The Rocks by the Lake

"OhmyGod we're going to have, like, the best parade ever!" Molly squeals happily, having already forgotten why she and Dem deserve a parade but now very set in the belief that she and Dem do indeed deserve the most gorgeous parade of all time. "I tell you what - you should totally pick the colours, and I'll plan the menu because once we're done with the parade we're totally going to want a party in our honour too, right?"

"That sounds like a wonderful idea because we will surely be hungry afterwards. Oh, and so will our guests, of course." She agreed, already starting to think of some colour schemes that could work for this parade. "Ohmygosh, how does pink and white sound? Or do you think that it seems to Valentines Day like?" Dem asks, giving Molly one of the colour schemes that she has though of on the spot.

"Uh huh - it would totally be a long parade so everyone will be, like, starved," Molly says. She tilts her head to the side, considering Dem's suggestion. "I think it kinda might be a bit too Valentine's Day - what if we added, like, some purple or a bright blue or something?" she wonders.

"Yeah, I was thinking that, but I just wanted to double check with you first." She nodded. "What if we added a light blue and a light purple into it, so then it's all light colours, but still rainbow-ish at the same time, you know?" She looked at Molly to see her approval or disapproval of her colour scheme suggestion.

"Ooh, I could totally see that working," Molly agrees, greaming. "It would be like rain, only, you know, like pretty!" Gah! Lame!post is lame.

"Yes! Pretty rain! It will look soooo good!" Dem enthusiastically says, starting to imagine how their amazing parade will look. "So, have you thought of any food for after the parade yet? Or is it something that will just come to you?" She asks, taking the spotlight off her because Molly is a part of the parade planning, too. Therefore, she needs to share her ideas and thoughts.
Don't worry, lovely. It's all good. <3

Molly holds up her hands as if she is showcasing something that only exists as a concept in her own mind. "Ok, so, here's the thing. I'm thinking that, you know who else loves parades? Americans. So we could totally, like, have a slightly American inspired themed cocktail party style thing after and everything could be in super cute miniature form! Like, mini hotdogs and mini hamburgers and awesomely cute little things like that," she babbles.

"Wow, that sounds like such a great idea! All the food will be all so cute and pretty!" Dem exclaims, thinking of the way the food could be layed out and decorated, it should look really nice and neat, but not too over done at the same time. "Who will make it? Because if we are parading around, we obviously can't do the honours."

Molly pauses, deflating a moment. She hasn't yet considered that. "Oh. Right. That could, like, totally be a problem because people would want the best and well you know, I'm the best there is with food." She tilts her head to the side, her nose wrinkling as she thinks as hard as she can. "Well I suppose we could always, like, hire Ted to see to the catering for us - he's totally awesome. Obviously, or I wouldn't be making a cookbook with him."

"Yes, that sounds like a good plan because you and him are the best cooks out, so everything should run a-okay!" Dem says happily, crisis averted. "What about drinks? We definitely need to have drinks, otherwise everyone will get thirsty and they won't have anything to drink, so that is a must. We should have something Americany, sticking with the theme. What do American type people drink? Do they just drink the same things as us?"

Molly tilts her head to the side, her hand coming up to twirl the ends of her hair about her fingers as she falls back into her thinking pose. "Huh, I don't even know. I used to know an American - he sort of had a thing with my brother, but he's gone now. You know I totally never even asked him if Americans have, like, different drinks. Ooh, but Arthur's brother is opening a bar so I bet he could totally help out!"

"Yeah, I bet he'll know what American drinks are! He must seeing as he'll have people from everywhere there, so he'll need to know all sorts of drinks. That's a perfect idea!" Dem happily said, getting more and more excited as they talked.

"Oh totally, Billy's bar is a gay bar so you already know it's awesome," Molly says with a shrug, because her experience of gay people naturally begins with her brother, and her brother is naturally awesome, therefore Molly equates some measure of awesomeness with being gay. "And Arthur says his brothers are both awesome so whatever," she shrugs, as if that's that. "I bet Billy could come up with a whole bunch of cocktails and mocktails in our colour scheme, too!"

"Yes, that just makes it automatically awesome!" Dem nodded and agreed because gay people are just amazing in general and inner!Dem and outer!Dem both wish that they had a gay best friend. "Yeah, he probably could and they will be delicious! And everyone will love them and when they ask, we shall tell them that he made them and everyone will love him!" Dem rambles on.

"And that would mean drumming up some more business for him because everyone would want to go to Billy's bar then and that would be, like, super awesome!" Molly chirps, happy because she'd love to do anything she could to help Arthur's family. Even though she's never met them, she really wants them to be happy just because she knows that would make Arthur happy.

"Exactly! It's a win-win situation!" Dem happily smiles. "Won't this parade just be so amazing?!" Dem enthusiastically asked Molly. "I mean, there's a fun parade and a party with lots of amazing food and drinks. The people should be thanking us for our kindness and generosity." She nodded very seriously, but then smiled.

"Really we are just, like, the most generous people of all time," Molly says, eyes wide and sincere before she too giggles. "We give people jobs and then we give them a party and then we, like, drum up business for other places!" She looks at the sun sinking in the sky and gives a little grimace. "I should, like, get back to the castle. See you around, Dem? We'll talk parade logistics soon!" she says, greaming.

"Gosh, I know! We are the best people ever! We need medals or something..." Dem says, looking up at the sky as well. "Hmm, yeah, and definitely! We want to make this the best parade ever!" She smiles and insists while packing up her forgotten drawing epuipment.

"We totally do!" Molly says, although she hopes her medal matches her shoes. "I'll talk to you soon, Dem. Bye!" Molly says, stuffing her knitting back into her bag and strutting off.

"Cya Molly!" Dem says with a wave and a smile, then finishes packing all her suppplies back up and into her bag, going up to the castle not long after Molly does.

[Timeline: This is before the Scorpal fight. <.<]

Al sat down on a rock.

Rose walked towards the lake, not really conscious of her surroundings. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying and she had her wand drawn at her side, just in case she needed to take out some frustration on a nearby rock or tree. Finally, she noticed Al in front of her and stopped dead, fighting back another round of tears. She missed her cousin. Still, what he did was wrong. She tried to walk quietly backwards the way she came, but she tripped on a rock and fell with a loud thump.

Al looked up as he heard someone falling over, and turned his head, freezing as he realized who it was who had fallen. Part of him wanted to stay where he was, but...she was his cousin. It'd be wrong to just ignore her and not make sure she was alright. He sighed as he got up to his feet, then walked over to her and knelt down next to the person he had hurt most in the world. "You alright?" he asked quietly. He hadn't seen Rose since before sleeping with Scorpius, and his eyes filled with sadness at how much she had changed over the past year.

Rose met Al's eyes as he walked towards her and saw the regret that was reflected there. It made her feel a little worse when she jerked away from him but, she reasoned, he deserved it. "I'm fine." She told him, picking herself up so she stood over him. She looked down at him with dark eyes, "Not that you'd care, anyways." It was a petty thing to say and she knew it, but as her throat closed over and tears threatened yet again she knew that her best defense against breaking down completely in front of him was to be as mean as she could.

Al's face fell as he got back up to his feet. "That's not true, Rose," he managed, his voice quiet and hurt as he took a step back. "I do care about you. We used to be close before I fucked up your life," he mumbled, crossing his arms over his chest as he felt the guilt sink in for the first time since he first realized he had killed her relationship with Scorpius. "I wish I could say I'm sorry for what I did. I am sorry for hurting you, I honestly am." He forced himself to meet her eyes again as he looked down at her. "But I'm not sorry for what I did with Scorpius. At least, I don't think I am," he added, remembering that Scorpius had been basically absent from his life since they first slept together.