February 13th, 1888 — Gryffindor Common Room

But tell me, did the wind sweep you off your feet?
Did you finally get the chance
To dance along the light of day
And head back toward the Milky Way?
— Drops of Jupiter, by Trains —

The second half of his seventh year was exceedingly more exciting than the last. Quidditch, while not seeming terribly hopeful at this point, continued on, as did his classes, which he luckily had a much brighter outlook on. Still, he had no desire to lose any of his various friendships and acquaintance, so made a strong effort to chat with them over dinner, in-between class times, or studying.

"Miss Woodcroft!" he called from one of the couches in the room as he caught a glance of the passing prefect. "What've you been up to?" he asked, his tone teasing and somewhat knowing. "Obviously avoiding your problems still."

  

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Avoiding peopled was exhausting.

Emmeline couldn't remember a time where she'd been more exhausted. Her first year as a prefect hadn't even been as bad as it was and she'd had to study for her OWLs then! But ever since that forced mistletoe kiss with Mundungus MacFusty, Emmy felt as if she were always on edge. She was beyond hyper vigilant, always trying to be aware of where exactly he was at in comparison to where she was. As a result, she was on edge and moody and a fair few of students saw the brunt of it while in prefect mode.

A glare, something not quite the norm for her, was shot at the Head Boy but her blush surely betrayed her real feelings. "I don't know what you're talking about," she answered simply though avoided his gaze as she took a seat on one of the couches so he wouldn't have to speak so loudly and risk giving her away.

  

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#LovelyLadySet

Handsome liked picking on Miss Woodcroft, but obviously he had no ill intentions. He considered her a friend, but a very gullible and easily-embarrassed friend nevertheless. "I think you know very well what I'm talking about," he teased, and with a lower voice, he added: "I think he's even beginning to. You're not very good at this whole thing."

  

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Emmeline sat a bit awkwardly on the edge of the couch, perched on it almost as if wanting to stay ready to bolt should it be needed. She turned a brilliant shade of red as she looked to the head boy, someone she'd grown to call a friend.

"I'm really that obvious," she stated even though there was a questioning tone to her voice. She sighed then and dropped her face into her hands while shaking her head. "Remember Peeves' stupid mistletoe that one year?" she asked though didn't raise her head.

  

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#LovelyLadySet

For all that Handsome wanted Miss Woodcroft to be happy, but he was beginning to worry that it was becoming more of a source of anxiety than a little crush. "What about the mistletoe?" he asked, raising a brow. There had been a bunch of students whose chastity cuffs had gone off after kissing people, but luckily the professors had realized what happened.

  

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"The same kind of mistletoe showed up in Hogsmeade over the break," Emmeline said, finally looking back up to him. She couldn't believe she was about to tell him all of this but she had to get it off her chest. "And... I ran into Mr. MacFusty on high street," she all but whispered back to him. Handsome was a smart guy, surely he'd be able to figure it out from there because she wasn't sure if she could say it out loud without crying.

  

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#LovelyLadySet

Handsome's eyes widened. "Oh," he responded knowingly. "And you two..." Kissed.

"How did you... handle that?" MacFusty probably handled it just fine (at least based off what Handsome had learned about him after all those years), but Miss Woodcroft... she was a different story.

  

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Emmeline blushed even more, if it were even possible, and very much resembled that of the crimson couch she was perched on.

"Not well," she said with a shrug, "We..took care of the magic and I ran. Oh Merlin, I ran away. I'm sure he thinks I'm crazy!"

  

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#LovelyLadySet

Giving a smile that signified both his sympathy and his amusement, Handsome shook his head. "He probably was amused," he said offhandedly. "MacFusty isn't really one to overthink things—or take things too seriously." At least compared to Handsome, who only managed to overthink things.

  

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All Emmeline could do was shrug. She had embarrassed herself in front of MacFusty plenty of times. Running away from him after being kissed by him, however, was like the icing on the cake. "I need to forget about it all," she started with a shake of her head, "I need to focus on school. Grades. Hopefully head girl. Then NEWTs." she dropped her head into her hands again.

  

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#LovelyLadySet

He shook his head in sympathy and leaned forward. "Hey," he chuckled. "Just don't stress over him. If you need to focus on something else, we could practice patronus-casting in one of the empty classrooms. Someone said Professor Sleptov would be holding that class soon and I want to make sure I do it this year," he offered. "That, or we can duel. You can throw spells at me and pretend I'm him and whatnot."

  

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Emmeline couldn't help but to laugh at his final remark. She doubted she could actually pretend to be throwing hexes at MacFusty. As she'd shown before, she probably end up just running away. It would be pretty counter productive at that point.

"I'd like that," she said with a smile as she looked up to him, "I've also started working on becoming an animagus. Or at least researching the process of it."

  

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#LovelyLadySet

Animagus training? That was something Handsome doubted he could ever follow through on, but surprisingly enough it didn't shock him to hear it coming from Miss Woodcroft. She was always ambitious with her own things (and she was talented with Transfiguration!).

"That sounds like something you'd be especially good at. I must admit that Transfiguration isn't my greatest strength," he explained with a tiny shrug. "I think it would be a skill to learn if you have the patience to do it! You can use it to go spying." If she knew what he meant.

  

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Emmeline's jaw dropped and her eyes widened at his suggestion. Her cheeks started to take on a red tone again even though her blush had finally started to clear up. It was bold. Scandalous even. She doubted she could ever do anything like it but she couldn't help the small grin that was forming.

"I could never. But thank you," she said with a better smile, "Transfiguration is probably my favorite class. COMC coming in as a close second."

  

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#LovelyLadySet

Handsome's chest heaved in quiet laughter at the look of utter shock on Miss Woodcroft's face. She was definitely a squirmy one, though perhaps not as innocent-minded as he'd assumed. "Care of Magical Creatures has always been fun. It's not very useful for many careers—unless you plan to go into magizoology or for some reason go off to work in the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures," he responded, though his teasing smile and chuckles never faded.

  

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Emmeline's grin faded some as he finished talking. She looked at him almost quizzically. Then she scrunched up her face and thought for a moment. She probably should have considered such a thing before selecting her NEWT classes.

"You know Mr. Whitledge, you just keep making things more complicated for me," she said with a smile once more, turning the jokes back onto him.

  

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#LovelyLadySet