The Apple Trees

"I will totally take you clothes shopping. OhmyGod, really?" she sees the portrait up ahead but puts it out of her mind for the second because she wants to wring out every last second with Arthur. "That is, like, really awesome. I can't wait to see the clock," she smiles, then sighs; they've reached the portrait now, and it's time to go in and go their separate ways. "I had a really good time, you know."

"Me too," Arthur says. He glances down at his feet briefy, debating his options and pondering his next decision. Taking a deep breath, he leans in and kisses Molly - this time, not by accident. He drops the picnic basket; however, it lands somewhere on the other side of his leg and thankfully not on Molly's feet.

Molly is very glad that when the picnic basket crashes to the ground, making her jump ever so slightly, her feet are left intact. She really likes these shoes. Shoes are the last things on her mind though, she's far more interested in the softness of Arthur's lips as they press against hers. Her hands rest lightly on his shoulders as she kisses him back before she pulls away and smiles again. "We should, like, do this again sometime."

"Definitely," Arthur says with a giddy grin. He feels very good about himself right now, and impressed with his basket dropping abilities under pressure. "I'm free next weekend, if you want..." he says, his voice trailing off as he goes to pick up the dropped basket.

"Next weekend it is. Unless I, like, get impatient and come steal you away before that," Molly says with a smirk. With that, she gives the password to the Fat Lady, kisses Arthur's cheek, and disappears through the common room and up to her dorm to squeal loudly.

Arthur stands in front of the Fat Lady for a few seconds after Molly leaves. He then realizes that standing outside the portrait like an idiot isn't exactly the world's brightest move, so he gives her the password and runs up to Ron's dorm, where they jump around like little girls before finding a fireplace so they could do it long distance with their older brother.

Teddy walks up to the apple trees and sits under one of them, holding a text book that looks like it has just about every page bookmarked with some kind of note. After a loud yawn he opens the book to a page marked all over in the margins and begins to read.

Al walked through the grounds with his hands in his pockets, a small concerned frown etched on his face. He noticed Teddy and his expression brightened a bit as he walked over and sat down next to his friend. "Hey, Teddy. Long time, no see. What's up?"

Teddy looked up to see Al standing in front of him and closed his book with a grateful expression. "I've just been studying. Way too much. My brain hurts." He say, theatrically bringing his hands up to massage his temples. "What's up with you? You look..." He paused, searching for a polite way to say it, "Stressed. Boy trouble?" He asked jokingly.

"I'm...alright," he shrugged, though he found it hard to keep smiling when Teddy mentioned boy trouble. "I guess you could say that. Scorpius...he hasn't been around lately, and he won't tell me where he keeps running off to. He gets back to the dorm after I'm asleep, and then he leaves before I'm ever awake. I feel like we never see each other anymore."

Teddy frowned, still slightly unsure of how to talk to Al about his boy troubles. "Well..." He hesitated, then decided just to tackle this as if it was Dom talking to him - after all, he had heard plenty of stories just like this from her. "I'm sure it's nothing. Everyone's really busy around this time, he could just be cram studying or something. If you're really that worried you should just talk to him. There's nothing bad that could come of it, is there?"

"I can't just...ask. I mean, I've tried bringing it up but we rarely see each other," he huffed. "So I like to at least take advantage of the time we do get to spend with each other." He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "It's just...frustrating. The most I get to see him is...well..." He blushed and looked down at his feet. "Notalot."

Teddy sighed and patted the ground beside him. "Sit." He said, "I know what you're talking about, believe it or not." He grinned, "I really think you should bring it up with him. Silence is never a good thing in a relationship. But if you don't want to do that, you could always follow him when he leaves." He smiled again, letting Al know that he was joking. "Scorpius seems..." He stopped before saying 'like a good guy,' he still hadn't even met Al's boyfriend, so he settled with: "Too really like you. Well, the only time I saw you guys together he did. I'm sure if there was something wrong he would at least have the decency to bring it up with you."

"Well, he doesn't," Al huffed as he took a seat next to Teddy. "I just...we always tell each other everything! What's so important that he can't even talk to me about it?" He sighed and leaned back against the tree. "I miss him. All I want is for us to have one full day together without him running off to do something that's more important than me."

"Have you tried arranging something yourself?" Teddy suggested, "You could plan a nice day for the two of you, hopefully he will see that he loves you and can't leave after all the work you've put into it. Or you could lock him in a room with you." He tried not to think of how kinky that sounded, "But I think that he should respect that you want to spend time with him without you having to make any grand gestures to show it." He gave a little shrug, "It's up to you, though."

"I doubt that would work," Al sighed. "If he wanted to spend time with me then he'd make more of an effort. And...the locking ourselves in a room idea doesn't work. Trust me." Well, the door hadn't been locked, but it was the same concept when Al dragged Scorpius into a broom closet between classes. "I just want him to be honest with me without having to beg for it, you know?"

Teddy nodded, "I do know what you mean. You deserve that much at least." He didn't know what to tell Al, it was a pretty sticky situation. "I'm sure there's a good explanation for it or else..." he was a little afraid of saying 'Maybe the relationship isn't working out anymore' so he just let the end of the sentence drop off.

Al sighed and shrugged his shoulders. He just wanted his boyfriend to be around. Was that too much to ask for? The fact that he had started disappearing after taking Al's virginity didn't make it any better, but...this was Scorpius. Even if he was being weird lately, Al still trusted him more than anything. "I guess." He arched an eyebrow and looked over at Teddy with a much more concerned look than he had before. "Or else...or else what, Teddy?"

Teddy shrugged, not wanting to plant any seeds of doubt in Al's mind. It seemed like Al just thought that Scorp was too busy for him and hadn't even contemplated any other options. "Nothing." He said instead of speaking what was actually on his mind, "I don't know Scorp that well, it's hard for me to say. Just try not to let this bring you down, okay?"

Al stayed quiet for a moment as he looked at Teddy, deciding whether or not he should press the subject to find out what Teddy had meant to say before he figured it'd be best to just drop it. "Alright," he shrugged, forcing a small smile as he looked over at Teddy. "Enough about my issues. What have you been up to, other than studying like a mad man?"

Teddy stayed silent, knowing that some part of Al didn't believe that he really had nothing to say. Al would probably always be able to tell when Teddy why lying. He relaxed when Al chose to drop the subject. "Nothing is new with me, really. Studying is all I really do." He shrugged, "I'm trying to catch up with everyone, but I haven't really seen anyone around."

"Yeah, everyone is sort of busy off doing their own thing. Remember Dom? I haven't seen that girl in months. The last time we talked...was when I was coming out to her," he admitted with a small frown. "And now I have no clue where she is. You seen her at all?"

Teddy shook his head, "Last time I talked to her..." Was when she was coming out to me. "Was about a month or ago, I think. Maybe two. I can't believe I haven't seen her in forever, she's pretty much my best friend. Then again, if I haven't seen her it's probably my fault... but if you haven't seen her, that's a little troublesome."

Al's face dropped as he realized Dom was talking to Teddy and Parv, yet she had left him out when it came to actually catching up. "Oh. Well, I hope she's happy wherever she is," he sighed, remembering how hurt Parvati had been because of Dom's disapproval of her relationship with James.

"No, no." Teddy spoke quickly when he saw hurt look cross Al's face, "I'm not saying that she's avoiding you. In fact, last time I was talking to her she was going to try to find you - she really wanted your opinion on something." He shrugged, "My guess is something happened that's been keeping her tied up. You know Dom, she gets caught up in things and isn't heard from for a while."