Okay? Okay. (Aylee)

Aoife, like usual at the weekend, was bored in the stuffy castle. It was an unusually hot and sunny day, so she had all the more reason to go somewhere less boring than the Common Room. Thinking logically, she decided on the Middle Courtyard because it shouldn't be too busy compared to most of the grounds.

The day before, she'd received a letter from her brother telling her that her twin nephews had been born, so she took with her a rainbow (she'd been experimenting with the colour-changing charm) bag containing some parchment and the quill pen she still had and used regularly. Not because she still cared about Evan at all. Because normal quills were stupid, so her pen was wonderful and really useful. Her family would be annoyed with her if she didn't write back quickly, so she was getting it over with quickly and doing it in the courtyard.

There were some benches when she got there, but benches were boring. Aoife found herself a corner and sat down with her legs crossed. Then she started scribbling a letter. It was only short, just telling them how pleased and super excited to see them she was. When she'd finished, she put the stuff back in her extremely colourful bag to take to the owlery later and looked around for a familiar face.

Across at the other side of the courtyard, she saw Aylee. The older girl was reading something, which wasn't really a surprise. Aoife skipped over to her, beaming. She hadn't talked to Aylee for a while. "Hi hi hi!" she said happily. "Guess who it is? I have to tell you, I'm bad at secrets! It's your favourite awesomecool second-year friend!" Aylee was Aoife's favourite sixth-year friend, so if it didn't work in reverse, she'd be sad.

Other sixth-years would consider it stupid, but Aylee's been studying ever since she set foot back in the castle after summer. After all, what did she have better to do? Sydney's parents seemed to have pulled her friend out of school, and probably Auden too, as she hasn't seen her friends since last year. The only friend she had was Ryland, and she wasn't even sure if they were friends at all now. Morgana had her own fifth-year life, crushing other's dreams by being the top of the year. Kynan was a fourth-year. She didn't bother trying to make new friends, anyway, because nobody else in her year had ever bothered and she didn't feel like making friends with first-years. Too immature. So basically, Aylee had no life. The only thing she could do was occupy herself in books as usual and be lonely.

That day, Aylee decided to go read outside. She didn't exactly like going outside much anymore, so in the end she settled on a comfortable place for her- the Courtyard. Holding her copy of The Fault In Our Stars in her hands, she sat down in the sun, with her back against the wall and started re-reading her book for the tenth time. It was very very devastating, because she always ended up crying in the end, even though she knew the ending almost by heart. The book was just so good, it made her cry! Elita had given her the book, along with loads of others, last year for Christmas although Aylee still hadn't been able to thank her.

Still, she absolutely loved the book. Her favourite character was Augustus Waters (who wouldn't love him?). As she was reading, she totally forgot about the real world and became immersed in the book. She was up until the part where Augustus invited Grace over at his house to watch a movie when someone was yelling a familiar name. "Huh?" Aylee asked, and looked up at someone yelling something about a favourite second-year. "Aoife!" she exclaimed at the sight of the little Irish, sheep-obsessed girl. Aylee had to admit, she enjoyed the girl's company even if she was a little hyper. She had helped Kynan sneak Aoife and her friends out to Hogmseade last year, she remembered. That trip hadn't exactly turned out so well.

"Hello, my favourite supermegafoxyawesomehot second-year!" Aylee greeted Aoife, grinning. She had put up with a whole summer of Kynan's talking, so she could definitely say something random without Aoife minding. "How are you?" She slowly closed her book, holding one of her fingers between the pages to mark where she had left off and switched her full attention to Aoife. She could forget about Gus for a while.

"Ayleeeeeeee!" she laughed, taking a seat by her cool friend. "I haven't seen you in ages! Or Kynan! Where have the Walters siblings beeeeeen? Oh, Scotland! Of course! You live there, right? I hope so, it would be embarrassing if I got that wrong!" Aoife seemed to remember Kynan saying something about Scotland that one time. And they did sound a bit Scottish when she came to think about it.

Wow, Aylee had called her supermegafoxyawesomehot! "I'm so telling Hunter you like me more than him! And that he's an ugly git," she added with a happy nod. Her best friend was pretty cool but competitiveness was the best. Favourite second-year didn't actually mean that much. There weren't many supercool second-years like her. Vicky-Tori was quite cool. Hunter was alright. Willow hadn't come back to Hogwarts, which she was really unhappy about. Seren was a brat. Blake was a git. The rest she didn't pay much attention to.

"I'm really good!" Aoife grinned. "My nephews were born the other day and I have some sweets, so I couldn't be much better, really!" She was in an exceptionally good mood. "What about you? How was your summer? How's Scotland?" She paused, wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, then continued. "How's the love of your life, that git Ryland?" She hadn't seen him for AGES. And she actually needed to for once, to give him a hug. He had gotten her a Christmas present last year, and she felt really bad, because she'd given him a girly purse with sheep on.

For the first time, she noticed the book Aylee had been reading. It looked vaguely familiar. Perhaps she'd seen it in a shop or the library? Or her sister had read it? It was most likely a muggle book. "What'cha reading?" she asked, too curious to ignore it and make small-talk about sheep and the weather. "Muggle book? What's it about? Are there any unicorns or leprechauns or giants or chocolate biscuits? I love chocolate biscuits."

Aylee smiled brightly as soon as Aoife started talking. "Yeah, Scotland, if you ever want to come looking!" she replied. She wondered who else had guessed that she was Scottish without telling them. Her Scottish accent wasn't really thick, she had noticed, because her mother said that hers was more British. Kynan's accent was super-Scottish. And then, Ethan... it was hard to tell with him. She had gotten so used to her older brother's voice that she had no idea what his accent was anymore. "What about you?" she asked Aoife. "Back in Ireland on the farm with your sheep, I'm guessing!" Of course, she was just teasing. But only an idiot wouldn't know about Aoife's love for sheep. The girl said that she was a sheep herself! When Aoife said something about Aylee liking her more than Hunter, she laughed.

"Oh, that's great!" she exclaimed. Aoife seemed really happy, too. "Now you're really Auntie Aoife!" Aylee was remembering that time last year when Aoife tried helping her with her life problems. She grinned and then started as Aoife was asking her a bunch of questions. "Summer was-" she was about to start a whole essay about summer in Scotland when Aoife started wiggling her eyebrows. Then Aoife asked about Ryland. "He's fine, I guess," Aylee replied slowly. He's given up, I guess, she really thought in her mind. She didn't want to talk about how he had seriously offended her during Potions. Well, he didn't know about it but she was kind of offended about Phoenix's advice. Ignore it, she thought.

Then Aoife had noticed her book and was asking about it. "Um, no, there are no unicorns or leprechauns or giants or biscuits of any sort," Aylee answered, grinning. Then she tried to think of a way to present the book in a way to make Aoife want to read it. She thought for a bit, then said, "It's a really sad book which makes me cry everytime I read it."

"Kynan told me!" she beamed. "I wouldn't have guessed it myself. I'm terrible at recognising accents!" Kynan sounded more Scottish than Aylee. Aoife didn't know why. Maybe it was because his sister had been at school here longer. Even though Hogwarts was in Scotland, most people attending were English. That meant the siblings probably would sound more English-y, maybe with a hint of Netherland-y or Ireland-y from the VanDerbergs and her. Not really. "I'll come and visit you one day, when I'm rich." Then she could afford it herself.

Stupid question. She sighed jokingly. "Of course I was with the sheep!" she exclaimed. Out in the fields, hugging sheep, playing with sheep, shearing sheep. And on the rare occasion the weather was so bad her parents forbid her from going outside, watching Shaun the Sheep and staring out of the window at sheep.

Aylee didn't seem too convinced. "Only fine?" she asked, concerned about her lovesick teenager friend. They didn't want her becoming to attached to a curly-haired git. She had to go and get a good job and earn money, then she could marry whoever she wanted. Obviously Ryland. Auntie Aoife's advice for life, right there. "Is there trouble in paradise?" She smiled at the expression. It was funny, for some reason.

Aoife frowned. "Oh." What was the point in reading a book with nothing interesting in it? Seriously, Aylee? She may not have the most common sense, but sometimes the redhead was surprised by her stupidity. But then she went on to describe the book more. "Cry?" she snorted. "A book can't make you cry." Maybe it could make book-obsessed teenage Ravenclaws cry, though. They might be the exception. "It wouldn't make me cry. I'm too brave and awesome." Obviously.