November was proving to be a lousy month-- it was a marker to her, a marker of the anniversary of her mother's death.  Throughout the month, she had been quick to hex people, had earned a couple detentions, and was quick to snap at small things that didn't normally bother her.  Most days, she was okay though--today was one of her okay days. And on her okay days, Juni usually felt that pang of guilt in her stomach for snapping at all those who didn't deserve it and handed off whatever treat her father had sent her as an apology.

Juni laid on her back, head resting on her bookbag and one leg crossed over the other. Tucked under her arm was her toy alpaca, and balancing precariously on her forehead was her wand. On the ground  next to her was an open bag of taffy. Nearby was Ambrose Pepper-- the two were taking a much needed break from a Charms study-and-homework session.

Juni never minded helping Ambrose out. She wasn't someone who was naturally booksmart, she had to work hard to get the grades she earned. Charms came a little easier to her, but that was mostly because it was her favorite subject. Care of Magical Creatures on the other hand... As much as she loved the class and enjoyed animals,  she had never been great with the non-domestic sort. She moved too sharply and supposedly made 'hostile movements' or whatever it was that meant. In layman's terms, she intimidated the poor creatures.

"How long do you think I could keep this balanced for?" She inquired absent-mindedly. As her brow wrinkled, the wand wiggled. Juni slowly reached her hand into the bag of taffy and pulled out a piece, unwrapping it before gingerly taking a bit. Her nose crinkled in disgust. Taffy was one of those things that always sounded like a good idea to buy at the time, but never tasted as good as it looked. And it got stuck in her teeth! "Ambrose. If you like taffy, it's all yours."

The wand rolled off her forehead and onto the ground. That hadn't lasted for long. "Aw, shi--" Juni stopped herself. She had been trying to watch her language lately. Trying being the key word.

She clutched the toy alpaca to her chest and raised her eyebrows, "Your dad doin' better?" If Juni remembered correctly, Ambrose's dad had been in the explosion. She was glad that he hadn't died. She couldn't imagine losing both your parents.

November was turning out to be rather wet[1]. As much as most of the students liked to remain indoors with the wet weather, Ambrose and Juni had quietly resolved they were both climbing walls despite the enormity of the castle. There was also something peaceful about rain pattering on an enormous charmed umbrella which covered them both, not to mention the rain pitting the surface of the lake beside them.

The cool, damp air meant their breath condensed in faint clouds as they spoke. Ambrose watched Juni balance her wand on her forehead with curiosity, one leg bent up under the crook of his arm and the other resting on his outstretched leg. A bag of taffy sat between them, not something that Ambrose had ever really eaten in any quantity before. Well, at least not the sort that Juni had[2]. At her exclamation that he could have it, his hand ventured in to select and unwrap a piece.

"Ah, bad luck. Still longer than I could I think." He remarked just before popping the sweet into his mouth and chewing tentatively. Merlin these were chewy. He stuck a tentative finger into his mouth to dislodge it from his back teeth and resolved to sucking it while it softened.

"Your dad doin' better?" Juni asked. Ambrose withdrew his finger and surreptitiously wiped in on his jeans. His response was ever so slightly clumsy, what with the sweet in his mouth.
"Yeah, he wrote to say he was fine. Back at work. Uncle Octavius is going to be alright as well, but he was in there a bit longer." He shrugged, "I think Gabrielle's going to fuss over Dad all she can so he'll be fine." He blushed a little at the thought of his father and Gabrielle Murray. Even though it had been a year or more, it still felt a bit weird. He was, after all, a teenage boy. He chewed a little tentatively before continuing.

"Your dad said anything about it when he writes to you?" Ambrose asked, reaching his own wand out, not to cast anything (too unwise) but to knock a leaf off the edge of the umbrella that was drizzling water down with close proximity to Juni's feet. "Letters to the editor in the Prophet has all sorts of wild speculation. Someone's claimed it's some bloke who got out of Azkaban this year. Dad said he was at my uncle's wedding, one of the ushers. I dunno. I saw the photos but I can't imagine how it really is." Ambrose shuffled, pulling up his other knee to wrap his arms around them. "They keep saying they'll rebuild it. Diagon Alley won't be the same without it."

1.	Weather Almanac, Nov 13 2010 - 6.7C/44F, raining
2.	Taffy, the British equivalent is a little different, and like a very hard, sticky, chewy chewing gum, fruit flavoured.

She rolled onto her side to face Ambrose and tucked the stuffed alpaca in the crook of her arm affectionately. Her father hated her 'juvenile' love for all things fluffy and cuddly. He also didn't understand her taste in jewelry. He always tried to buy her stuff that was more fitting for a seriously boring person. If her father had seen the outfit she put together after classes for the rainy day, he would have given her such a judgey stare. His wardrobe was so plain; he had no right to judge.

Juni noted Ambrose's blush and raised her eyebrows, though she said nothing... Yet.

"My dad hasn't said anything about it, other than it's keeping him busy." Juni shrugged. "Busy. He's always busy, even when he's not." Juni wasn't sure if that even made any sense. Did it have to? There were plenty of senseless things in this world. What happened to her mom. What happened to Ambrose's mom. What happened to all those people in the Leaky Cauldron. There were senseless losses all around.

She could never be a healer.

"They'll rebuild the Leaky Cauldron." Juni replied with absolutely zero hesitation, "They'll rebuild it. I wonder how long it'll take."  Not too long, she hoped. "I heard there was a lot of magical fire damage. They'll probably have to remove all the burnt parts." She hoped they would keep some of the old charm. Her dad liked it there, he drank there on occasion with his friends. "I can't imagine a Diagon Alley I'd want to be in without the Leaky Cauldron." A trickle of rain hit her foot and she tucked her knees closer.

"Muggles saw it too. It burned on the muggle side. My dad had to alter so many memories. I think people at the ministry and in the hospital are being pushed to their limits." Juni heard about someone speaking on the wireless, about how the crimes may be connected somehow, that there was ministry infiltration.

"Do you think that this explosion is part of something bigger, Ambrose? Like the dead bodies at the opera, or the werewolf things..? They're all big, and it's an awful lot of big things to happen in a small period of time." She could feel her body tense up, and Juni took a slow breath in the hopes that it would help. "It's a scary thought."

"… I wonder how long it'll take."
"A while I imagine," Ambrose replied faintly.

"… I can't imagine a Diagon Alley I'd want to be in without the Leaky Cauldron."
"Me neither," Ambrose agreed, shaking his head at the thought. "It'd be weird, like how would you get in without it? We' had have a whole new way. It would be like if Gringotts moved, or I don't know, if Hogsmeade wasn't just down the road." He gestured with both hands down towards the village.

"Do you think that this explosion is part of something bigger, Ambrose? Like the dead bodies at the opera, or the werewolf things…? They're all big, and it's an awful lot of big things to happen in a small period of time. It's a scary thought." Juni sugggested. Ambrose peered down at her with a frown.
"What, all of them? But the werewolf thing was the bloke who died, the bodies at the opera, did they even say? I can't remember that far back. I can barely remember what happened yesterday." He rested his forehead on his knees before him for a second and sat up again. "I'd rather not believe they were all related, because that means whoever behind it is really big, like… well… Voldemort." He gave a shrug, his jacket rustling as he did it.

"Perhaps it's because there are all these dementors roaming about. Perhaps we're all going slowly mad."

Juni shrugged at Ambrose's words not quite sure how to take it-- or what to say. She wasn't sure how people were getting in and out of Muggle London. Apparaton? Flooing? What about the people who couldn't do both? Floo powder allergies were actually fairly common-- her dad had one, and so did his mother. Luckily, Juni had not acquired any such allergies. She joked that her immune system was not feeble like her father's was. That always bothered him.

"Maybe it's dementors." Juni acknowledged, "Or maybe the dementors are around because there's someone really big. Or a really big group." She didn't like the thought either. "Either way it's... Not good. At all."

She scooted herself closer to Ambrose and nudged his shoulder playfully, "For what it's worth, I don't think you're going mad at all. I assure you that you're just as sane as I am."

"No, it's not good." Ambrose agreed, and nodded. He didn't need to be clever to understand that.
"For what it's worth, I don't think you're going mad at all. I assure you that you're just as sane as I am."

There was a pause, Ambrose's lips started to say Aw thanks Juni but then realised.

"Entirely, completely sane then." He snorted and poked her belly playfully with two fingers on each hand to make her squirm beneath their oversized umbrella and her toy alpaca. It made him chuckle and broke the tense mood.

"Is it fun being Juni?" He asked, eventually as their wrestle ended. He flopped down beside her, so their shoulders were pressed together.

The air was getting tense-- like everything seemed to be lately. She could feel a tightness between her shoulderblades.

Then something completely unexpected happened. Ambrose tickled her. Ambrose Pepper, Hogwart's sweetheart, had the audacity to tickle her. The Gryffindor in him was showing itself! 

Juni squirmed and let out a squeal that was somewhere between shock and delight that led to a  fit of giggling as she poked him back and smacked him playfully with her stuffed alpaca. At the end of it, she was laying next t him. Her cheeks were flushed. The witch felt just a bit self conscious- did it make her freckles more apparent? Did he notice that? Quickly, she brushed those thoughts away.

"Is it fun being Juni?"

She balanced her stuffed alpaca on Ambrose's face as she pondered his question. Was it fun being her? It could be. It depended on the day. Today, it was fun. Juni hoped the rest of her November would be this effortlessly carefree.

"It is right now." Juni finally replied, "You're fun." She nudged him back and turned her head to look at him-- alpaca on his face and all. "You're kind and sweet. You soften everyone around you. It's refreshing." She covered her face with her hand and groaned internally at how incredibly awkward that was. It was true, all of it-- and while she wasn't one to tip toe around the truth, saying those words out loud felt weird.

"What about you? Is it fun being Ambrose, the spiciest Pepper?" She asked, removing her hand from her face and resting it on her stomach.

What little November light was snuffed out by an alpaca balancing on his face.
"Aw," he replied to Juni's kind words, "Juni, aw, that's the," he began as she was still talking and stopped on realising, she groaned and placed a hand to her face. "That's the nicest thing anyone's said to me in ages." He finished, fishing the alpaca from his face and rolling onto his side to see her better, propping his head up with his elbow. His cheeks were reddening at the kind words, and he placed the alpaca over the side of his hip so its back legs rested on his back and the front down his side. It took looked down on Juni.

"It is, right now for me too." He replied with a warm smile, gaze studying Juni's pretty eyes. He rather liked her freckles and she too had blushed cheeks. All in all she was rather pretty, but she was also very fun.

"Do you know how pretty you are?" He asked without realising that might be a bit strange to come from one's peer, especially one who was meant to be dating another girl in the same dormitory. "You really are, you have the loveliest smile when you laugh, and I like your laugh a lot too." Somewhere in the last year or two, Francis had given Ambrose the advice of 'if you think something nice about another person, it can make their day to tell them' when he'd complimented his son out of blue. "I like all of you, Juni. You're cool." Ambrose summed up. He wasn't the most eloquent and he didn't have the largest vocabulary, but he did speak the truth.

It always struck her, how genuine Ambrose was. The nicest thing anyone has said to him in ages? Ambrose deserved to hear that sort of thing more often. Juni also knew that when people heard compliments all the time, that they began to lose their significance.

She had no idea he thought so highly of her, and her cheeks felt like they were on fire with the ferocity of her blushing.  He thought she was pretty. Juni had a hard time viewing herself that way. Her face was riddled with freckles, her belly and arms were soft, and her hair was barely manageable. With all that, he still thought she was pretty.  Juni looked back at him, heart pounding in her chest and her ears. No one had complemented her laugh before-- and couldn't help but smile at that. Perched on him, her alpaca was gazing down upon her benevolently. Was he blushing too? Clearly, giving him all sorts of spicy pepper nicknames was paying off. Ambrose was certainly nurturing her crush on him.

Juni thought briefly about Cyhirae. What would her dormmate think of this? She felt a little pang of guilt, but she couldn't really control how she was feeling about Ambrose. They got along, she always managed to have a good laugh with him. She cared about him, and would probably hex anybody who gave him any trouble without any sort of hesitation.

"You're cool too." She blurted, unsure of what to say. "I don't know how to respond." Juni admitted sheepishly, leaning forward to give him a quick, awkward peck on his cheek.  "Thank you." She felt like her alpaca's benevolence had turned into judgement as he stared with his beady black eyes.

He was pleasantly surprised by the kiss on the cheek, and blushed properly, not knowing where to look.
"No problem." He mumbled, and shrugged. His hand reached to her alpaca and gave it an absentminded stroke like it were a cat slung over his hip. "I've always liked you." He added awkwardly, again true, but perhaps not the thing to tell the girl who you just called pretty and who kissed you on the cheek.

"Alejandro agrees." He added, nodding to the alpaca. He nodded its head with his fingers and made an alpaca's humming noise. "Mhmmmm!" He scooped it up and reached it over Juni, galloping it up the other side of her, his arm across her as he did.

He deposited Alejandro on Juni's shoulder and settled down again beside her a bit closer. "Can't wait until summer. Feels like it's rained forever." He reached over and touched the back of Juni's hand. "You're cold."

If her face turned any more red, she feared that she might explode. Or something might explode. Magic was funny that way.  To be fair, she hadn't had any outbursts of magic in well over a year, but it was a fairy common thing at a magical school. Was Ambrose oblivious? He seemed so. She wasn't surprised, and part of her was happy for it.  As far as she knew, Cyhirae was still in the picture.

Juni let out an astonished laugh as Ambrose galloped Alejandro up her side. "I'm touched, you remembered his name." She commented, watching and realizing just how physically close they were. She didn't mind one bit.  Alejandro found his resting spot on her shoulder.

 "Summer! I miss it already. Swimming, camping... Exploring the new house." She sighed, "School trips." Though, her father had kicked her out from the trip early, after the boat capsized. Something about it not being safe. If there was another school trip this summer, she doubted he'd let her go. She bristled at that idea. And suddenly--  Ambrose' hand was on hers.

This was not a drill.  He touched her hand.

"You're cold."

She stared at him. So sweet, so innocent. Ridiculously handsome. Spiciest Pepper indeed.

"I am, a bit." Juni admitted with a shrug.  Alejandro flopped off her shoulder and tumbled to the ground. "We should have brought more blankets." She fretted. Or, she could set some heating charms. Juni wasn't certain she could perform magic accurately at the moment, her mind and her emotions were all kinds of scrambled. Thanks Ambrose.

Juni agreed with his assessment and shrugged. Alejandro took the hit for it, but neither of them seemed to notice.

"Here," Ambrose offered extending an arm, holding it just above Juni's head in indication that she should lift it and snuggle closer. Couldn't have them getting cold. "I could try cae- ca… hrmph, calefax but I've not got that one down totally wordlessly." He explained as if to give reason for the gesture. "Might melt our feet or something." He laughed at the image in his head.

"Ooh yes, the house - you're literally just down the road now, well, if we had a car, like, but close still. Neighbouring county!" Ambrose grinned. "We should get together at Christmas or somethin'."

Juni gladly scooted her way under Ambrose's arm, flinging her own over his waist. She was a cuddly sort of person with specific people. Ambrose could be one of those people. She was all too aware of the warmth of his body against hers. She was half tempted to stick her cold hands up his shirt or in his armpit to make him squeal. No. Now was not the time for her dear friend, Cold Hands, to make a visit.

She vividly imagined Ambrose melting their feet. "Imagine explaining that one to Nagde." Juni snickered.

"We are close now, aren't we?" The witch had nearly forgotten. "We should get together. I know my dad and I are going to do... Churchy stuff Christmas eve, but Christmas day we're exploring. There's lots of hidden places under my house, it'll be an adventure." She was so looking forward to that. "But before or after would be great. I could show you some of the neat tunnels."

Juni examined Ambrose's face. He had changed over the last year or so-- and perhaps, so had she. "When did we grow up?" She asked, "It's we were sorted in our houses yesterday and now we're..." She let her words trail off, not quite knowing how to finish the sentence.  "We're not so little anymore. I see the first years and, it's like they get smaller every year."

"Imagine explaining that one to Nagde."
"She doesn't ask these days." Ambrose admitted with a laugh, shaking his head. It was more 'Ambrose Pepper? This way.' He shifted to make it more comfortable for them both beneath the umbrella.

"… Churchy stuff Christmas eve…"
"We'll probably be going to see Mum at St Mungo's some point. Not really sure what the official plan is." He lifted a hand and rubbed at his forehead. Christmas was always a bit tricky to balance all the family obligations. "Boxing Day will probably be at Uncle Octavius and Aunt Catherine's again, but yeah, I'd love you to show me your tunnels." Ambrose nodded and smiled. 

"When did we grow up? … it's like they get smaller every year."
"They do!" Ambrose agreed with gusto, "Don't you know?" There was a strange tone to his response that didn't clearly define whether Ambrose was joking or actually believed this to be true. "And you grew up. Boys don't grow up." He grinned, "But I like how you grew up very much." He squeezed his arm around her tight. "I can't believe we're fifth years. I don't want to leeeave."

Seeing his mother at St Mungo's couldn't be easy for him. Juni thought it was a fate worse than death, really. To be alive and not knowing who your family is. Her dad had told her it was one of the worst things that could happen to a person. She wasn't going to say that to Ambrose, though. The selfish part of her wished that her mom was still around, in whatever form she could get.

Ambrose saying that he'd love to see her tunnels was a shocking distraction. Her eyes widened and she nearly laughed. "It's a date, then." She said, deciding that he was just a little too innocent for it to be any sort of innuendo.

Juni playfully bumped her forehead against his, "My mum told me once, that boys grow taller but girls grow up." She replied. She blushed as he once again, complemented her. "I still think you're growing, and I like it. Your face, and your... Shoulders." That sounded weird. She'd just go with it.

"I don't want to leeeave."

"Clearly  we'll just have to stay here forever." Juni teased, "It's the only way, I swear."