Let's Settle This

[Orwell Brocken]

Orwell still really hated Hogwarts mornings, he hated having to wake up early, he hated having to get up to the sound of the alarm which he'd been given, the teen liked waking up on his own accord and he loved being able to just take the morning at his own pace, but he couldn't do that with the fact that they were stuck at school and had classes and he loved going to his classes. The teen had to drag himself out of bed, he had dyed faded green hair which he ran a tired hand through as he got himself ready for the day, washing up and choosing the same Ravenclaw uniform which he always wore. As time wore on as he was at this school, the teen had grown in confidence about what he could do in the school, he was already planning what they could do with the Wild Patch club, he had two points of order he felt were important, the first was the promotion of the club through a flower crown drive, they made enough of them and he wanted them to have a morning handing out the flowers to the other students promoting the club but also the promoting their events, talking about the protest and how it had gone, what he intended to do to keep up the pressure, which really just revolved in his intending to get caught a few more times at the forest, but on to of that Orwell had so much he wanted to address.

The teen was getting ahead of himself, he gathered up his notes for the days classes and the books he was using for the wild patch and then walked out the dorm room and common room, spotting Archie standing outside the room and Orwell immediately went to him, hugging his friend tightly and then holding his hand as he was lead away from the Ravenclaw tower and to the Great Hall, the teen was feeling pretty tired but he wasn't leaning on Archie like he usually did, just walking a little behind his friend as they walked all the way to the Great Hall, he'd spent the entire holiday with his friend and it had been a nice change from his time in his community, the teen loved spending his time with his best friend, it was the easiest thing that he did, it was almost more difficult now being away from him. It was just a good thing that things within the school kept him so busy or he'd spent more of his time just missing his best friend. The pair arrived at the great Hall, and Orwell didn't even hesitate as he headed to the Gryffindor table, and as he did he spotted Jean, "There's Jean, we can settle this bet," he whispered to Archie before going to sit directly in front of the gryffindor prefect, Orwell felt a little bad for getting the boy in trouble, but he figured that Jean had known exactly what he was getting into, Orwell placed his belongings on the table and waited for the other boy, "Morning!" the boy greeted Jean warmly, looking to Archie to ask the question.
​

 

[Archie Renner]

Sleeping late at night and waking up in the middle of the day during the holidays made falling back into a school routine even more difficult for Archie. But he had learned to bite the bullet for Orwell's sake, knowing that if he did not motivate his friend to get ready to class neither of them would. So he woke up early that morning, and arrived to the entrance to the Ravenclaw common room in record time, his eyes bright and his smile spread wide across his face so they could both begin their days and the rest of the school year on the right track. Archie still felt tired but he managed to hide it and returned Orwell's tight hug when they met up, secretly never wanting to let go but he knew he needed to so he quickly intertwined his fingers with his friend's when they pulled away and lead him down towards the great hall.

The promise of breakfast only widened the smile on his face and caused his stomach to rumble when they arrived. He wasn't sure what he felt like stuffing his face with this morning, if it would be with cereal or a tall stack of pancakes but he knew he wanted to eat and was slightly taken aback when Orwell interrupted his hungry thoughts and whispered about Jean and the bet they had going. He realized he had forgotten about the bet entirely while in the midst of his hunger, and was glad Orwell had brought it up so they could settle their curiosities once and for all. With this new found motivation, Archie made confident strides to the Gryffindor table and slammed his hand down to capture Jean's attention, not bothering to even greet the other Gryffindor so he could cut to the chase. "Jean." He stated before taking Orwell's lead and sitting across the table and directly in front of the other Gryffindor. "Brock and I have a bet that you need to settle." The bet in question was invasive on Jean's private life and probably none of their business, but Archie and Orwell had spent their entire holidays together and got to talking about anything and everything. Their talking just managed to eventually involve Jean's love life or rather the other people involved in it. The pair had many unanswered questions which they wanted him to answer immediately now that the new semester had just began and they were back in the confines of the school walls.
​

 

[Jean Snow]

The break had been an interesting one for Jean. Somehow, he knew it was one of his siblings though they all claimed ignorance, Jean’s mother had learned of his having been called into Professor Kingsley’s office, so in addition to all of the trouble that he had with his Head of House, his mother had been unhappy with him as well. The teenager had been happy to finally come back to the castle even if he knew that he would miss his bed desperately. The beds at Hogwarts were very comfortable, but his bed was still better. Jean had woken up early that morning, the sound of a book falling off one of his roommate’s beds waking the whole room up. The teenager had always had a tough time going to sleep and with the sun already pouring in through the window, he’d simply gotten up from the bed to shower and dress, a grumpy look on his face the entire time. By the time he’d reached the Great Hall and sat down, he was no longer as grumpy but he still found a spot away from the first years who liked to talk incessantly. It was much too early for that sort of thing.

The Gryffindor knew that a good breakfast would cheer him up well, so he reached for his favorites and began to chow down. The teenager propped a book that he’d received from Christmas against a now empty jug of milk so that he could read while he ate. He was alright being alone and would have simply left the Great Hall right after his meal to head to class. But, halfway into his meal, he was startled as a hand slammed onto the table across from him. His book was jolted as well and fell off balance, shutting as it landed heavily on the table. Looking up, Jean grinned at Orwell and Archie. The three of them had become friendly, and even though they’d been the cause of a great deal of trouble for Jean, he held no ill will towards them. The protest had been fun, and if he had to do it all again, he knew that he would still go down to the forest, though he probably would have yelled at his sister to not show up. Before he could even really greet the two, Archie had spoken and Jean’s expression shifted to one filled with curiosity and a bit of wariness. “Ooooookaaaaaaay?” he dragged out the word, the question apparent in his tone. He had no idea what kind of bet it was that he could settle for them.

 

[Orwell Brocken]

Orwell hadn't been about to smack the table, but somewhat used to Archie's antics he didn't even flinch at the motion and just sat himself down at the gryffindor table ignoring that this wasn't his table, greeting the slightly older boy. Orwell did feel a little bad about the trouble which Jean had gotten into because of the protest, but the faded green haired boy hadn't thought it was too bad, they'd stood up for something for once, they'd challenged an age old system even if it hadn't actually changed anything, Orwell thought Jean should be extremely pleased with what he had managed, what he had done, but with more for that boy to lose than Orwell he knew that he should feel a little bad about it. But, this wasn't the time for such a thing really they had more important things to deal with and specifically this revolved around a bet which Orwell and Archie had made during the holidays, one of their many discussions which had oddly ended in a disagreement and then become a bet, and really Orwell would be generally opposed to betting but he was trying to be more open to this world's little things and so it was why he was thinking of the next wild patch club to be a little more within the rules and why he'd been happy to make this bet.

Orwell grinned happily at Jean's response and then looked back at Archie with a grin, "Well you see," he began unable to keep the grin from his face because of how right he thought he currently was with this, "Archie and I are at a disagreement about your love life," he told him plainly feeling no need to further explain what had lead to the discussion and then the bet being made. The teen ran a hand through his hair and looked to Archie and nodded, feeling far more awake than he had been when he'd headed down to the great hall, it was make an interesting morning and really Orwell really enjoyed being right, "So, do you fancy Ailsa or Lydia?" he told him, "I think it's Lydia because of the wild patch, sorry, by the way for getting you in trouble, but then you and her also went to the yuleball, so that's why I think it might be Lydia," He told him adding in the apology quickly, "Archie thinks it's Ailsa because you guys are on the sports team together," he explain to Jean, knowing this didn't exactly justify their question, but he hoped that Jean would just play along. He didn't think it was necessary to explain what they had to do if either of them lost the bet, he thought that considering where they were they'd likely do the bet here and now in front of everyone so that everyone knew they'd done it and neither had chickened out of it.
​

 

[Jean Snow]

When Jean heard what this bet was about, he had to put his fork down. His face was a mixture of embarassment and amusement, his grin widening as his cheeks reddened slightly. Jean had never thought of himself as a particularly interesting person, his love life was so non-existent that that was the most interesting thing about it. The Gryffindor didn't interrupt as Orwell explained the two sides, and he could certainly see how they'd come to their respective sides. Jean had gone to the Yule ball with Lydia and often spoke to her at meetings. She was good at conversation, what could he say? And he spoke to Ailsa often enough during practice, he supposed. He spoke to most of the people on the team, except for Lowan when he was mad at him and the first years. He avoided them whenever possible, often ignoring instructions to pass them the quaffle. Jean didn't think he paid extra attention to Ailsa, but maybe Archie had noticed something.

"I thought I was going to be helping with an interesting bet" Jean scoffed as he picked up his mug and drained it. Putting it down, the Gryffindor looked at the two of them, his blue eyes still full of amusement. "Do I at least get to know the terms of this bet before I settle it?" Jean hoped that the terms were embarrassing. It was the only way he'd give up any information, he'd decided.

 

[Archie Renner]

Archie shot glances between Orwell and Jean with a smile still apparent on his features as he allowed Orwell to explain the bet in the simplest way possible. Although the bet in itself had been formulated over the holidays, the question of who in the school Jean did have feelings for had been prodding the back of Archie's mind ever since the brief mention of it in the Hogwarts Monthly. He had failed to read the entire article due to his short attention span finding distractions in the smallest of things but he had read enough to understand there was someone Jean liked that he had not told them about. Archie was glad to finally be able to settle this, not only the bet but the curiosity he had been harboring about his teammates love life since the beginning of the year. Part of his eagerness to know was fulled by the fact he did not know and the fact he wanted to know for his own knowledge. It showed that even though Archie liked to believe he was above gossip, was a complete and utter lie for him to say so.

"It's not just because of quidditch, Brock!" Archie exclaimed as his attention shot towards Orwell, choosing now to butt into his friend's explanation and add his own two cents. "Ailsa's my friend. She's also in the same house as me and Jean. So she's just cooler, okay?" His know-it-all tone highlighted how right he still thought he was. He had no issues with Lydia, and he was more indifferent towards his fellow Wild Patch Club member than anything else, but Ailsa was his friend which meant she was automatically ten times cooler no matter what Orwell's reasoning might be. Archie just believed he was right and nothing except the answer Jean gave to settle their bet would change that.

Archie turned his attention back towards Jean and laughed. He'd explain the terms of the bet, alright. Just so they could all laugh at Orwell when he realized Archie had been right the entire time, through their disagreement and any gossip that followed. "Well. If Orwell loses the bet, which he will. Because his choice is stupid." He turned towards Orwell and poked his tongue out before turning back to Jean. "He has to kiss someone. In front of all of us." Archie swallowed the urge he had to laugh at the thought of Orwell having to kiss someone. "The terms are the same if I lose, which I won't by the way. But the only difference is that I'm only allowed to kiss a girl because I think they're gross." He was so adamant he was right and so eager to see Orwell lose the bet that he didn't even shudder at the possibility of kissing a girl. Usually when dating or kissing girls was brought into the subject of conversation Archie would feel a chill run up his spine while his face scrunched simultaneously because the idea of a girl being more than a friend to him felt so unnatural. "So. What's your answer? Do you like Lydia, or Ailsa?" He pressed the other Gryffindor, ready to settle this bet and hear confirmation he had been right this entire time.

i'm the most useless person ever tbh​

 

[Jean Snow]

When Archie let out a laugh at his question, Jean's grin returned. His eagerness to hear the terms of their bet grew as well. Hearing what Orwell would have to do, Jean shot him a look, raising his eyebrow when Archie declared his best friend's choice 'stupid.' Jean raised his hand up to cover his mouth as let out a chuckle, thoroughly enjoying the moment. The two boys were going to be in for a big surprise when they heard his answer. Jean couldn't imagine having to kiss anyone in front of the entire Great Hall, and they would definitely have the attention of the entire Great Hall. He'd be mortified, even if he didn't particularly like the person. Archie's side of the bet was even more amusing, if that was possible. He'd have expected the Gryffindor to be more upset about this, but he was so confident that he wasn't even thinking of losing as a possibility. Jean bit his lip, holding back another laugh as he tried to imagine Archie kissing a girl. He found that he couldn't do it. Not that imagining him kiss a guy was any easier. It wasn't. But, he knew that was who Archie was into.

As the attention was turned back to him, Jean didn't have to think about it for long. "Wow. Ok. Those are good terms" Jean began with a short laugh, fiddling around with the fork on his plate as he was determined to drag this out for as long as he could. As Archie had finished talking, Jean had figured something out. If he admitted the truth, he knew more questions would follow, questions that he wasn't sure he wanted to answer out loud. He really didn't want to lie either and have one of them lose the bet for his own selfish reasons. Orwell and Archie were his friends and he knew that he could trust them with the truth. At least he hoped he could. "Well, um, I hate to break it to you but I like them both" he stated slowly, his blue eyes looking between the two boys, "as friends. They're both cool, but I don't think of them like that." The teen shrugged his shoulders. Ailsa was a teammate and from his house, and Archie was right in saying she was cool, but he didn't really look at her like that. And while he thought Lydia was cute, there hadn't been any sparks during their Yule Ball date. She was a great friend though, and he knew that's all they'd ever be. Jean was ok with that. "So, do you have to do this now?" he asked, hoping that they wouldn't ask the obvious. Hopefully, they'd be so caught up on their bet that they'd forget about him now that he'd settled things for them.

 

[Orwell Brocken]

Orwell liked that Jean seemed to be considering it, after all, he could very easily just tell them both to get lost about it, but he seemed like he actually wanted to help them settle it, and as Archie explained it he couldn't help but peak in his own excitement and notice that it seemed like Jean was actually interested in allowing them to settle this. The Ravenclaw teen scoffed loudly when his best friend essentially called his choice stupid, since the green haired teen felt perfectly justified in this, he felt like he really needed to win this just to prove a point, he was almost certain it was Lydia, he wasn't particularly in tune with people and their relationships, mostly just because of his focus on the cause and fighting the system which made it a little hard for him to see anyone in any other manner than an ally or an enemy. The teen had plenty of friends, but he knew that if the struggle called for him, he would drop all of it for that, which meant he didn't always noticed who liked whom, but he was so certain about his choice in who Jean liked, he definitely felt like Archie was wrong about it, "Ailsa fine, but she's not right," he added after Archie so adamantly said that Ailsa was better. Before listening along as his best friend outlined what they'd need to do. Orwell was a little worried about kissing someone, he'd never been kissed before or kissed anyone and while he placed no importance in it, he didn't want it to be awful, he'd obviously have to make sure that the person was consenting before he did so.

Once Archie had finished he looked to Jean excitedly barely able to contain his excitement over this, wanting to know now what he had to do if he had to do anything, which was hopefully not the case, he wanted to win. The teen was listening to Jean speak with bated breath and when he announced that neither of them were right, "What? Who do you like then?" he said quickly in surprise, confusion crossing his face, he hadn't even thought of that as a possibility, he wanted to know if the older boy liked anyone at all, but the importance now was that both he and Archie had lost this bet. They both had to do their thing, which he hadn't intended to have to do that morning but it seemed as good a time as ever, "Now, or Archie will chicken out and not do it," he nudged his friend as he tried to find a girl for him to kiss, "We need witnesses to confirm that this happened," he told Jean grinning happily, despite having lost the teen was still feeling very happy with the morning, it was one way to start the day, Orwell was all about doing new things and broadening his horizons even into things he never expected to, and though he was annoyed that he hadn't been right, nor had Archie and that was the perfect scenario for him other than winning, "Why don't you kiss Ailsa, Archie," he told him, "She's your friend, and like you said she's just cooler," he quoted to Archie, he spotted her a little down the table, "Ailsa!" he stood up and shouted across the table loudly before motioning for her to join them, "Come on Archie, time to pay up, then I will, you don't want to back out on your word in front of Jean and all these other people,"
​

 

[Archie Renner]

Jean's answer was the most ridiculous, unjust sounding thing Archie had ever heard and he wasn't afraid to show it. He let out a loud, annoyed sounding groan and leaned forward to rest his head on the table between a glass of juice and a breakfast bowl full of muesli he didn't notice before. Archie did know that none of this was his business, that Jean did not have to share anything he wasn't comfortable sharing and that it was in his right to lie and have Archie face the consequences of losing the bet after he had stuck his nose into a place he shouldn't have. But that did not mean he wanted to face the consequences of losing or that he would be happy about it for a second. He was out of his limit on this and could feel his still hungry stomach flip at the idea of kissing a girl because of some stupid bet. He agreed to the terms in the first place without thinking he would need to kiss a girl, and assuming he was right and no matter what happened Orwell would lose and Archie would laugh as his best friend kissed some random stranger and regretted his shortsightedness now that he needed to follow through on his word.

Archie wanted to sink into the table, to melt into the wood and pretend like he didn't exist when Orwell called Ailsa over. His stomach was already turning knots at the thought of kissing Ailsa and not the kind of knots he enjoyed. The kind of knots where he felt like he was going to throw up all his insides and the dinner from two weeks ago although he hadn't eaten anything today. He eventually decided to swallow the lump in his throat and act dignified, knowing that Orwell and Jean were probably eating this all up and if he protested any longer or showed any signs that were less than confident he was only giving them the satisfaction of watching him squirm. "Fine." He muttered to himself as he felt the seat shift slightly with added weight he already knew belonged to Ailsa. He lifted his head from the table and slammed his hand down in it's place before he turned to face her. "Ailsa. You're a girl." Choosing to be blunt was the only way he knew he could go about this because subtlety had never been his forte and really how else was he, an openly gay kid supposed to convince his female friend to kiss him? "I've just lost a bet and I need you to kiss me." He stated, assuming she would just flat out agree so he could get this mess that was his side of the bet over with. "I can still taste the mint from my toothpaste so you don't need to worry about bad breath."​

 

[Ailsa Vacarius]

The gryffindor girl was exhausted, she was too tired to want to bother with anything that day, which was why she had dragged herself to the great hall and she had sat down, just leaning her head on the table and trying to get some extra rest. The late nights were the only way that Ailsa managed to work well, but really they came at a cost of the morning always being horrible, which was just the way that things were. The girl spent her evenings and nights working on essays and reading and occasionally sitting with Logan which was the only part of the evening that she enjoyed. The essay work was always boring and the work she didn't understand wasn't fun, but the teen enjoyed just sitting with Logan usually in companionable silence without the need for too many words. She figured that sometimes that was all her friend needed, but this morning Ailsa had awoken after too few hours of sleep and was left feeling pretty tired and not int he mood to deal with any of it. She was vaguely listening to the sounds around her and vaguely heard Archie and his friend sitting at the table, she didn't pay any attention to them until she heard her name several times, this could never be good. She hoped to sink into the table and disappear but of course her name was loudly yelled so she looked up to see herself being summoned over to where Archie and Orwell were sat with Jean.

Groaning heavily the girl wandered over and sat down next to them, looking between the boys until Archie spoke, stating the blind truth about what she was but then following it with what she needed him to do. The girl sighed and groaned making a disgusted look with her face, "Ugh no," she muttered as he said that he wouldn't have bad breath, sometimes she hated her friendship with the two boys, she shook her head but decided that she would have to do this for Archie's sake, "Fine," she replied in a tone which indicated that she wasn't exactly going to be happy about it just as Orwell beside Archie said something about it needing to last ten seconds this was going to be horrible both for him and for her. She waited for him to lean in and kiss her, sitting expectantly but he seemed to be reluctant to move and then she just shook her head growing bored of him and this, it was too early for this, "Chicken," she muttered loudly before placing both her hands on his cheeks and pulling him into a kiss, a closed mouth kiss which was to last a whole ten second and then knowing that this was pretty disgusting for him and for her, but she decided that she could have a little more fun with it annoy Archie like he'd annoyed her with this and in the last second of the kiss her tongue darted out and lightly touched his lips just before she pulled away a grin on her face as she began laughing, "That was disgusting," she told "You're gross," she didn't like Archie like that, but she was glad to have annoyed him like she had, "What even was this bet?" she looked to the other boys as she asked, wondering what the hell she'd just been dragged into, but doing this had reminded her of how much she wanted to kiss Logan, how much she wanted him, maybe she needed to go find him after this and make some move or her mind seemed to want her to wait as if it was just too soon.
​

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[Jean Snow]

The question came quickly enough and Jean sputtered out some nonsensical words. Orwell didn't dwell on it long though, instead focusing on having Archie get this bet underway as quickly as possible. Jean recovered from his mini panic attack as the Ravenclaw called Ailsa over. The Gryffindor wondered if she'd do it. He had a feeling she would. The Gryffindors were a bold bunch. As she settled down beside them, Jean nodded his head to her, avoiding her gaze and biting down on his lip to hide his laugh as Archie spoke. The guy was clearly not into this, but that was no matter. Ailsa took matters into her own hands, and Jean hooted and hollered as the ten second kiss happened. Jean had never kissed a girl on the lips before. He and Lydia had shared a kiss on the cheek before the night had ended. The prefect was pretty sure you were supposed to enjoy it more than that though. At least, Ailsa still seemed to be laughing.

As she asked about the bet, Jean piped in as Archie recovered. "Oh. C'mon Archie. It couldn't have been that bad" he laughed. Jean reached for Ailsa's hand, turning serious, as he held it tightly and looked into her eyes like he was breaking some really bad news to her. "Archie here thought that I liked you. Like liked you, liked you. And, I had to tell him that I'm just not into you that way. Sorry, dear. You can cry on my shoulder if you want" he finished. Even he wasn't able to keep a straight face by the end of his little speech. The guy's blue eyes were full of amusement.

 

[Archie Renner]

Archie caught himself hesitating when Ailsa agreed to the kiss because he really, really did not want to go through with it. It was one thing to swallow his pride and feign confidence when telling her she needed to help him fulfill his end of the bet but he was frozen on the spot now that she had reluctantly agreed was waiting expectantly. When Ailsa called him a chicken he frowned, wanting to give her a piece of his mind about her actions with Logan and call her a hypocrite in return. But he never had the chance because in a split second his lips were already pressed to hers and the ten second kiss he had been dreading this entire time was under way. He closed his eyes and awkwardly placed his hands on each of her shoulders so he could push her away from him not a second later than he needed to. His empty stomach felt like it was rising into his chest while his gut lurched in the most ill feeling way. The ten seconds felt like the longest of his life and he thought of it as torture in every respect. Ailsa was not only a girl but someone he hated with his whole being during his first and second years, and someone he would never in his life find attractive despite that they had grown to be friends. Though when she added her tongue in the mix just as he thought the worst was over the last thing he would call her was his friend. He would have hexed her then and there but he was too busy gagging to consider it.

He coughed repeatedly before turning towards the table and picking up the glass of orange juice in front of him which he downed in one go in a desperate attempt to wash the disgusting taste from his mouth and keep himself from throwing up. He ignored what Jean was saying and slammed the glass on the table when he had swallowed the last of the juice. "Why?!" He screamed at Ailsa after regaining his composure. "Why would you do that to me?!" He was still fighting the urge to hex her for making an already bad situation worse but he knew better than hurting his 'friend' (if he could still call her that) and landing himself in more hot water than he already was from the protest. It was now that he had calmed down a little from what was the worst kiss of his life that he remembered Orwell needed to endure the same fate. Archie turned from Ailsa and to his dear, sweet, best friend who he loved dearly for bringing Ailsa to their end of the table. "Your turn. Pay up." His expression was deadpan as he glanced behind Orwell for someone suitable. If Orwell wanted to find the last person Archie wanted to kiss, he wanted to do the same and make his best friend eat his words. He smirked when his eyes landed on a familiar blonde girl from his year. Orwell had told Archie stories about her before, how they had been in the food fight together and how she had helped him hand out flyers promoting the wild patch club. Archie knew of her, but could not for his life remember her name. He nodded in her direction and muttered to Orwell. "What about that girl, Brock. The one that followed you around for a while. That's her, isn't it?" He nearly laughed at the idea of Brock having to kiss her, he couldn't wait to see this. "Call her over. Now."
​

 

[Orwell Brocken]

Orwell watched with absolute enjoyment as Archie seemed to want to back out of it, but in the end it was Ailsa who took the lead and just started the kiss, Orwell clapped happily for them, letting out a long laugh at what had happened, feeling like this morning was despite how wrong they'd been turning out well. He was a little surprised by Archie's reaction but by Ailsa's smile, he could only imagine that she'd done something more than just a harmless ten second kiss, from the stories that Archie had told about his friendship with Ailsa it was hardly surprising. He allowed Ailsa's questions to be answered by Jean, who like Orwell was clearly enjoying this, Orwell was enjoying Archie who seemed to be freaking out at whatever had happened, and Orwell was just enjoying seeing the annoyance on his friends face as he downed the juice clearly annoyed by it. However with that done, Orwell realised that it was his turn, and so did Archie with what he was saying, and the teen began looking around, he didn't want to inflict Ailsa into kissing him too, he was sure that she had absolutely no interest in such a thing being true.

The teen looked round and noticed the gryffindor girl, Veronica who had helped him in the food fight and hand out the leaflets for the meeting and protest, he had always been glad for her help and had seen in her the real potential to be a real activist like himself, he wouldn't mind that too much, "Veronica, she helped give out leaflets, unless Jean wants to be the one I kiss," he said with a broad smile at Jean, before looking between them all, "Fine," Orwell nodded before once again, getting to his feet and waving his arms in the arm, "VERONICA!" he called out to her and repeated until he got her attention before then motioning for her to come over to them, and then he sat back down, looking between the boys and Ailsa with a slightly nervous expression, "I've never kissed anyone before, got any tips?" he was feeling increasingly nervous about what might happen, the nervousness clearly growing on his face as he was suddenly going to have to be kissing someone and while he'd never placed any importance upon a first kiss he was nervous about it, he didn't want her to say no, but he didn't know how much he could go through with it. Archie had done his part and he would do his, but it didn't stop the teen's nerves about it, knowing they'd postpone the kiss itself until they'd explain the situation which gave him plenty of time to get ready for it.
​

 

[Ronnie Boneheart]

"Venn, I don't actually think you know what I'm talking about do you?" Veronica always sat with Venn during meals. She liked the Ravenclaw table because they were all very smart and she usually got some good tips for studying as she listened to them talking. Of course she always loved her brother and so she sat with him whenever she could, but he didn't like the Gryffindor table much because he thought it was too rowdy and Veronica knew that he was a little sensitive to these things. She had to admit though it was annoying when Venn ignored her like this, because every time she asked him a question, when she knew he hadn't been listening he always rattled off the answer like it was nothing. It irked her to no end and she had no idea how he did it. She wished she could do it, maybe she wouldn't get into trouble in class for talking and not listening if she could do that. Was it a Ravenclaw thing? Or maybe a Metamorphmagus thing? Whatever it was, Veronica really, really wanted to learn it. Maybe she could persuade Venn to teach her one of these days because it could be very important at some point. "And for the record-" She stopped speaking when she heard someone shout her name and looked around to see Orwell over at the Gryffindor table calling her attention and beckoning her over. She looked back at Venn and some of the Ravenclaws for a moment and apologised before looking back over at Orwell and nodding. She didn't know what this was about, but she was going to find out.

Veronica pushed her stuff over to Venn and laughed at the face he pulled before skipping over to the Gryffindor table. She'd not been around Orwell for a little bit and she wondered if he had anything new planned. Perhaps that was why he'd called her over? She smiled at them and waved at a couple of the other in her year and house as she looked expectantly at them. "Need me to hand out more flyers?" Veronica was glad to help whenever she could. Especially when it was for something like this. But it was weird to be doing something here and so early too. She frowned a little. "What's going on? I'm so confused."
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[Ailsa Vacarius]

Ailsa was pretty happy with what she had managed to do especially given Archie's immediate reaction to it, she couldn't help but laugh at him and the way he was acting, the perfect revenge for all the times he'd annoyed her, ignoring all the times she'd annoyed him, that didn't matter, all that was really important was that while the kiss had been gross for her, it had been even worse for him, at least she was kissing her preference when it came to gender, he was not. Her question was clearly going to go unanswered by him, and she was glad when Jean took it upon himself to answer her. She had to take a moment to compose herself to almost match Jean's seriousness, although she couldn't believe the answer that he gave, they had bet about Jean's love life and she had been involved, she couldn't Jean as a friend and knew he felt the same towards her, but really was Archie just that blind about who liked whom, she of course barely spoke of whom she liked, knowing Archie's reaction to it would likely not be one she'd enjoy.

But, noting the amusement in Jean's tone she just shook her head and smiled at him, "I guess I'll just have to kiss Archie again to get over it," she joked smiling at her friend who was barely composing himself over what had happened. She watched the small interaction before watching Orwell call over some girl, she knew to be a gryffindor but who was sat at the Ravenclaw table, "God, Orwell, how are you so loud this early," she laughed as she spoke, as he sat back down thinking this to be the strangest of mornings, and couldn't help but laugh a little at Veronica's reaction, "Oh no, nothing like that, Orwell here needs to kiss a girl for ten seconds because he lost a bet," she told the girl, Ailsa didn't know what orientation Orwell was, but she gathered it wasn't like Archie, she wanted to see if Orwell would have the same disgusted reaction when it came to kissing a girl as Archie had had, which would be endlessly fun for her but perhaps not for them, although it really was an enjoyable morning.
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[Orwell Brocken]

Orwell had been almost hoping that Veronica wouldn't come over or that she wouldn't do it, but he owed Archie a kiss with someone and then knew that out of all the people he could kiss in this room, kissing Veronica seemed like a pretty simple thing to do, she was nice and he knew that given a little extra time, he could mould her into quite the little activist, ever since her helping out with the leaflets he had been keen to get her more involved, books that she might enjoy. Given all this, he was actually sure that kissing Veronica wouldn't be the worst first kiss he could have, after all, she was a nice person and that definitely counted for something in this world. The king of the flowers glanced at his little group of friends that morning just as Veronica arrived at the table and then flashed her a confident and amused smile, the joy and excitement reaching his eyes with ease, he didn't seem as nervous as he was actually feeling, it was easier to pretend that he wasn't feeling too nervous about the prospect of what was about to happen, instead he with her stood in front of him was feeling pretty calm with it all.

The teen looked at Ailsa who managed to get in first and sort of explain what he had to do, but not explain much more, "Listen you don't need to do it if you don't want to," he told her with a small smile, "Archie and I had a bet on who Jean liked and we both lost, and so he just kissed Ailsa and I need to kiss someone and since I know you, I wondered if you would mind kissing me?" Orwell was phrasing it as well as he could, explaining exactly what was happening and in a way that he knew that if she didn't want to do it, she would know all the cards before making her decision, the boy looked pretty hopeful at the prospect of the kiss, still a lingering feeling of nervous and he needed a little bit of reassurance in it, he just turned slightly to look at Archie and knew that he had to go through with it, Archie would never let him get away with not doing it, he just didn't have the same issue, Orwell didn't have preference with gender his nervousness almost entirely lay in this being his first kiss and suddenly in his mind facing off with Professor Styx seemed more desirable than this, "So, would you mind?" he looked away from Archie and back up to her, with a small hopeful smile, "It would need to be in front of this lot and last ten seconds," he gave a small slightly nervous laugh as he glanced at all of them, he would not kiss Veronica without her express consent and that's what he was waiting for.
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[Archie Renner]

Noticing Orwell's nervousness about this kiss was very amusing indeed. It almost convinced Archie that the torture he had faced while kissing Ailsa and the lingering feeling that his stomach was about to empty itself all over the table was worth it. He attempted to swallow the frog in his throat and giggled when Orwell called the girl over, only giggling more at the prospect of her being made to kiss Orwell as the result of a lost bet. This situation had just become so hilarious to him. He now understood why both Jean and Orwell had been laughing at him earlier and he was oh so happy to return the favor to his best friend at the expense of the blonde girl (who's name he still couldn't remember after Orwell shouted it in the middle of the great hall).

The smile on his face was taunting, daring even as Orwell glanced back at him. Though it was quickly wiped away and replaced with an expression of pure, uninterrupted shock when Orwell confessed he had never kissed anyone before. Archie was dumbfounded in every sense of the word by that confession. He knew Orwell's drive in life was to fight the system, and that fighting the system meant more to him than anything else which caused him to show no interest in dating or anything remotely romantic, but he at least assumed his best friend had kissed one person, once in his life. Even if it was a peck on the lips, barely one second long, he assumed there would have been a kiss. He chewed on his bottom lip, immediately regretting laughing at Orwell's fate and finding his nervousness equally hilarious. The Gryffindor eventually decided that he couldn't do it, he couldn't let Orwell's first kiss be with some stranger who he barely knew as part of some meaningless end of a bet they had argued about during the holidays. He wouldn't be Orwell's bestest friend in the whole wide world if he did not do anything to stop this. So he stood from the bench and moved around to Orwell's other side, shoving past the blonde girl as he did so. "excuse me, Victoria." He said before sitting back down on the bench. Once he had shifted enough to sit comfortably he pulled Orwell into a passionate kiss without any hesitation or warning. One of his hands moved to tangle itself in Orwell's green hair while his other hand moved to Orwell's back as the kiss progressed. Archie got slightly caught up in the heat of the moment, he did not know how long the kiss lasted but when he pulled away and his arms returned to his side, he realized the kiss wasn't all closed mouth and that must have lasted a lot longer than ten seconds.

He cleared his throat before speaking. "I'm sorry." Was all he could muster before he cleared his throat a second time. He didn't expect to feel so embarrassed by his outburst or awkward when the kiss ended but he was glad that he had gone through with it, and glad that he was beginning to feel like himself again now that he had kissed a guy and somewhat gotten rid of the weird feeling on his lips that Ailsa had given him. He pulled the sleeve of his jumper over his hand and used it to gently wipe Orwell's lips clean. "I just couldn't let your first kiss be part of a bet. You're more special than that. Okay? I love you." He stood up from the bench and nodded to the blonde girl and said "You can continue now." before he moved to sit back in his original spot. After he had sat down again he looked between everyone at the table and realized he should probably say something to alleviate the awkwardness. There wasn't much he could do besides returning to taunting Orwell into fulfilling his end of the bet or cracking a joke about the kiss that had just unfolded so he promptly decided to choose the later. He locked eyes with Jean and exclaimed "C'mon Jean, you know you want in on this!" If everyone was kissing everyone, why would he exclude Jean from this party?​

 

[Jean Snow]

Jean laughed as he shook his head quickly. "Pass" he told Orwell, but the guy had already yelled down the table. Jean didn't know the girl, so he assumed that she was a fourth year like the rest of them. Being a year older, Jean only knew Archie and Ailsa well because of quidditch and Orwell because of the club. The Ravenclaw had a healthy set of lungs on him, and Veronica was in front of them all before long. Jean chuckled at Ailsa's response. "Glad you're not heartbroken" he quipped. He'd been half expecting a punch to the arm, so she'd taken his silliness a lot better than he had expected. It was Ailsa's turn to explain the whole situation to the newcomer. Jean just sat there nodding his head in agreement with what she was saying, a smirk on his face.

As Orwell sat and explained the reason behind the bet, Jean glanced around the room as he picked up his juice glass and finished it off. He looked over at Veronica to see if she was going to agree to be part of the craziness when something even crazier happened. Jean's jaw dropped as Archie sat himself in front of Orwell and then laid one on him. He looked over to Ailsa, eyes wide, before he clapped a hand over his mouth to stop himself from bursting into laughter. It wasn't that it was funny to see them kissing. He had honestly had his suspicions about them for a while, but it was the surprise of it all. By the time they'd stopped kissing, Jean had recovered himself somewhat. That was until Archie turned the attention back to him. Jean turned beet red, redder than their house colors even. He hadn't kissed anyone either, but he definitely wasn't going to admit that now! Jean laughed nervously again. He couldn't help it. As he did, he shook his head waving his hands. "No, no. I'm good. No need to kiss me too" he rushed to say. "I'm fine!" he continued.

 

[Ronnie Boneheart]

Veronica looked at Ailsa curiously, raising an eyebrow in surprise as she told her what was apparently going on. Veronica had never been a part of a bet before, so she supposed that this was kind of interesting. No harm in something like this right? Though she had to wonder what kind of bet needed a kiss as a losing part. Her wonder was sated though because as soon as Ailsa finished her explanation, Orwell kicked into his own and Veronica gave her full attention as she was told, in good detail, what was required. Orwell was nice to her and she thought that it was sweet of him to lay it all on the table before asking if she would be okay with something like this. Ordinarily, she would, but she didn't really find kissing to be that big of a deal, she supposed coming from the kind of family she did where affection was used in everything, she was used to kissing stranger and hugging people, though admittedly, she'd never kissed anyone for a bet. This was new for her, but she wasn't nervous, not like Orwell appeared to be. She smiled at him, trying to reassure him as he finally told her the last part of the bet, that it had to last ten seconds and she laughed slightly. It was always ten seconds, though she didn't know why.

"Yeah, I guess that's-" She was about to accept his proposal when she was forced out of the way by Archie, Orwell's best friend. She watched on in confusion for a moment as to what was happening before it suddenly became obvious and she moved out of the way to give them some room. She laughed slightly at the unfolding of all of this and raised an eyebrow slightly. She wasn't sure that she was needed anymore if this was happening. The kiss finally broke apart and Veronica stifled a bit of a laugh. "Well that was unexpected!" Archie sat down again and made a joke and Veronica shook her head. "Everyone's just kissing everyone now!" She looked back at Orwell and patted him on the shoulder. "I didn't realise you were such a sought after kiss, Orwell." She stepped towards him and looked at Archie. "Allow me to show you how to properly kiss a boy, Archie, that was pitiful." She grinned at him good-naturedly and after checking to be sure that Orwell was still cool with this she brought her hands up to his face and slowly pulled his forward. Where Archie's kiss had been hard and fast, Veronica's was slow and soft. There were two ways to kiss people. Archie had demonstrated the lust, whereas Veronica was attempting to demonstrate the sensual aspect. Orwell was not her first kiss, but she was certainly enjoying it more than her first. She broke off a little after the allotted time and smiled. "You good?"
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[Orwell Brocken]

The teen was looking between his group of friends and Veronica waiting for the response, feeling once again nervous about this kiss, knowing that this kiss meant nothing, but it meant everything suddenly, his life was all about the cause and the struggle, his family had never been big on kisses, they practiced free love within the community and kissing was normal but he didn't know what to expect with this and he felt nervous with it. He was a little startled when Archie got up from beside him, and moved round to the other side of the table, Orwell frowned confused at his best friend as he sat down in front of him, but he didn't need to wait too long before he was pulled into a kiss from Archie, unable to even stop himself, Orwell returned the kiss, finding that where Archie's hands found their way to Orwell's green hair, his found their way to Archie's cheeks, keeping the kiss close and he couldn't help but return the passion, return the heat of the kiss, there was a moment when Archie pulled away from the kiss, where Orwell's eyes met Archie's, where the feeling of the kiss lingered on his lips and there was a moment of missing it and he just smiled his love for the other boy, he wasn't in love with Archie, but he did love him so much and it was just so clear in the boys face. He dropped his hands and shook his head at the apology, and just waited patiently as the other boy wiped his lips and explained why he'd done that, and Orwell could only smile, "I love you too," he said in response quiet, "Thank you," he added quietly feeling so much more at ease after that kissing, and just turned his attention to Veronica.

The king of flowers smiled happily at her as she laughed and he smiled happily at her, feeling so much more at ease with this all, feeling so calm with it, and he shrugged at her, "I'm still waiting on my kiss from Jean," he smiled at the boy who had just turned down Archie's kiss before looking directly at Veronica and at her words he had been about to say that the Archie kiss had been pretty much the most perfect first kiss, the teen was brought into a kiss with Veronica, giving himself very little time to compose himself but returning the kiss with Veronica with a passion somewhat similar to that of Archie's but feeling from the beginning that this kiss was different, it was slower and Orwell found his hands finding the girls face, like they had with Archie and deepening the kiss between slightly between them before leaning out as the ten seconds was over, smiling brightly at Veronica as they broke apart, "Yeah, good, bet settled," he told her smiling, the two kisses had been so different, the one with Archie held so much more, so much history so much love and passion despite a kiss between friends and the one with Veronica had been good, it had been slow and the kind of kiss that given time would be the sort of kiss he'd give to someone he was in love with. He had liked both, but Archie's kiss had been a sort of passion he could never mimic with anyone else, it had been a perfect kiss.

Orwell sat back slight and let out a long breath, feeling very loved and unable to wipe the smile from his face, "Why don't you sit with us Veronica, whoever you were sitting with before can join us too?" he told her brightly, indicating to the spaces beside them, he was breath a little more deeply than usual clearly just getting over the kisses, "I feel bad for you Jean, you haven't kissed anyone," he told the older boy with a small slightly suggestive smile, "And you still haven't told us who you really like," he joked with him, knowing that he didn't have to tell them at all, but he had to admit kissing was quite a fun thing to do, "What a morning though," he added as an after thought before laughing, what a truly odd but amazing morning it had been.
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