"Guid find, So - what do ye wannae do with it? Mess with the older years, or with the teachers?"

"Not sure yet... But I got some ideas..." Keegan grinned, a hint of pride at Tynan's approval sneaking into the smile. Truth be told, as cool as Keegan thought he, himself, was, he always felt a bit overshadowed by the scarred boy. Tynan came from a magical family who trained dragons and had awesome scars to show for it. Sure Keegan had a few scars, but they weren't nearly as dramatic. There was also the pesky fact that Keegan felt Macfusty was a better prankster then he was and hoped that this prank would even the playing field.

"Ye sure ye ken how tae use that? Can be dangerous, that. Ye don't wannae mess it up and have it backfire."

"Of course I do..." Keegan sniffed as though he was insulted by the very idea. Sure he knew what to do with it, he had overheard the giggling girls he stole it from talking about how to use it. Not that he was going to admit it. "... Ye 'ave to make sure that the person--" He was cut off from his explanation when Serenity reappeared, dragging Trishna back with her. They both immediately inquired what was going on.

"Ooh, who is that for?"

"What are you guy's going to do? Spike the drinks? What is it anyway?"

Keegan's brow furrowed and he grimaced at them. Who invited them to plan the prank? Not that he had anything against anyone present, but this was kinda a 'bro' thing between him and Tynan.. But how to tell the lot of 'em off without causing them to cry or kick him in the boy bits? "It's ain't anything..." Keegan stated, defensively.

"Hi guys! Heh, anyone want to buy a flower? What're you all looking at?"

Oh this is just some bloody shite right 'ere... who invited 'im? Keegan groaned to himself when Pax also appeared, toting a large tray of flowers. It wouldn't be so bad to have him there if it weren't for the fact that he was a friend with Eirene and any friend of Eirene's spelled disaster for anything Keegan planned. Or at least spelled "tattle tale" as far as Keegan was concerned. Pulling his coat shut abruptly, he repeated a little more firmly "It ain't nuthin..." Glancing at Tynan, Keegan tried to telepathically relay to him that they needed to talk about this stunt a bit more, in private. Hoping to get the attention off of his blazers contents, he cocked a brow at the flowers "So... uh... Did'ja lose a bet or sumthin' Pax? What's with all the flowers?"

The amount of coming and going was beginning to confuse Tynan and was certainly making it hard to talk to Keegan. The girls returned fairly quickly and before Tynan could reply to Keegan, Pax appeared too.

Tynan regarded Pax - and his flowers - with a guarded look. Pax wasn't a bad sort, he really wasn't; Tynan found it hard to dislike the guy. But he was something of a tattle-tale if given the chance and given that fun seemed about to happen...and with the other stuff going on - Tynan made a 'hm' sound.

"I'd take one, Wintergreen, but I dinnae have any money," he said, a tad sadly. He did have money - secreted away in his trunk - that his parents had given him to last the year. There wasn't much of it.

"'ey, you lassies could help Pax out," Tynan suggested suddenly, looking at the girls. "Seems no fair that 'es gottae do it himself." His slight glance to Keegan indicated he'd gotten the hint about slinking off. "I think Keegan an' me are ginnae go find Mairead. 'aven't seen her an that always means trouble, ye ken?"

Pax's face fell a little when Keegan hid away whatever he had been showing to Tynan, though he really shouldn't have been surprised. Being the voice of concern tended to equate with 'spoilsport' in the minds of some of his more adventurous classmates. Though he wasn't the sort to get other students into trouble with the grown-ups, Pax did sometimes want to make sure they stayed out of trouble. Serious trouble, anyway. A little fun here and there never went amiss, as long as no one got hurt. But Pax didn't go around advertising that, so he didn't press Keegan on the matter, and accepted the change in subject.

'Oh, I'm helping to raise money for SAWS,' he said brightly, optimistic at Keegan's interest, even if it was just to divert attention away from whatever was in the Gryffindor's coat pocket. 'The werewolf group. Not doing too badly, either!' he added with a small note of pride, patting his breast pocket, where a small collection of coins jingled slightly. He hoped Fauna and the others would be pleased.

'No worries Tynan,' Pax assured the other Gryffindor quickly, when Tynan explained why he couldn't buy a flower. 'I was kinda joking, anyway.' He smiled a little, self-conscious again, knowing that even if the older students thought he was cute with his smart clothes and flower tray, the other first years were just as likely to think him weird. Not that he minded, really. Well, not much.

Glancing shyly at Cyhirae and Serenity after Tynan's suggestion that they help, Pax shook his head slightly to indicate they didn't need to. He felt a little out-of-place, laden down with his flowers, so he decided to try for a topic-change of his own. 'U-um. How, how is everyone, anyway? Anyone been to any of the booths?'

Serenity placed her hands on her hips angrily, her hazel eyes glaring at Keegan from beneath the curtain of hair around her face. Perhaps the lessons with him had paid off a bit too well. It appeared the smaller Ravenclaw would not be put off by the boys.

"You take all the fun out of being a first year, Keegan Kearney! I'm not some girl like Eirene, y'know. I thought I've proven that by now?"

She bounced on her heels momentarily before puffing herself up to her full height. It wasn't right for him to treat her like a girl while he and Tynan got to run off and have all the fun. Xander would get her into trouble, but with Pippa latching onto him the way she did, that didn't seem likely to happen tonight. Serenity wanted to do something fun and if Keegan wasn't going to let her in on her plan, she'd find something else to do. Pranking wasn't much of her think, but since he'd been training her, she had hoped that by now he would see her as a fellow adventurer. Obviously, he thought otherwise from the way he was trying to get her to go with Pax when he knew full well that Serenity Lee didn't like flowers! Boys!

"If you're going to treat me like a girl, Keegan, I can always act like one and make you dance with me."

Her hazel eyes flashed threateningly at the taller Gryffindor. Not once had she been brave enough to stand up to someone, but right now, she was recklessly bold. Serenity Lee had been watching Keegan, Tynan, and Mairead since the first day of school and hadn't got the nerve to try and be one of them...until she saved Keegan's life. With this came the expectation that Serenity would be one of them, in a sense, and be allowed in on their adventures. She would have to force her way in because she didn't just want to admire the Gryffindors, she wanted to play along! Now was her chance and he was trying to deny her that right. No sirree, it wasn't happening! Not on Valentine's Day.

"You take all the fun out of being a first year, Keegan Kearney! I'm not some girl like Eirene, y'know. I thought I've proven that by now? If you're going to treat me like a girl, Keegan, I can always act like one and make you dance with me."

"Hey now," Cyhirae huffed, placing her hands on her hips in annoyance. "What's wrong with being a girl." She had never quite understood what was wrong with wearing skirts, dresses, jewelry and the like. Jason had always thrown around comments about that when they were growing up, Baxter would as well, occasionally.

When she had asked Aunt Sonya about it, Cy had been given a pat on the head with the comment not to worry about it and that eventually boys would like girls who acted like girls. Confused she had asked why and only received a knowing smile and the almost flippant comment that she would know when she was older. Her father's choking cough and Uncle Ryan's loud laughter didn't clear up anything either. Well she was now older and she still didn't have any idea. Cy wanted an answer and this time she was was going to get it from the source.

"I think Keegan an' me are ginnae go find Mairead. 'aven't seen her an that always means trouble, ye ken?"

"Yeh' sounds like a plan..." Keegan agreed, prepared to follow Tynan away from the crowd before their entire plan was ruined. Serenity, it seemed, would have none of that. With a rather uncharacteristic amount of force, Serenity stepped in front of him and proceeded to give him a tongue-lashing that he would have never expected.

"You take all the fun out of being a first year, Keegan Kearney! I'm not some girl like Eirene, y'know. I thought I've proven that by now?"

Caught speechless for a moment, all Keegan could do was stand there with a bemused expression and brows lifted so high that they disappeared under his thick fringe. As her defense tutor, he was proud of the surge of strength she was showing, but as the person it was aimed at.... not so much. Glancing at his mate, he shrugged a little and grinned like a fool, unsure how to reply. She went on, trying to make herself look bigger despite the fact he nearly had a foot on her.

"If you're going to treat me like a girl, Keegan, I can always act like one and make you dance with me."

"W...What? 'ow do ye expect t'do that?" he started to chuckle, giving Tynan a smirk and pulling to his full height so that he towered nearly an entire foot over her. He might have reached out and ruffled her hair just to piss her off but Cyhirae suddenly charged in between them and started interrogating him.

"Hey now, What's wrong with being a girl."

"I...I... What?" Keegan stuttered, bewildered. When had he said anything about it being because they were girls? His brows knitted together and he glanced at Tynan for a little help, confusion written across his face. "Did I say anythin' about there being somethin' wrong with girls?" He asked him, clearly uncertain whether his memory of the conversation was right or not. Scratching the back of his head, he looked back at Serenity and sighed "Look... if I dance with ye, will ye get 'er to stop yellin' at me?"

Tynan gave up and laughed; he'd been holding it in but he couldn't resist. "Well," he said, slapping Keegan on the back in a friendly manner, "Gae dance with the lass, Keegan. It canae do any hard tae you - jus' your reputation."

He rolled his sleeves up - glad no one was demanding a dance from him, because he didn't know how to dance like the older students were doing. Where he came from dancing involved...well, music, and steps; most of what he'd seen so far was noise and random gyrating.

"There's nothing wrong with being a lass," he said. "What Eirene is is fykie, an' that issna gender based." He elbowed Keegan in the side and said quietly, "O'course, I could always gae and do the potions meself while you have fun with your ladyfriend," he said, in a jovially mocking tone.

^{((Yeah yeah I know I am posting out of order, but Keegan begged me to say this...))}

"Well, Gae dance with the lass, Keegan. It canae do any hard tae you - jus' your reputation."

Keegan scowled briefly at Tynan "Yeh, thanks fer the 'elp, mate" He said glumly. He didn't need to be reminded how much this was going to make the rumors worse.

"There's nothing wrong with being a lass, What Eirene is is fykie, an' that issna gender based...O'course, I could always gae and do the potions meself while you have fun with your ladyfriend,"

When Tynan, thick accent or not, explained the issue much clearer then Keegan could, Keegan relaxed a little. Smiling and nodding with Ty was a bit easier then trying to dislodge his foot from his mouth. However, when Ty added the last bit about doing the potion himself, Keegan's face fell and he scowled. "No way in fecking 'ell..." He hissed back. It was his potion. He stole it and he was going to use it. Tynan could just sit there and twiddle his thumbs until he was back from dancing with Serenity.

Then an evil idea dawned on him and he smirked before adding loudly enough for all to hear "Wassat Ty? Ye were 'oping to ask Cyhirae fer a dance? Why dinnit ye say so?"

Harper had sort of, zoned out of the entire conversation, one could say. She didn’t really know any of these other first years, being extremely shy, and felt really awkward just standing there. She watched as Serenity and Cyhriae ran off and came back. She wanted to go with them, if only not to be the only girl in the group, but didn’t know them, so it would’ve been worse.

When they came back, he relaxed a little, but it seemed her presence had mostly been forgotten anyway. She sighed. It was nothing new. She was used to being left alone. She just wished she could have Bitty her house elf with her to cut the dull ache that loneliness made.

When Pax came over, she smiled slightly. Pax was one of her housemates so she knew him a little better than the others. She came forward into the crowd again. She heard them talking about trouble and dancing, but didn’t pay much heed. She knew how to dance, and wanted to, but no one would dance with her. Also, she didn’t care much for trouble.

“Hello Pax,” she said quietly, barely enough to be heard over the crowd. “I’ll buy a flower. They’re very pretty.” 

"I...I... What?" Keegan stuttered.  "Did I say anythin' about there being somethin' wrong with girls?"

"You didn't Keegan," Cyhirae sighed. "Not that you and everyone else don't imply it alot," she muttered under her breath. Speaking normaly she continued, "No, it was Serenity who actually said it."

"There's nothing wrong with being a lass," Tynan said. "What Eirene is is fykie, an' that issna gender based."

Cyhirae cocked her head to the side, ignoring the banter between the two boys. She hadn't heard that word before, from Tynan or otherwise, but the context made it pretty obvious that it was not nice.  "I guess..."

"Wassat Ty? Ye were 'oping to ask Cyhirae fer a dance? Why dinnit ye say so?"

Cyhirae instantly balked at the thought. While Cy knew how to dance, and was fairly comfortable doing so in front of others, she had no desire to dance with someone who had been goaded into it by others. "No thank you. I have no desire to dance with an unwilling partner."

"Hey now. What's wrong with being a girl?"

Back and forth and back and forth between the first years, the comments dragged on and yet Serenity never took her furious gaze away from Keegan. There wasn't really anything wrong with being a girl, but Cyhirae was right: the boys implied it all the time. 'You're such a girl,' 'quit being girlie,' 'go buy flowers!' and stupid things like that. Was it really wrong being a girl? Did they think that girls couldn't have adventures like boys could or come up with clever pranks? If that was what they thought, then Serenity Lee was most definitely not a girl!

She finally released her breath, shrinking back down to her original size as she did so, and faced Cyhirae with a less threatening expression. Unfortunately, Tynan interrupted her.

"There's nothing wrong with being a lass. What Eirene is is fykie, an' that issna gender based."

"I agree about Eirene, but I don't understand. How come you get to run around putting potions in drinks while we girls are supposed to go help Pax with flowers?"

Again, she opened her mouth to continue her chastising when Keegan spoke up about Cyhirae.

"Look... if I dance with ye, will ye get 'er to stop yellin' at me?"

Serenity Lee halted in the middle of her breath and quickly snapped her attention to Keegan. He...actually wanted to dance with her? 'No, he just wants to avoid an argument,' she told herself. Boys didn't want to dance; Xander had already said so! That was too bad. She really wanted to dance. Now she wasn't allowed to like that, either, because it was "girlie". Still, it was now or never. Serenity Lee picked her head up, grabbed Keegan's hand, and dragged him onto the dance floor. She didn't realize the shocked looks of older students (especially her sisters) when she joined them.

There was a slow song on. Great. What did that mean? How was she supposed to dance to this? When she searched around the room for her siblings, she caught sight of Elle. She had her arms placed up on her dance partner's shoulders and his hands on her waist. They were going in a slow, awkward circle that had nothing to do with the beat of the music. Was that how one was supposed to dance to a slow song? Boring. Serenity shrugged and placed Keegan's hands on her waist. She was so short compared to him that she had to stand on her tip-toes just to be able to put her own hands on his shoulders. She started to step sideways in a tiny circle. Merlin's beard. This was awkward!

Her hazel eyes glanced up at him. They'd been alone for nearly a month now practicing spells and hexes. Thanks to him, she'd learned how to stand up for herself better than what she'd used to. He had also been seeing a lot of her face. Did it bug him now that she was shielding it with her hair again? Just this once, she would show her face in public. After all, it was okay to do it around him, right? Serenity Lee reached up and tucked her hair behind her ears so that he could see her face, then settled her hands back on his shoulders.

"I'm not mad, y'know," she muttered. The silence between them was the worst part about this dancing situation. "I always want to go with you, y'know. You and Mairead and Tynan. How come you never let me? Am I really...do you really think I'm a girl?"

Serenity didn't sound offended, but hurt. Only girls cried in front of boys! She wouldn't cry again. Not twice in the same night and not in front of the bravest boy she'd ever known. The tiny Ravenclaw had to bite her tongue just to keep the surge of tears from appearing in her eyes. She would not cry in front of Keegan Kearney!

Pax was visibly put off by the way the Serenity and Tynan were talking about Eirene. Although, Tynan was quick to back Cyhirae up on there being nothing wrong with being a girl. And... well, maybe 'fykie' didn't necessarily mean something bad. Maybe he was just referring to Eirene's somewhat finicky nature. And there was nothing particularly wrong with that. It rubbed some of the others up the wrong way, but Pax at least found it endearing more than anything else. Still, no one had properly stood up for Eirene yet, so he felt honour-bound to say, well, something.

'Hey, um... Eirene's my friend, so--' He was talking quite quietly, however, and Serenity was preoccupied with Keegan. He tailed off as the pair of them headed off to dance. He swallowed awkwardly, wanting to clarify that Eirene wasn't 'some girl' like Serenity said-- whatever that meant-- and point out how nice and smart she was, but he very rapidly lost his nerve. Just because Eirene was blissfully ignorant of his crush on her, didn't mean the others wouldn't catch on if he started extolling her virtues out of nowhere.

At the sound of Harper's voice, Pax found himself happily distracted. Serenity might not have thought much of the flowers he was selling for SAWS, but Harper was being nice enough to take an interest! Pax beamed at her cheerfully. 'Really? Thanks Harper!' Pax liked his red-headed housemate; she always seemed quite friendly, if a little shy. 'The suggested price is 10 knuts each, but really whatever you want to donate is fine.' Pax had been lucky with the older students so far; the few that had actually bought flowers had been fairly generous. He didn't expect his fellow first-years to be feeling as flush as the upper years, though.

'I think... I think a white one would go nicest with your dress-- or maybe purple,' he ventured tentatively, considering how various colours might compliment the teal Harper was wearing, as well as her hair. Realising this might be too presumptuous, however, he hurriedly added, 'But, heh, don't know if I'd trust my opinion, I mean, you'd know best which colour you'd like.' He offered her an apologetic grin and held out the tray so she could get a better look at the selection.