Baxter had been looking for Blake since he'd had his run-in with Ayla at the Three Broomsticks. Though he wasn't sure his housemate was going to be in Hogsmeade, Blake assumed that he would eventually find his way there. He'd checked a few places- a bookshop, the quill shop, back to the Three Broomsticks... Eventually Baxter had given up, and decided he would have a talk with Blake later on back at school.

Decided he ought to send his mother something for the holiday, Baxter headed toward the sweet shop in the hopes of procuring a nice box of chocolates for her. His mother loved chocolates, and magic chocolates would be much more exciting than muggle ones.

Heading over to the large selection of chocolates, Baxter was surprised to see Blake there. Baxter gave him friendly slap on the shoulder as he a spot next to Blake, inspecting the chocolates. "I've been looking for you everywhere, Blake!" he told his friend.

"I really hate to burst your holiday bubble, but I think that you and I need to have a pretty serious talk... I had a run in with Ayla earlier. I think she's gone crazy. I don't know what you did to the girl, but you really should talk to her and explain that throwing beer on your friends is hardly appropriate behavior."

With every passing year, Blake became more and more confused about what to do on Valentine's Day. In younger years, hardly much was thought about the giving and receiving of cards and gifts from friend on the occasion. For Blake, it was simply a means of expressing to these people how much he appreciated them, without really saying so with words. With his home life as odd as it was, his friend were usually closer to him than even his family was.

But this year was different. This year was the first year that Blake really began to take stock in how most people really saw Valentine's Day. Take his brother, Callum, for instance. The oldest Knight offspring had been obsessing over what to get his girlfriend for as long as Blake could remember. Apparently, girlfriends were particular about things like that and clearly since he was dating Maeve Whitman that made it even more of a big deal.

Blake didn't have a girlfriend to worry about and so he hadn't been obsessive leading up to the 14th. The thought had crossed his mind that he should probably get his friends--female or otherwise--something. But he didn't send away for anything and instead thought he'd get it all during the Hogsmeade trip.

He had wandered off, seemingly in his own little world for most of the day. He debated getting stationary or even little trinkets for friends like Ayla or Naomi or Winnie, but for his male friends, he figured it was hard to go wrong with sweets.

Blake was perusing the shelves in Honeydukes when he happened to look up and see Baxter, his dormmate, standing before him. He was about to great him when the other Ravenclaw made his exclamation about looking for him everywhere.

Blake could hardly contain a look of bewilderment as Baxter went on to inform him about a run-in with Ayla. After Baxter finished, Blake sputtered, "What are you talking about? I didn't do anything to Ayla...." His voice trailed off as his brows shot up and then he queried, "I mean, I'm pretty sure I didn't. Or, did I?"

Baxter arched a very high brow at Blake when he was quickly informed that Blake had not done anything at all to Ayla. "Well if you've not done anything, the girl is certifiable," he stated flatly. How could Blake not know he had stood up his supposed girlfriend? Maybe he was just pretending he hadn't done it- perhaps he was ashamed? Baxter would be ashamed, too, if he had to admit he was supposed to have gone on a date with the likes of Ayla Collins. Of all the third years that Baxter knew, she had to be the least desirable- mostly due to her unsightly reputation.

"I understand wanting her to back off- she throws herself at you- but standing her up isn't really the way to go, is it mate? I'm sure you could have just told her you weren't interested and asked her to bugger off instead of being so cruel about it." It made Baxter glad he was totally uninvolved with romance. Maybe he never would be involved with romance. It was an awful, horrid thing.

Baxter let the silence fall and leaned forward, carefully plucking chocolates to fill an assorted box, hoping he remembered his mother's favorites properly. The last thing Baxter needed to do was owl her a thoughtless assortment. It would be like the peace offerings from his father when he was younger- the ones that were tossed aside, and the ones she still complained about to this day.

Blake knew that Ayla could be a bit out there for those who did not share her excitement and passion for certain things. But he would never call her certifiable. So when Baxter used this term to describe their classmate, he arched his own brow upwards. Then Baxter went on, talking about how Ayla threw herself at him and how it might cause him to stand her up. Blake threw up his hands, calling for his friend to stop.

"Wait, wait, WAIT. What?" He shook his head and even though he was still confused, he was starting to get a bigger picture of what was going on. "I did not stand her up. And why would I have told her that I wasn't interested in her or have been cruel to her? Ayla's one of my best friends. That makes no sense. It would be like me telling you that I didn't want to hang out with you anymore, Bax."

Blake followed after Baxter, wondering if he was still missing some important piece to the puzzle here. He shrugged helplessly. "I mean, all I know is that I am here getting gifts for everyone for Valentine's Day. I haven't seen her since classes the other day..."

"Well, if you didn't make a date with her she must have made it up herself. Which certainly doesn't make her seem any less bonkers," Baxter commented. The idea that Ayla would make up a date and then get herself all worked up about it was ridiculous. "You must have done something to give her the wrong idea, then. Because she was really upset. She thinks you two had a date..."

It had not escaped Baxter's attention, though, that Blake had not claimed he was disinterested in Ayla. Baxter didn't like girls- yet. He supposed eventually there would be a time for that, but now was not it. Now was the time for school work, for focusing on other things. Romance would only distract him. Often his father had told him to be sure not to get distracted- especially by a girl. His dad's opinion of women, however, was not very high. The only woman in the worldt hat Ackerly deemed worth any praise was Baxter's mother, and they didn't even get along anymore. But Baxter, if he ever had a girlfriend, did not intend to be so distracted as hisf ather had been. Often his mother had

"Maybe you should make it a point to find her before it gets any further out of hand then," Baxter suggested. "And if you're buying gifts, I would suggest buying something extraordinary to smooth this one over. Whenever I was younger and my dad and mom would fight, he'd always buy her stuff to try make her stop being mad. Usually worked well enough until he screwed up again." Baxter had a feeling, too, with a girl like Ayla, it was very easy to mess up and make her mad.

"Thinks we had a date?" Blake was looking at his friend like had had multiple heads. His brow furrowed quite seriously. "Look, Baxter, if I had made a date with Ayla, or anyone else, don't you think I would have remembered?"

Blake didn't really want Baxter to answer that question, but he also didn't want his friend to continue on saying that Ayla was going nutty.  With a sigh Blake then asked, "Did she tell you where she was going? I don't know what happened, but I guess I should see what made her think all of this." Blake dragged a hand through his thick, brown hair and he looked around the shop as Baxter suggested additional ideas for gifts. He sputtered, "But...if it's not even my fault...I mean...if I didn't screw up....why should I have to smooth things over?"

Baxter shrugged. "Listen Blake- I'm not trying to be mean- but I highly doubt if you had intentionally stood Ayla up that you would be bragging about it. You're not that kind of a guy. It's a subtle maneuver that would be quite effective in making her leave you alone. A Slytherin move- to be certain- but how many Ravenclaws didn't hear the sorting hat whisper they'd fit in just as well there as we would here? Ayla is intense. I get that. If she was throwing herself at me I'd do the same thing if she couldn't take a hint. Third year girls- all of them- are obsessed with romance. And all of us," meaning the boys, "could care less about getting involved."

The Ravenclaw placed a lid on the box of chocolates he had collected. "And it doesn't matter if you screwed things up- she thinks that you did." Obviously Blake didn't have the experience with seeing bad relationships like Baxter had.

"Trust me- I've seen fights between my parents more times than I can count. Mom would be ready to kick him out, and he'd come home with flowers and chocolates and the whole thing would blow over. " At least that was how it worked until his mother had met his current step father. "Women like it when men admit things are their fault." Another nugget of wisdom courtesy of Ackerly Fox. "So if you want to stay friends with Ayla, or if for some Merlin-known reason you actually want to be her boyfriend, you better find a few extra galleons and buy her something nice."

Blake sucked in his breath and then let it out real slowly as he listened to Baxter talk. Clearly his dormmate knew more about these things than he did, even if Baxter looked like had had about as much personal experience as Blake did. They were both third years. What did they know about love and romance and relationships?

But at least Baxter seemed to pay attention to his parent's relationship. Blake, for many years, had tuned out the other members of his family. He had his nose stuck in a book most of the time and the extent of his observations were at family gatherings, like dinner. And even then, the Knights weren't exactly known for their affection towards each other.

Blake repeated, "I didn't stand Ayla up. But for some reason she thinks I did. And why would I want her to leave me alone when she's my friend? Just like you and Winnie and Naomi are my friends." When Baxter mentioned the sorting hat and the potential to be Slytherin-esque, he scowled. "Please don't remind me of my Knight-ly traits."

Blake fell silent again and reached up to rake his hands through his dark hair, making it even more unruly than it naturally tended to be. He looked around the sweetshop at the rows of goodies and then back to Baxter, finally sighing again.  With a hopeless expression, he said, "Alright.....you're right. I guess I'm buying her.....stuff."

Baxter shrugged. "I don't know why you'd do it. I'm just saying if you did, I don't blame you. But if you want to make it right you need chocolate, you need flowers, and you need something pretty. Jewelry probably." Really, how did Blake not know these things? Baxter was easily the least socially experienced person in their house. He had no interest in girls or relationships, all he cared about was grades- but it seemed he was alone in that mindset. Unfortunately. It would make life easier if other students didn't care about relationships either.

"I'm not much help for what to get though," Baxter told him before Blake could enlist him for that task. "There's probably a girl clerk who could help you though."

"Or you could ask your brother," he ventured cautiously. "He's an ass- but he seems to know a thing or two about girls. I mean he's got a betrothed and he's got a girlfriend." Which Baxter knew from Imogen's incessant babbling about her fiancee and her soon to be married future. His fellow third year didn't like the fact her betrothed had another girlfriend. Baxter found the entire situation ridiculous but kept that opinion to himself. Imogen could be... very annoying when she was upset.

"But I didn't," Blake continued to insist. But as the words left his mouth, he considered that no matter how much he tried to set the record straight that Baxter wasn't someone he needed to convince anyway. Clearly his fellow Ravenclaw wasn't concerned about the extent of his guilt or innocence. Blake rolled his eyes and wondered how it was possible for Ayla to be mad at him for something he didn't do.

But, like Baxter seemed to imply, it was going to be so much easier to just play along anyway -- just in case. When Baxter mentioned a girl clerk who could help him, Blake's eyes did a quick scan to seek one out. But his eyes snapped back to Baxter when his brother was mentioned. "My bother....err...I mean my brother?" His tone was more incredulous than he realized, but it was clear that Blake wasn't won over by that suggestion. Blake scowled and responded with, "Callum is an ass. And I wouldn't say having a betrothed and having a girlfriend (how that happened I'll never know), doesn't necessarily mean he knows anything about girls. It might just mean that he is lucky. Or, they are dumb and let him do it." Blake shook his head. "No way, I'm not going to give him the satisfaction of my going to him for help on this."

Baxter knew that Blake didn't get on well with Callum. Most people get along well with Callum- he was contrary and liked to assert his dominance. Typical Slytherin traits, in Baxter's opinion. "It was just a suggestion, don't jump my case over it," he said defensively. "Sometimes you have to do things you don't like to set things right. It's a simple fact of life." One he'd heard over and over again from his father. (Whom he still wasn't speaking to after the debacle at Christmas.)

"You could ask Winifred?" he tried. "She's Ayla's roommate, and would like to help. I'm sure she would be... very loud about it, but loud help is better than no help?" Baxter wouldn't be able to stand Winifred for that long, but she might be the most beneficial person to ask. "I'm sure if you stand in the street you'll hear her yelling somewhere in just a few minutes." Not a very nice thing to say, but it was a very true one. "Although she might decide you're in love with her and chase you around, too. I don't know how well you'd do with two girls obsessed with you."

"I know that my mom hates roses," he offered. "She likes wild flowers because they're different and prettier. She says that roses are thoughtless flowers. Or you could get her something you know she would like? Maybe a record of her favorite wizarding band or something like that?" Baxter asked. "Could work."