By the Punch Bowl

...

Okay. Okay, breathe.

He was just joking around. Just some friendly chatter about teddy bears and kidnapping, that's all.

Perfectly normal. It's not like you liked it or anything.

Which you didn't. You didn't.

Lorcan's eyes were a bit farther away than the punch bowl table, back in the boys' common room and replaying events in his head that he wasn't so sure he wanted to forget. He didn't snap out of it until cold punch landed on his hand, and at that point he dropped the goblet and all, leaving a mess. Granted, it was promptly cleaned by, well... Magic. But that didn't mean the shock hadn't been there.

"Mother of Rowling," he shook his hand, and grabbed for another.

Audrey walked over as she saw the poor 6th year fumbling for another cup. Eyeing up the hickey on his neck she gently relieved him of the ladle and cup and poured on for him, "Girlfriend troubles?"

He'd almost slipped into Chaser mode and not let go of the items, a bit defensive. But this wasn't an opposing Quidditch team, it was a girl. Who was nice enough to pour the punch for him. Lorcan opened his mouth to protest the question, but decided against it.

"Uhm. Something like that." There he went again, answering questions before gauging whether or not the person should know anything. "...How'd you guess?"

She put down the ladle and ran a finger over his neck, "This little treasure and the fact that you were shaking like a leaf." She held out her hand, "I'm Audrey Stevenson by the way."

Shaking like a leaf? Lorcan hadn't even noticed. Was it really that bad?

He had a bit of a late reaction to the finger running along his neck, and for a second was confused. He had no clue what she was talking about. What could she possibly have been talking abou--

Oh, no.

Lorcan's eyes widened; he obviously hadn't had a clue. Had Peter really left a mark? A little voice in the back of his head yelled at him about not looking into mirrors more often. Though, that certainly explained why Lysander was always looking into them...

"I'm," he cleared his throat, "Lorcan." A hand shook with hers briefly.

"Nice to meet you. Now what happened with that? You're obviously not okay with it..." Audrey is INCREDIBLY quick on the uptake, "It wasn't a girlfriend was it?"

Had Hogwarts always been so full of perceptive people? Where had he been these past five years?

"Not... Exactly." Lorcan wondered just how downright embarrassing it would be to have to admit what had happened. Because really--a ticklefest and near-molestation just as retribution for the kidnapping of a teddy bear? How absolutely insane would that have sounded?

"Lorcan, I promise I won't tell anyone. Was it another guy?" Audrey was worried. This kid wasn't looking so good.

"Yes?" He answered in question form, obviously not very used to talking about this sort of thing.

It wasn't that he didn't like Pan. Just that Lorcan was not his twin. And was therefore not used to any of this happening. At all.

"I just don't know. I don't know. I don't even know what I don't know." Did he like him? Did he? It wasn't as if he was straight. Or gay, for that matter. Gender didn't really play a role in this for Lorcan.

But he'd only known the kid a day.

Maybe he was just shocked.

"Okay" Audrey was really worried now, "We'll take this step by step. What exactly happened. Just the facts this time."

"Er," Lorcan hesitated, but leaned his hands onto the table. He blew out a short breath, pepping up for this. "Well, I got on the Quidditch team." As if to himself, he gave a nod. "So I went back to the commons room, sprawled out on a couch, Peter walked in and I told him, we talked, he said congrats, I asked him why he was there to begin with," one deep breath was taken in mid-ramble, "he told me he lost his teddy bear, I found Teddy -that's his name, I kidnapped teddy, Peter wanted Teddy back, I didn't give teddy back and then I got myself tickled and pressed against and got my neck attacked by an evil, evil child." Another deep breath.

Audrey's jaw would have dropped if she wasn't so good at keeping it under control, "Peter? Peter Pan?" She took a deep breath, "He only attacked your neck? He didn't kiss you or anything like that?" BECAUSE TAM LEARNT ALL ABOUT THIS IN SEXUAL ASSULT CLASS YES SHE DID.

"Was he supposed to?" Lorcan was clueless. As he usually was, when it came to this. He was going to assume she meant kissing in the lip form. "All I did was take the teddy bear, though, why would he have to? I mean, he kissed my neck but..."

Audrey was now VERY worried. No boy over the age of 12 should be that innocent, "Well yes he kissed your neck. But are you okay? Mentally I mean. How do you feel about it?"

Lorcan straightened himself out, standing up. "Well... I was in shock. I kind of walked out without saying anything..."

He was evading the question, and something told him he knew why.

"Lorcan." Audrey sighed, they'd only just met and she couldn't push it. "Look, I'm here if you need to talk" She handed him his punch and headed off to do whatever.

Caradoc promptly struts over to that gorgeous hunk, whose name is Kras, though he doesn't know that yet. A wide grin on his face, he promptly leans on the table and flashes his sexiest smile. "Hey there, don't think I've met you before. Got a name?"

Krasimir turns to see who'd addressed him and smiled a very bright smile at the extremely good looking guy. "Nope, don't recall meeting you either, but that's alright. I'm Krasimir. May I ask who I'm speaking to?" Kras is very polite.

[Inner!Aura is giggling and I, Lily am glad I didn't post her here. May I just say it'd be amusing if Kras began talking about Aura as Rad knows her? XD *goes back to creeping*]

Caradoc is a bit too coarse for that sort of politeness, but he isn't rude, y'know. "I'm Caradoc, but you," he said, prodding Kras lightly in the chest, "can call me Rad. Doesn't sound like you're from around here either, I just transferred here myself, this year. You another transfer?" he asked, hoping this guy doesn't speak a lot of English, because he prefers guys who don't talk too much, for this sort of thing.

[sorry, mum called and wouldn't get off the phone]

"Vell, it's nice to meet you, Rad. You can call me Kras if you'd like." He blinked when Rad poked him in the chest. "Vare did you transfer from? I've transferred here from Bulgaria; I went to Durmstrang vith Viktor. Ve're great friends." He grinned happily, thinking about his best friend.

"I'm from the States," he replied, mentally wishing he could kick Viktor for being best friends with this sexy bitch, 'cause he totally bets they were a little more than friends, with Kras lookin' like this. "Oh, yeah, Viktor's a great guy. I'm sure if you guys are friends, you're the sort of guy I'd like to get to know better," he said, grinning, while Eowyn facepalms.

"Von day I'll get to travel over to the States." Kras nods, smiling. He greams when he hears Rad say that he'd like to get to know him better, totally clueless to the fact that that's not entirely exactly what Rad is implying. "Vell, that's awesome! I'd love to get to know you better too, especially if you're a friend of Viktor's."

Caradoc totally takes that to mean something entirely different from what Kras was implying, poor guy. "So, you a fan of parties like these? A pity no one's working the dance floor," he commented, gesturing to the lack of sexy things on the floor. "As for myself, I like to have as much fun as possible, at any given moment. I figure, we've got one life, so why not enjoy it?" he said, winking at Kras.