Emily Carter was swift on her feet, and a little swift with her words. She ran down the grand staircase, darted out the front door, the ruche of her knit socks becoming all the more crinkly in their failed efforts to stay plastered to her legs. Her bag swung from her shoulder and nearly bowled over a helpless first year the size of harvest turnip, but it couldn’t be helped. “Sorry, mate,” she called our brashly, flashing a smile over her shoulder as threw open the great oaken doors and whirled into the blooming spring.

The air was fresh, cool, dewy-- all the things a rebellious teen should be and love. Free periods were spoonfuls of heaven, and Emmylou wasn’t going to spend the empty blocks huddled inside under a fort of books and vampish librarian (really, he looked one step away from mastering hypnosis with those eyes of his, and a mere two from growing fangs).

Making for the lake, Lou might have whirled her bag off like a frisbee if it weren’t holding so many important things: Quidditch gloves, notes from Fauna, the squished, half-eaten chocolate frog with the Ian Cuddyer trading card she wanted to give to Grace, and sample-size bottle of something quite Banned that she was saving to share with Quinn when they were in a giggly mood.

Oh, and books.

Lou readjusted the strap and slowed to a canter, sighing as she recalled the last thing in her bag.

But then she spotted a familiar head of loose chocolate waves, hiding a face so like and unlike a pint-sized housemate of hers, and forgot all about that pesky weight in her canvas.

Sneaking up behind her unsuspecting victim, Lou suddenly swung an arm around the girl, turning her into a hostage in one swift move. She pressed her lips to Hufflepuff’s cheek and grinned against the honeyed before pulling away to greet her ever-so-captorly. “Hey, Ruby Joon, what do you say we get married?”

Maybe that would make Edmund grow a pair.

She'd meant to save the joke for the dormitory, but the open air called for plots that might send the professors on a hunt for escaped, newly-eloped students. Of course, her mum had enough to worry about without her youngest daughter dropping out of school a few months shy of graduation. Lou didn't mean any harm, not really, she only wanted to share a smile and the rant of the dismay caused by the male sex with a close friend. Edmund, George, those mixed-up aurors, and the slew of boys who shouted at her on the pitch-- she was thinking of kicking all of them in the shins.

“At least come to the lake with me. Anti-study zone. Squid’s rules, not mine,” she announced, untangling her hand from the other girl’s hair-slash-shoulder, and holding a palm flat in defeat.

She shifted her bag to the other arm, suddenly reminded of its contents as she steered the Flickwick girl toward the waterside. “Be a doll and carry my books?” She lied, batting lashes like a vomitty society girl. “You can have them. I’ll pay you to take them from me.” Ruby seemed a more reputable student than Lou, at any rate... the Carter girl would much rather be toting a bag full of Quaffles.

Ruby needed air. She needed a break actually. She needed a break from being Ruby Joon Flickwick caretaker of the frackin masses. Sophie had lost her ever loving mind since breaking up with Figaro. She was inconsolable... so for the first time in her life Ruby just quit trying. She dropped a kiss on her sister's head; said you'll figure it out, and walked out of  the empty classroom. She hadn't ever done that in her life; Sophie came before everything. It was just how the family dynamic worked. She was the baby; she couldn't very well look after herself.

Pushing all of that out of her mind she turned her face toward the sun. Spring was coming; it would be good. Then graduation, then what? Why was it Ruby could never just be in the moment? It seemed everyone around her knew how to do that - to just have fun and laugh and not be thinking twenty steps ahead to when she would be suffering through a summer internship that would turn into a life long unhealthy relationship with trying to save other people.

Merlin that was depressing! Today was too lovely a day to waste away on the future. So instead she thought of Lou. That was something good to waste her time on today. There was this strange...vortex surrounding the girl. She sucked up all the oxygen in the room; with her brilliant smile and mischievous eyes, Ruby could never decide if she wanted to be like Lou or with Lou. There was always a desire to be closer to her. Not in a fetishist stalker way; but to be a part of sort of over energized crackle  she brought to the air around her.

She was like magic, and just like that magic she seemed to appear when thought about. Ruby squealed and then laughed wrapping her arms around Lou's middle as she was pounced upon. There was a thundering pounding to her heart as she squeezed the slender girl, her cheeks flushing a faint crimson at the impromptu marriage proposal. She wanted so badly to be witty and adorable back but she new if she tried it would smack of too much effort, "Oh Darling! I thought you'd never ask"! Well, that wasn't so bad, it didn't sound completely unlike herself anyway.

As they moved along the path she plucked a tiny barely blooming flower and stopped Lou, "Gimme your finger; if we're going to run off and get married you'll need a ring," wrapping the wispy stem around the other girls slender finger she tied it carefully before looking up at Lou with a beaming sort of grin, "Tada, a touch of spring a happy marriage makes". She rolled her eyes then at Lou, "I give you a ring and you give me a book bag. I am beginning to see how this relationships works Miss Emily Louise," she stuck her tongue out but took the bundle nonetheless, keeping one arm loosely draped around the other girl's hip as they made their way toward the lake.

Lou's eyebrows tangoed in that charming Carter way, and she winked when Ruby admitted in a Ruby-ish voice that she'd never imagined the Gryffindor would ask. It was a game, nothing more-- at least Emily thought so, and so she continued on, playing it to her heart's content, completely oblivious of poor Ruby's feelings for all the other things she noticed. Flirting with friends was part of being a Carter.

Extending her hand, she wiggled her digits as animatedly as she had her eyebrows. Her cherry lips formed an o-shape and she studied the delicate little daisychain as if it were... well, a ruby. She brought up to her mouth and kissed the petals, not daring to blow them away into the sun just yet. It was a gift, an offering of friendship, and a part of their new game.

"All your other suitors will be so jealous," she announced. "I'll treasure it forever-- and don't worry, you'll get a better gift than a pile a books once I become a star." She tried to appease the Hufflepuff with a glance of innocence as the reached the lake's side. She pulled the bag back from Ruby and tossed it toward a bed of weeds. It was much too burdensome for one's spouse, surely. Plopping down in the grass, she dragged Ruby with her (it wasn't hard, with the Flickwick Prefect attached to her hip). Lou slipped out of her shoes, despite the air's chill, and dipped her toes into the lake. "And we won't have to worry about silly N.E.W.T.s, or jerky cousins, or boyfriends with big mouths and repressed feelings for their stupid ex-Head-Girl girlfriends ever again."

Mindful of her flower ring, Lou raised her wand and magicked the slip of parchment from her bag-- the loathsome but necessary list she'd been making. "Look at all the pratty things George and Edmund have got up to this month alone." She handed it over to Ruby, sidling close and looking over her own handwriting.

There was an urge in the pit of her stomach, a tightening of the knots as her brown eyes locked on Lou's lips. Merlin she was gorgeous; but then Lou knew that. Emily Louse Carter knew she was amazing - that was part of the pull. Of course on cue she had to say something that made Ruby break out in a loud laugh, "Oh, yes, all the boys and girls beating down my door. You'll have to turn the hose on them," she leaned over as she shook her head, bumping playfully against the other girl. She wondered if it was possible to just soak someone up without seeming like a complete creeper.

Could she just be close to Lou without seeming needy? Needy girls were so annoying. Apparently they were going to find out as Ruby gave a small cry as the blonde pulled her down in a heap. Unlike Lou Ruby couldn't go from an upright standing position to sitting gracefully. She was a tangle of limbs wound around Carter. There was a sharp breath in her lungs that smelled of damp grass, soil, and everything that was Emmy Lou. Smoothing her skirt she didn't scoot away, at least not much - she hovered with her head close to the other girl's shoulder. She couldn't say much about Edmund or Waker... of course she didn't see why Ed had to be such a gadabout in the first place - how could you want anyone but Lou when she was just right there.

Toying with the other girl's hair, she pushed it over the opposite shoulder snuggling closer as she peered down at the list her chin pressing into the material of Lou's jumper. "Bunch of wankers. Boys are dreadful - but then I've got a brother like Johnny so I've known that since I could walk," she paused looking thoughtful, "maybe since the womb. I might have just been born knowing boys were awful, then I came to Hogwarts and met Dion which confirmed the story". She sounded vaguely amused but actually she was examining the list closely, brown eyes narrowing, "Well. You won't have to worry about your wife acting like an utter tool. We'll live in the South of France and live on wine and cheese," she grinned and placed a kiss on Lou's cheek before lightly tickling her sides, "Lucky girl you are to have snatched me up when you did".

Lou splayed a hand over her heart, shaking her casually messy locks. “Come off it, Ruby Tuesday, I trust you to hose them down yourself. There’s a bit of Gryffindor in there somewhere.” She poked the girl’s cheek lightly, with all the tenderness of a grandmother, and all the bossiness of a sassy schoolgirl. “That’s why I’m so taken with you.” She winked. “But--” She added, sobering a bit in her mind’s eyes. “If any of them give you trouble, I’ll have good access to professional beaters’ bats.” Even if she preferred the quaffle. This was all a wondrous, imaginary world, anyway. Wasn’t it?

As they lay in the grass, Ruby looming like a quiet ghost over her shoulder, Lou could feel the first grasp of spring clinging to the grass and the sun. Even if it was chilly, the dampened earth had been dried by the long, clear afternoon, and the wind didn’t catch them so bad down here by the lake’s edge. It was just warm enough to plunge one’s ankles into the water and tease the great squid who loitered beneath the inky surface.

“Bunch of wankers.”

Emily Louise, her name full of false properness and something dainty, cackled. Hearing the word from Ruby’s Prefect throat somehow made it all the more brilliant... and believable. She quirked a brow at the mention of Johnny, wondering if Quinn’s many heartaches could have been prevented... or whether that was just Quinn, the glittery spirit bound to melting under the smooth voices of leather-clad rockstars with silky black hair suspiciously like Ruby Joon’s. Boys got the best of them, even tough cookies like Quinn. “But Johnny’s so dreamy,” she crooned, and then fell into another fit of giggles, laying her head back and staring at the sky, and the little bit of Ruby in her peripheral.

“You know...” She began warily, her voice creeping with something playful and falsely innocent. Her eyes shifted to her friend’s. “I always assumed you and Dion were at war because you wanted into each other’s pants.”

Her lids fluttered shut for a moment, but her grin only spread. “Tools out, wine in. I can deal,” she murmured happily. The tickle set her to squirming, and she quickly reached out to return the gesture, ignoring her wand and any number of tickling charms she might have known. Lou was an athlete, an earthy, hands-on girl. “Be careful, wifey, I’ll tickle you straight into your grave,” she warned, sitting up again and threatening to pin Ruby down in the grass.

Ruby grinned as Lou laughed; there was something delicious about that sound - the way it flowed past her crimson lips. Every logical part of her brain was screaming at her not to get in too deep with this playful game, to play it safe - to be quiet dutiful Ruby. Of course her reaction to the poke on the cheek was pretending to snap her teeth at the other girl. She was walking a fine edge and it became harder and harder not to just lean down and kiss the other girl. It could all be so easy; all the pent of frustrations of never knowing where she fell; the questioning; the discomfort of awkward kisses from boys with pawing hands and never any satisfaction. She was sure one kiss from that perfect mouth, the one that always held such a knowing and beguiling smirk; one kiss and she would know.

Of course she already knew, the way her eyes skittered over Emmy's body - not obviously, but stolen glances. Everything about her was divine - from the curve of her strong athletic calves to the nape of her neck. Looking at her made Ruby's heart beat faster. There were physiological reactions that she could not control no matter how tightly she kept her brain from traveling to the hidden corners of secret girlish desires. Ruby had never been the kind of person who wanted what she couldn't have - Lou was her only exception to this rule and it was painful wanting her so much and knowing it was all just a game. But to be close to Emily Louise Carter was worth every pin prick of longing because a life devoid of that light seemed too gruesome to bear.

It was Ruby's turn to cackle and shake her head about her brother, "I'm sorry but it's all smoke and mirrors. His feet stink like any other boys'. And while it might titillate you and Quinn I am not completely comfortable with the fact he walks anywhere outside of his room in just his underwear. Once I magically glued his jeans on... but Mum made me undo it because he couldn't even pee," Ruby covered her mouth then trying to stifle a giggle. She did love Johnny, he was her brother after all - but he was also more self involved than Sophie. Sophie's excuse was being young, Johnny didn't have one at this point - other than the dozens of groupies that flashed him at shows. He needed someone to ground him in reality - but with the girls he brought home that wasn't likely to happen ever.

The eldest Flickwick daughter's expression morphed from amused to coy as Lou sat up. She arched an eyebrow and cocked her head to one side leaning closer to the blonde with an amused smirk twitching on her lips, "If you tickle me to the grave you'll be a mere enfant of a widow and miss me terribly," she wiggled her eyebrows then; mimicking Lou's earlier movements before she pounced (or rather flung herself) on the other girl, Rolling back on the grace she tickled  anywhere she could reach - hardly mindful of the fact they were rolling around in the dirt in a pair of uniform skirts right on the lakes edge. Being with Lou made Ruby different, she soaked up that energy like a butterfly devoured nectar. Leaning down she poked and poked Lou's side, her voice gleeful, "Consider this punishment for thinking I would want anywhere near a Fayette's fly. Who knows what those pants are harboring let alone breeding".

Emmylou sighed dramatically. "Then there's no hope for any of them. A Flickwick boy with a pretty face can't overcome the shortcomings of the weaker sex... this won't bode well for Teen Witch's summer spread on young love." Even as she spoke the words, Lou was on the verge of giggling; her throat tickled, her voice wavered, something in her eye caught whatever might have been in Ruby's as the brunette looked the Gryffindor up and down. "But technically, he could pee. In his trousers, but..." Lou grinned wickedly. "I wish we had a time turner. Maybe you could Pensieve the event and let me have a look. Brilliant of you, little wifey."

She wondered what Quinn would have thought of it...

Pausing suddenly in the war that had overcome her fingers, she considered Ruby's words like a philosopher in a painting that would not stop being a prat. "Mmm, this is true. What good would you do me in the grave?" Her brows tangoed over the complex question, and she retreated, though with a wary, witchy look that said they can always come back. Biting her tongue, she couldn't fully hold back the squeal at Ruby's sudden, Gryffindor-ish poke. Lou grabbed the ghost of the touch, squeezing her own side, and became a rag doll in the grass, laughing despite herself. "Right, then, no Fayettes have ever crossed your adolescent daydreams. I'll remember. Lioness' honor."

She took a moment to catch her breath-- and the sweet taste of the promising spring that lay ahead-- and then looked at Ruby more carefully. "So who is it, really?" She asked suddenly, wanting to know. Ruby was always so quiet on the subject... it was sort of cunning, now that Lou considered it. "Some Hufflepuff? Maybe a graduate in London? How rockstar of you, Ruby Joon." She wondered how a rock n' roll father grappled with his daughter being swept off her feet by boys.