Fauna crept out of the Kitchens, glancing left and right as she started down the corridor with pastries, a few apples, and bacon (of course), all wrapped up in a white cloth napkin that she clutched to her in a bundle. It was around 11:00 am, and she'd skipped breakfast earlier. Luckily, she had been able to catch the house elves before they'd put away the last of the leftovers, and after a suspicious look from the oldest house elf of the bunch (who remembered all too clearly her involvement in the food fight that had broken out last year), they'd wrapped some things up for her and watched her leave with wide, mournful eyes.

It's as if they knew she kept causing trouble!

After the week she'd had, there was no way she'd brave the Great Hall that Saturday. Bad things happened in the Great Hall: her fight with Addie, letters from her absent father, Daily Prophet articles implying that Auror Raynor had been hurt, and just recently, Callum's crusade to make Sasha's life worse. If she could just avoid that place, perhaps she could avoid her personal drama!

Fauna still had a funny red mark on her forehead from the poster Callum had stuck on her using some special, super adhesive glue. As she sneaked down the corridor back towards the Hufflepuff common room, Fauna reached up and brushed her fringe forward, glad at the very least that her shaggy hairstyle had some benefits. Who knew!

When she shifted the napkin bundle to one arm, Peeves the Pain-in-the-arse Poltergeist came flying out of nowhere, rushing at her head and flying over her at the last second.

"Fee-fi-fo Fauuuuna!" The ghost screeched, laughing when Fauna let out a yelp and dropped her bundle of food. One of the apples rolled down the corridor and the pastries hit the ground with a splat, jelly oozing out of the corners.

"Ooohhh, looky here, she's sneaking food from the kitchens!" The cackling continued as Peeves scooped up the apples off the ground and began juggling them.

"Sod off!" Fauna snapped at him, trying to keep one eye on the ghost as she glanced down to see if any of the treats had stayed in the napkin. The bacon looked safe, she noticed with relief-

"Funny-Fauna's so cranky!" Peeves lobbed an apple in her direction and cheered when it bounced off the castle wall. "Here, you dropped your hanky!" The ghost picked up the fallen napkin and shook out the rest of the food, then dropped the napkin over her head, rushing past her down the corridor as something else caught his eye.

"Matty Amhatty!" Peeves blew a raspberry in the boy's face and disappeared with a pop.

Face flushed, Fauna plucked the napkin off her head and let out a heavy sigh, looking around at the mangled remnants of her brunch. She bit her lip and ran a hand through her hair, trying very hard not to see this as the end of the world.

Matty had been heading back to the common room after finsihing up his homework in the library. He felt tired and worn out, like he did after every early morning study session. It wasn't that he was bad at the work it was usually because his Saturday morning study session susually started at six in th emorning and could go anywhere from one in the afternoon. Thankfully today he managed to be caught up on the past weeks worth of homework earlier than usual. He had adopted this study regime back in his fifth year and it had been doing him well ever since even if it did completely wipe him out.

However all of his exhaustion seemed to have washed away when he turned a corner and stumbled onto Peeves terrorizing Fauna. The poor girl. Even though he wasn't one to keep his ear to the ground on the latest and greatest gossip to go around the school somethings were hard for even him to miss. Things like Devlin not coming back to Hogwarts because he had been arrested and Callum Knight making a spectacular jerk out of himself. Even her fight with Adelia and their apparent shared paternity hadn't gone unnoticed for him.

Matty sneered at Peeves as the poltergeist swept off through the nearest wall. He rolled his eyes before focusing back on Fauna. She looked horrible and not because of the red mark on her forehead or the shadows under her eyes that suggested she had been losing sleep over everything that had been going on. It was the paleness to her skin, the frown on her lips and that glisten in her eyes that suggested she was very close to bursting the valve on the waterworks. Matty's heart went out to his friend. He had known her for almost seven years now and considered her to be one of his closest friends. He hated that he couldn't have done more for her since school started again but he had been otherwise occupied comforting another friend.

"Hey." He spoke softly and removed his wand helping to gather up the food she had dropped. When he turned to her again he placed a gentle hand on her upper arm, his caramel eyes shining with concern, "Hey, are you alright? I heard about . . . everything. I've just, been trying . . . I've been trying to get a moment to talk to you about it but homeworks been crazy and . . . I'm sorry I didn't talk to you sooner. Are you okay though, do you wanna talk about it maybe, we could go back to the common room or just stay right here?" He wasn't good at this whole emotions thing. He had always been bad at it despite what Adelia may say to the contrary. He just wanted, no needed to be there for his friend but had no idea how to actually do it.

'Matty Amhatty' soon appeared in the corridor after Peeves had disappeared, and Fauna sucked in a breath, trying to pull herself together. It was just some dropped food. It was just Peeves being Peeves. Not a big deal. Yet she'd been trying so hard to avoid drama today that the unpleasant surprise really rattled her.

He helped her gather up the food and then turned towards her, touching her arm and looking concerned. Fauna blinked rapidly, pushing back the lump in her throat and managing a small smile.

When he started stammering and apologizing, her expression turned baffled, and she shook her head, wanting to reassure him that everything was fine. He seemed to feel guilty about not talking to her sooner. But Fauna had been avoiding her housemates (especially Addie) since the beginning of the week; how could he have approached her if she'd been hiding?

Her face flushed. "Oh. Matty, you don't have to... you don't have to apologize," she told him. "I mean, I've kinda been... avoiding people," she glanced down the corridor and then back at him.

"But I'm okay," Fauna nodded, attempting to look like she believed that. She knew she looked horrible these days. Lack of sleep combined with stress did that to a person.

"Um... but I'll probably just head back to the kitchens. You can come with, if you want? You've probably already eaten," she stated, giving him a way out in case he'd changed his mind.

"You have?" He sounded a little shocked and then a deeper blush appeared on his cheeks. Now he felt even worse. He had been so absorbed in his homework that not only had he not gotten a chance to talk to her and make sure she was okay he hadn't even realized that she had been absent around the rest of their housemates and friends. It made him wonder how Addie hadn't gotten mad at him yet for being so oblivious to . . . well everything, "I guess I've been too busy to notice."

While he didn't want to argue with her about whether she was really okay or not he couldn't help the look of concern that washed over him yet again. He had known Fauna long enough - and he'd like to think well enough - to know when she wasn't being entirely truthful, after all it wasn't like Fauna was the best liar in the world but he felt it was best to let her tell him in her own time what was really going on behind those eyes. He felt a pang of guilt for thinking how pretty her eyes were. It wasn't going to do him any good if he was still attracted to Fauna once him and Adelia made it known that they were dating.

Before he could give her a reply on the kitchens his stomach answered for him as if it had heard Fauna's assumption and was greatly protesting, trying to let the other Hufflepuff know how much Matty had been neglecting it. He chuckled softly certain that the sound of his stomach rumbling had echoed all the way back to the Great Hall, "Actually I haven't eaten anything yet today. I've been in the Library all morning working and kind of just forgot." He looked to her as he started to head off to the kitchens with her, "How come you didn't eat anything?"

Matty's face fell and he admitted he had been too busy to notice her avoidance tactics. That probably meant her tactics were working, to an extent. Fauna pushed away the little voice in her head that piped up with 'see? Running away from your problems is good!'

"It's okay," she said quickly, not wanting him to feel guilty. He really had nothing to feel bad about, and Fauna was distracted from her own misery for a few seconds, wondering over the importance he was putting on this. Matty had always been her friend and a nice Hufflepuff ally, but she knew that he wasn't fantastic with picking up on a person's emotions, and she didn't hold that against him. He couldn't be a mind reader.

His stomach grumbled in response to her question and Fauna smiled very slightly. It didn't surprise her that he'd been working in the library the whole morning and had forgotten to eat. She turned and started to lead the way back to the Kitchens.

"Oh, I... um..." Fauna stalled, then decided just to answer his question. "I've been avoiding the Great Hall. All the drama happens there. And, you know... but with Peeves, I guess drama follows me," she let out a rueful chuckle and tickled the pear in the still-life on the wall. The door to the Kitchens swung open and Fauna headed in, pausing when the remaining group of house-elves fell into a hushed silence at the sight of her.

Three pairs of eyes blinked at her warily.

"I'm back..." she announced, looking over her shoulder at Matty. "Er, Peeves made me drop my food," she told the elves. Two of them immediately tut-tutted, and the third one sprang into action, ladling an assortment of leftover breakfast food onto two plates and pushing one plate into Fauna's hands.

"Eat here," the third elf instructed them, then turned and vanished into the pantry. The other house-elves followed.

Fauna shared an amused look with Matty, and took a seat on the counter, trying a bite of the eggs, which was still warm.

She mulled something over as she chewed, and keeping her eyes on the plate resting on her knees, finally said, "Um so... have you... talked to Addie lately?"

Way to put him in the middle. Still, Fauna was curious to hear how she was doing from someone who was still speaking to her. She'd sent off a letter to Malcolm on Friday, putting most of the blame on him, and acknowledging that she and Addie's friendship was likely destroyed.

Matty entered the kitchen alongside Fauna looking a little embarrassed. He felt like he should have known why she was avoiding the Great Hall. Afterall Addie had told him all about their fight and the whole school knew about the thing with Callum and his stupid hate mongering posters. He should have just kept his big mouth shut instead of making her feel worse.

Thankfully the house elves offered a welcome distraction and he gratefully took the plate they were shoving at him. He rarely if ever came into the kitchens. He was used to skipping meals due to studying but he had always just gone without, making sure he ate even more the next meal. He sat down next to her at the counter shoveling the eggs into his mouth as quickly as he could without looking like a total pig.

He suddenly looked up at her with a look akin to a deer caught in headlights. He didn't think Fauna knew about him and Addie, no one knew. It wasn't that he didn't want to tell anyone, this just wasn't the best time. He did his best to recover. How could he tell her that he had seen Addie as much as he had seen the inside of his textbooks without making it obvious that they were an item? On the other hand how could he be honest about it after telling her that he had been so busy he didn't notice anything going on with his friends? He felt even worse than she was expecting him to feel about being put in the middle. He cared deeply for Fauna and he knew that if she had been the one to come to him first he would have been having a secret fling with her instead of Addie.

"Um yeah." He added lamely, "Yeah she's uh, not doing so well." Well, he didn't need to be telling her that. Fauna was probably the only person aside from himself that knew how hard their fight had been. However he was friends with both of them and cared a lot for both of them. He put his hand on Fauna's gently, "How are you holding up? I heard it was really bad."

Fauna bit her lower lip, regretting that she'd brought up Addie once she saw the surprised, uncomfortable look on Matty's face. She thought about telling him that he didn't have to say anything and that she could change the subject, but she hesitated, hoping he'd give her a hint about how her friend (former friend?) was handling life.

He confirmed what she already suspected: Addie wasn't doing too well. She let out a sigh, then jumped very slightly when he put a hand over hers and asked how she was.

Uh oh. What did this mean?

The plate resting on her knees started to slide off, and she caught it before it fell and set it off to the side, chuckling uneasily. "Um..." she stalled, mind working furiously to try and answer Matty's question and attempt to understand the hand over hers move.

Suddenly, she remembered his compliments at the New Year's party and tried to remember if he'd complimented other girls like that. Would he be horribly offended if she drew her hand away? Was she just flattering herself, and reading into it would only embarrass them both? He knew she had a boyfriend, didn't he? Merlin, how would Devlin feel if he found out she was kinda sorta holding someone else's hand?

This had to be an innocent, friendly move, Fauna told herself. Matty was a friend. He was just showing support. Still looking bewildered, she kept her hand where it was and peeked at him out of the corner of her eye.

"It was pretty bad," she admitted. "I said... some things." Such as that she never wanted to talk to Addie again. "It was just so... it was something you can't really know how to handle until it happens. And then, you know, I handle it badly."

She frowned, then looked at him. "I just don't get how someone can do that. And then ask his kids to lie. It's like... so thoughtless, you know? I sent him a pretty angry letter on Friday, but I don't know if it'll do anything. I shouldn't have to tell him how an adult should behave."

Fauna sighed again, wishing she could erase this horrible week and start over.

Matty's chocolate eyes were full of concern and his hand still rested on hers wanting to offer her that beacon of comfort. As per usual Matty was completely oblivious to any sort of signals he may have been sending to her in doing so. He liked Fauna, he liked her a lot and he always had but now he couldn't imagine being with anyone other than Addie. Especially after the time they had spent in the library cheering her up after her fight with Fauna.

"I heard it was really bad." He shook his head finally taking his hand off of hers, "I don't think anyone could have handled that well." He sighed and rubbed her arm slightly still trying to give her that comfort that he wasn't all that great at, "It wasn't fair, to either of you. I mean I know you probably don't want to hear it but it killed Addie to have to lie to you. You were like a sister to her, you know before you actually knew you were sisters."

Matty rubbed his hands together and lowered his eyes, his cheeks turning a bright red colour. He really wasn't doing well with this whole comfort thing. He wished there was a better way to handle this, a more logical approach than throwing out meaningless words and trying to offer physical comfort that he barely understood. He ground his teeth as he gently fiddled with his goatee, an obvious sign that he was feeling uneasy.

"I'm glad you wrote to him, even if it was to tell him off." He offered a small smile, "The man's an idiot. If I ever have daughters even half as great as you and Addie there's nothing in the world that could make me lie to them like that. You don't deserve it. If he can't see what's right in front of him than he doesn't deserve to be in your life."

"But," He hesitated wondering how to put into words what he wanted to say, "I don't think it's Addie's fault." He paused again wondering if he should press on or just leave it at that, "I know she didn't want to lie to you, and I know how much it hurt her to so." And I know all this because I'm in love with her, Matty resisted rolling his eyes. It had never been hard not telling other people about him and Addie but this was Fauna, she was pretty much his best friend and he was dating her sister. There was so much wrong about all this.

Matty was right; Fauna wasn't sure she wanted to hear about Addie at the moment. It brought up too many conflicted feelings of guilt and anger, and she just wanted to whinge for a while without thinking about how it might affect someone else. But Matty, of course, was close to both of them, so to ask him to listen without commenting wasn't fair. Addie was also an integral part of this new father-daughter dilemma whether Fauna liked it or not.

She went quiet, feeling much less awkward now that he was patting her arm, and yet the subject matter still made both of them look uncomfortable. Fauna guessed that Matty was blushing because emotional displays were hard for him, and she couldn't even imagine how the huge, dramatic fight between her and Addie must have made him feel.

He was trying, though, and she was grateful. "Thanks," she said, after he called Malcolm an idiot and said that he didn't deserve to be in her life.

But there was always a 'but'.

Matty emphasized that he didn't think it was Addie's fault, and that it had hurt her to lie. Fauna looked at him questioningly, surprised that he'd been paying so much attention to Addie's well-being, and wondering if there was something she was missing. Addie and Matty were friends, sure, but she didn't realize they were close. She glanced away to hide the irritation and hint of envy in her eyes. He hadn't blamed her, but she felt guilty anyway, and even pressured to make things right with Addie.

"I know," she said defensively, hunching her shoulders. "It's just... even if I know it's not her fault, and... that she's hurting too and she didn't mean to and all of that, it's just..." Fauna trailed off, shaking her head. "I still feel upset whenever I look at her. Betrayed. Reminded of," she waved her hand listlessly in the air, "all the crappy stuff her dad did. Our dad did."

Fauna paused and glanced at him. "I don't know how to... not feel that way. I know it's not right, but... it's easier to avoid her and to avoid feeling bad than it is to face it," she finished in a mumble, head slightly bent.

Matty put his hand on her shoulder and leaned in slightly to try and catch her eyes with his. Eye contact was always intregal to trying to figure out what people were thinking or feeling. It made him wonder how much easier these awkward emotional moments would be if he had taken up occlumency. It seemed as though it would be easier to know peoples thoughts rather than trying to interpret their body language, "Hey," He spoke softly still trying to get her to meet his eyes, "It is right. I know it doesn't seem like it but it is right. I wouldn't ask you to throw yourself into a situation that constantly makes you feel horrible. That's just not healthy."

He licked his lips trying to organize his thoughts into an orderly fashion. He needed to readjust his process, he needed to approach this from an angle geared towards Fauna and as much as he didn't want to, for now, he needed to leave Addie out of it. She was obviously a sore subject at the moment and for once Matty understood why.

"Time heals all wounds. If you need time to figure this out then no one should be allowed to stop you from taking it." He ground his teeth together again wondering whether it would hinder or aid the situation if he finished the rest of his thought out loud. Deciding it couldn't hurt he added, "Addie understands that. I'm sure she'll give you whatever space you need."

A sudden thought occurred to him, a certain unknown variable in this crazy equation, "Does Devlin know? I know he's not exactly here but I'm sure he could help you through this, even if it's just through owls." Matty wasn't the biggest fan of Fauna being with Devlin but as far as he could tell the Ravenclaw had never treated her badly and that was all that mattered to him, Fauna deserved to be treated like a Princess and if Devlin happened to be that guy right now then so be it.

Fauna glanced back at him and held his gaze for a few moments when he reassured her that she wasn't doing anything wrong, and that looking out for her own sense of sanity was understandable and okay. She let out a relieved breath and relaxed slightly, blinking to hold back the emotion in her eyes. She'd needed to hear that.

She nodded when he said that time healed all wounds, though she didn't necessarily agree. In her mum's case especially, she knew that Catherine was still angry at Malcolm and that little could be done to ever change that. It was just how things were, and it was probably one of the reasons why Fauna was so wary about her father's intentions for contacting her. In herself and Addie's case, however, she very much hoped that time would at least allow them to 'coexist in the Hufflepuff dorm peacefully', in Tulo's words. Even if they never became friends again, she didn't want them to hate each other. A week ago Fauna had claimed that she would never speak to Addie again. Now some of her anger towards her had died down.

"I guess so..." she replied. Addie had certainly given her the space she'd asked for, Fauna thought guiltily.

When Matty wondered about Devlin, Fauna shook her head again. "Um... not really. It's just that, he has so much going on that... I don't want to burden him, you know?"

That was part of it. She'd sent him a few cheerful letters since coming back to school, glossing over the negative aspects and attempting to sound upbeat. Fauna didn't want him to worry about her when he had a trial coming up.

And yet, there was something that consistently held her back from telling her boyfriend about the things that really mattered. She didn't know what it was, if it was a trust issue or insecurity or what. Perhaps her family's and some of her friend's low opinions of him had affected her more than she'd thought.

Matty slowly nodded his head. He understood her reasoning in not wanting to burden him any further but he had a weird feeling that she wasn't telling him the whole truth. However he had no idea what whole truth actually was. Once again he wished he understood how girl's brains functioned. They never seemed logical in any sense of the word. They were always so confusing.

"Sure." He paused for a moment, long enough to turn attention to his breakfast. He ate a few mouthfuls of his eggs and a crunch of his bacon, "Fauna I wanted to tell you something." He grabbed a drink and washed down the bacon before straightening and turning to Fauna full on. He raised his hand for a moment about to touch her arm again but drew back and placed it on her hand instead.

"I just wanted you to know that since Devlin isn't around anymore, I'll be here for you." He squeezed her hand before seeming to realize what it all might look like. After the cold shoulder he was getting from Sophie after the New Years Party he was starting to really think about his actions and the consequences they had on other people even if it really confused him, "Oh um, I'm not hitting on you I just - I want you to know that I'm here for you. Anything you would have come to Devlin for you can come to me, I'll make sure you're taken care of." He hoped he wasn't coming across too strong, afterall he was pretty sure he was in love with Addie.

Uh oh. He wanted to tell her something. Her mind went back to the mixer, when Chance had confessed that he'd liked her, and her eyes went wide, hoping this wouldn't turn out the same way. She still felt so bad about that! Fauna glanced worriedly at his hand resting on top of hers and then looked back at him.

"I just wanted you to know that since Devlin isn't around anymore, I'll be here for you."

"I... wait, what?" She said quickly, tensing up a bit when he squeezed her hand. Fauna started to draw her hand away, about to guiltily tell him that she was still dating Devlin, and so Matty couldn't be there for her like that, when he seemed to realize what was running through her head and backtracked to tell her that he was there for her as a friend.

Fauna was so relieved. Matty and Chance were both great guys and she would have hated to have to reject another friend and make him feel bad. She nodded at him, then pursed her lips together to keep from laughing at the line, "Anything you would have come to Devlin for you can come to me." She doubted he'd appreciate it if she snogged him whenever she was in the mood and missed her boyfriend.

Anyway, he was clearly not thinking about it like that, so Fauna smiled at him, stood, and gave him a hug.

"Thank you," she said sincerely. "It's really nice to have someone to talk to."

She drew back, and her smile faltered as she thought of something. "Um, and maybe... maybe I'll try talking to Addie soon. I don't know. I know that there's no pressure or anything, it's just that... talking to you sorta helped, and... I think maybe, maybe sometime soon I'll talk to her."

Fauna let out a relieved sigh, "I just... I guess I'm tired of being mad, and I know that... it's not really her fault."

Matty returned the hug with a smile glad that he was able to tip toe around all that awkward girl boy affection stuff. He had caught something in her expression, a hesitation that while he didn't entirely understand the source of it, had to assume it had something to do with the way he had approached the subject. He just wanted to let her know that he would be there for her, as a friend. He wanted her to know that if she ever needed anything she could ask him and that he would protect her while the man that was supposed to was away, that was all but like anything that involved the emotions of women Matty may have said the wrong things to try and get his point across. Thankfully it seemed that Fauna understood.

He nodded his understanding, "I'm glad I could help." He ate more of his breakfast not wanting to b rude but it was getting harder to ignore the pull in his stomach from lack of nourishment, "And like you said there's no pressure. I'm not going to pretend I understand what you're going through that's just not fair to either of us but I don't want you to feel like you have to rush into things just because I made you feel better." He gave her a lop sided grin, wiping a fleck of egg out of his goatee, "Take all the time you need."

He sat in silence for a long while enjoying the feel of putting food in his stomach before he turned his caramel eyes back to her once more, "Think I could ask your advice on something?"

Fauna sat down next to Matty again while he shoveled in the breakfast like most growing teenagers would. She gave him an amused smile and nodded when he let her know that she could take all the time she needed to talk to Addie. Fauna knew herself; she'd likely stall and hem and haw for a week or so before she got up the nerve to approach her friend anyway.

When he asked her for advice, she perked up a bit, looking at him curiously. Matty was one of those types who always seemed so put together. He did well in school, he rarely had drama, and other people seemed to like him. She couldn't help but wonder what it was he needed help with.

"Sure. Definitely," Fauna offered, hoping she'd be able to help.