured it wouldn't hurt to let someone see them so they could help her figure out who this secret admirer guy was before it was too late. After all this guy was going to become hers one way or another, she would guarantee that much.

"Can we get a snack first, all this brainstorming made me hungry." She rubbed her fit stomach for a moment before she laughed and motioned for Hilde to follow her as she turned and her padded feet crossed the Great Lawn to the castle, even if the elder Slytherin was not hungry Ariah hoped that she would still come along before they headed up to the common room.