Embarrassing moments?

Ryland made his way almost all the way up the tower whilst still carrying the white roses. For a second he considered turning them into a lavander color, and after a few seconds of thought he acted upon it. The flowers he held soon became lavander-tinted.

With a smile, he reached all the way up to where he wanted to get, though soon realized he'd probably have to wait until Aylee either walked into her common room, or walked out.

He simply decided to leave them by the portrait and walk away. His plans were suddenly ruined as he heard soft footsteps at the distance, sending Ryland into internal panic.

Selwyn had heard weird things about the Ravenclaw tower.

Okay, that was an understatement, he'd heard weird things about this entire school. But the thing about the Ravenclaw tower was one of the ones he was willing to test.

They said you could get into the Raven's common room if you just answered some riddle their doorknocker posed. Selwyn considered this a very shortsighted security measure, so he intended to test it out.

As he rounded the final corner of the staircase leading up to the tower (he had better get in, otherwise all this walking will have been for nowt) he glimpsed an older student paused upon the landing.

"Ah, hi!"

Ryland, still holding the lavender flowers, was caught of guard by the sight of the boy. He had expected someone different, like Professor Umbranox, though he also figured Ravenclaw students might show up seeing as this was their place.

With a sigh of relief, Ryland wondered why a Slytherin would be in the Ravenclaw Tower. Yet here was a Gryffindor holding a bouquet of flowers for no apparent reason. "Um. Hi." Ryland responded awkwardly.

Being a Ravenclaw, Aylee expected to find homework exciting. It wasn't. She had wasted half her day in the library, on an essay for Potions, and then she had loads of other homeworks to catch up on. In the end, she stuffed her books in her bag and made her way back to the Ravenclaw tower. And then she sighed, her head was aching with all of the information she was trying to cram into her head, the letters she was supposed to be sending mum (although maybe Kynan had replied himself and said that she was too busy to write) and a bit of hunger. Once again, she had missed breakfast. She groaned at the thought.

What she hadn't expected, though, was Ryland with a bunch of lavender roses and the Slytherin boy she had met in the courtyard not long ago. And they were conversing. Aylee frowned. A Gryffindor and Slytherin in front of the Ravenclaw Tower, she thought. This must be a story. She walked towards them, her face now betraying her confusion. "Hello," she greeted them, looking at the Slytherin boy which she barely knew the name of. "What are you doing here? I thought that you were too good for Ravenclaws because we are stuck-up snobs?" she asked rudely.

And then she turned to Ryland, seeing the roses. The first thing she found herself saying was, "Should I go get Sydney?" And then found herself regretting it. Regretting what, though? Regretting saying it? Two owls had arrived in the common room before she had went to the library. They were both carrying yellow roses, and she had assumed that they were for her and Sydney. Ryland had promised them that at their trip to Hogsmeade. But seeing the lavender roses, she wondered if the yellow ones were for her and Auden. Of course they are, she thought.

Ryland's brain panicked again. "Um." he said simply as he watched Aylee's rudeness to the Slytherin boy. He wondered how the two of them had met, but mostly what the boy had said or done to receive such treatment.

When she turned to him, Ryland looked at her. "Why Sydney?" he obliviously asked. A moment later he realized what she had asked him. "No, no." Ryland shook his head. "No. These are actually for you." he said to Aylee, still too panicky to do anything else.

"I never said-" Selwyn began, but he was interrupted by the intrusion of awkward teenage romance.

Gross.

"D' you two need a minute?"

Ryland turned to the Slytherin boy. "What? No!" He exclaimed rather offended. Actually, it wasn't that. He was more than glad to tell whoever wanted to know that Aylee was the most beautiful person he knew. Just not in front of her. As he'd told her before, he'd fight a dragon if necessary, but he'd never admit it to her that he liked her. No matter how obvious it was.

Realizing he still held the roses, he handed them to Aylee. "I hope Sydney and Auden got theirs. I just ran out of owls to send them." He said though it sounded like a terrible explanation. "I don't have an owl, so I had to use Wade's and Lucy's, which left me with a bouquet to deliver in person."

Glancing back to the Slytherin boy, he asked, "Not to be rude, but what are you doing here?" He asked as he scratched the back of his head in confusion. They must be quite a trio to other students.

Selwyn shrugged.

"I was exploring the castle. Now I'm watching you embarrass yourself."

Aylee felt her cheeks grow warm, and before she could say anything, the Slytherin boy was interrupting. She turned to the boy and retorted, "Do you need a bowl of cold water dumped on your head? Because I'd be totally happy to volunteer." Then Ryland handed her the roses and explaining something. "You could've just used a school owl, you know," she muttered loudly. Or maybe he simply wanted to deliver the roses himself, she thought. Why? Then, He's just being nice.

"Oh, god!" she exclaimed rudely, turning back to the Slytherin, who just couldn't shut up. "And we're such experts at it, aren't we?" Of course they were. Aylee knew herself that she could embarrass herself a multimillion times in just a day. But honestly, she couldn't care less if she did.

Ryland gave the boy a look. Was this kid seriously this annoying? Ryland had never wanted to punch someone this much, not even hypocritical, blood-maniacs like his family. This slytherin had embarrassed him much more than he himself was doing.
"Does everyone think of locking your lips together this earlly in a conversation?" Ryland said, now sure that he was dealing with a sarcastic nature.
To Aylee, he figured he might as well be real about it. "I really just wanted to do so in person." He replied.

Oh of course the Gryffindor would be completely irrational.  He obviously had a crush on that crazy Ravenclaw, what was her name?  Either way, you'd have to be crazy as well to like her.

"I offered to leave, but you told me not to," he pointed out.  "If you don't want me to leave, you can't object to me speaking.  You don't get to have it both ways."

He folded his arms and leaded back against the wall of the tower.  This was probably going to take a while.

Aylee struggled not to laugh at Ryland's comment about locking the Slytherin boy's lips together. "Yes," she simply said. Laughing would make her seem cold-hearted or something. She wasn't trying to be that. And then the Slytherin boy was pointing out something which made her a bit more angry. "Fine!" she exclaimed and pointed, well, away. "I accept your offer. Goodbye!" If it wasn't Umbridge number one on her 'hate' list, it would be the Slytherin boy. And I barely know his name, she thought.

And then Ryland was explaining about the flowers. 'I really just wanted to do so in person.' she repeated inside her head. He really wanted to deliver flowers to me in person? Aylee wondered. Why? She wasn't paying attention to the conversation now, she was staring at a wall. And then she was remembering- Ryland showing her the bird spell last year and asking her if she and Auden wanted to go to Hogsmeade sometime, Ryland smiling at her instead of Sydney at the Hogsmeade trip, promising her and Sydney flowers, delivering the flowers himself, sitting next to her in Potions when he could've sat next to Auden, coming over to talk to her at the Care of Magical Creatures lesson... at that last thought, she forgot about everything else because it was like someone had hit her in the stomach.

How come he doesn't hate me? she thought. He should hate me, he has every right to hate me. I'm the reason the werewolf attacked him! Aylee rubbed her eyes, not wanting herself to burst into tears. She'd been wanting to say sorry ever since last lesson but she didn't know how to. The guilt was starting to eat her up inside. And Ryland was giving her flowers! What? Nothing was making sense to her right now. She still felt herself blushing. After helping Sydney with all of her problems, she'd thought that she knew about things like these.

"I- I have to go," Aylee murmured, then shook her head and looked at Ryland. "I have to go. Sorry. Thank you for the roses... thanks..." She looked at him apologetically and then walked away. She knocked on the door which led to the Ravenclaw common room. The eagle opened it's beak and then started reciting.

"I'm your follower in the light,
Yet I'm invisible in the night
At various sizes I appear
I won't harm you, have no fear." it said.

"Shadow," she replied immediately, having heard the riddle a few times before. The door opened and then she disappeared into the common room.

Seeing Aylee leave like that gave Ryland a stomach ache. Why was she so difficult? He simply watched her answer the riddle and disappear into her Common Room. He must have looked like a lost puppy then, wondering what it would take for Aylee to simply figure it out and tell him whether or not she liked him back.

The situation was killing him. He just wanted to know. He wanted to know what she thought of him, what kind of friend he was to her. But she had literally run away. Ryland let out a groan, then remembered the slytherin boy was probably still around.

"Go ahead, laugh if you want to." He said without looking to see if he really as still there.

"It's not really funny," Selwyn said.

"It would probably have gone better if I hadn't been here. If you don't mind me asking, why were you giving other girls flowers as well?"

He has a heart? Ryland wondered when the boy decided not to laugh at him. Nevertheless, he wasn't going to trust him with anything so easily. Ryland turned to facce the boy, taking in his appearance. He did look like someone he'd never get along with, but who knows. Ryland might as well try to be nice.

"We were friends before I even liked her this way." Ryland admitted as there was no denying it now. "So we and a few friends took a trip to Hogsmeade where I gave one of my friends a yellow rose...and I could tell Sydney was upset I hadn't given it to her, but I didn't want her to get the wrong idea so I said I would send her some later. But then I realized I wanted to give Aylee hers in person and now I'm kind of in an awkward situation because I think Sydney likes me and I don't feel the same and I am in trouble."

Ryland realized he had spoken too fast and too much. He mentally cursed himself for doing so in front of the boy. "What's your name?" He raised an eyebrow as he asked this, for even though he had just told him a small secret, he wanted to know who he was talking to.

"Selwyn," he replied easily.

Selwyn was aware that some people thought honesty was the worst policy when it came to affairs of the heart. He wasn't one of them. Being part veela came with certain drawbacks. He'd never had to worry about it before, but his mother had made him embarrassingly, painfully aware of them.

"You could always just tell this Sydney chick to back off," he said as he turned to go back down the stairs.

Now that Aylee - good thing the other guy had said her name or he'd never have remembered it - had gone into the common room sneaking in wasn't nearly as appealing.

"In a nice way, of course. I'm sure you can think of a nice way to do that."

Ryland nodded as the Slytherin's name stuck to his head. However, he followed the boy down the stairs though he himself was going to the Clock Tiwer Courtyard. "There's no nice way to say anything to Sydney without her getting worked up about it." He replied, recalling how Wade had simply stopped talking to her, and how Lucy had become the target of Sydney's hatred.
"Believe me, she's too stubborn." He added.

Selwyn sighed, and paused to look right at the Gryffndor. He had thought being part veela at this school would get him girlfriends, not other people.

"Then why do you care?" he asked.

"Think of it this way, if you don't say something, Aylee will think you're deliberately stringing Sydney along because you like the attention. And if what you say about Sydney is true, it doesn't matter what you do because she just likes causing drama. At least if you tell her to get lost, you get Aylee."

"Although I can't figure out why you'd want her."

Sydney approached Ravenclaw tower after a long day and was ready to sleep. She heard voice talking around the corner in front of the entrance. She peered around the corner and saw Ryland and some Slytherin boy. She heard Ryland say "There's no nice way to say anything to Sydney without her getting worked up about it." Sydneys jaw dropped and she crossed her arms in front of her chest. She stormed around the corner and stared straight at Ryland. “You don’t have to tell me now. I get the clue, loud and clear.” She stormed past the 2 boys and went into the common room. She ran into Aylee there and nodded, “Can you believe them?” She knew Aylee had no idea what she was talking about, but she didn’t really care.

Evan was returning to the common room to drop his school books there. He didn't have any urgent business, so this day was going to be all about walking and sketching. And walking and sketching were much better without lots of books in a backpack. When he came closer to the Ravenclaw common room door, he heard voices. Probably first-years are trying to solve another riddle. My turn to save the day!

To Evan's surprise people whom he saw at the door weren't Ravenclaws. "Hey guys! Don't try to answer the riddle, you have no chance. Everyone who is smart enough to do this is in Ravenclaw," Evan told two students standing near the common room door. "No offence. But that's true, otherwise this defense would be pointless." He knew both of them: the Griffindor one was Ryland from the astronomy lesson, the Slytherin one was Selwyn, he tackled Evan during the Project Homework time.

Evan smiled, realizing that these students probably had quite opposite thoughts about him, as he changed a lot during his last year at Hogwarts.

Selwyn rolled his eyes.

He wasn't sure whether he liked the boy who'd twice cursed him with the tickling charm, making him look like the kind of twat who derived pleasure from other people's misfortune. Although he admired his gumption, the other first year could be irritating. Like right now.

"At least you've realised its pointless," he said before turning back to the Gryffindor.

"That must've been Sydney. See what I meant about her causing drama either way?"

Evan heard Selwyn continued talking to the Griffindor. He didn't like to interrupt conversations, but he just couldn't let someone to doubt the magic protection of his common room. "I said it would be pointless if every student had a Ravenclaw potential. But it's not, judging by the fact you two are still outside."

Evan couldn't help noticing that he actually likes this first-year, not in the way "hey, let's be friends forever!", but in some sort of "cute little rivalry" way. The Slytherin seemed to be sarcastic and smart, and the second trait was highly appreciated by Evan.

Evan felt a little sorry for Sydney and all the drama caused by her, as its discussing had to wait because of his retort. Just a little sorry. Really really little. Because he didn't care much about unfamiliar people and about drama. Especially about drama. Especially that was caused by unfamiliar people.

Ryland was about to explain that Selwyn didn't know Aylee as well to see how wonderful she could be. However, Sydney appeared around the corner and was suddenly glaring at him and making him feel even more guilty than he was already feeling.

As she left he looked back at Selwyn and threw his arms in the air as a sign of frustration. "See?! That's exactly what I mean!" He said before Evan was also coming up. Ryland figured they should get out of the Ravenclaws' way. "I wasn't planning on going in there." Ryland defended himself, looking at the door as if it were a secret portal to hell given all the problem-causing girls lived there.

"Yeah. I do." He muttered. After all, he had always known Sydney liked too many guys for the simple reason she thought they were 'cute', but she never took the time to know anyone. In a way, he was glad Evan had appeared as his conversation, or argument, with Selwyn was distracting for Ryland. He needed a distraction.

"Yeah, sure. Some people like to climb up long spiral staircases just to stand before doors and then go back," Evan said with a smile. He didn't want to hurt Ryland with his words, but he couldn't help showing off to Selwyn. "Let me show you the real riddle-solving skills. Ravenclaw style." He made a theatrical pause and knocked at the door.

"If you throw me from the window,
I will leave a grieving wife.
Bring me back, but in the door, and
You'll see someone giving life!"

Evan stared at the door for a minute or so. He didn't know the answer. In situations like these Evan usually waited for someone to come and solve it or for someone else to go out of the common room. But now he didn't want to let Ryland and Selwyn know about his riddle fault.

The silence became embarrassing.

Ugh, he was so sick of people showing off at this school. First that insufferable Hufflepuff (what was her deal?) and now this dude. Selwyn still hadn't forgotten that whole hexing incident, either.

The door knocker recited a riddle, and much to Selwyn's disgust, he had no idea what it meant. This was going to be torture. But to his surprise, the Ravenclaw remained silent as well!

"Yes?"

Selwyn folded his arms once more.

"I thought you were showing us how it's done?"