May 26, 1893 - Hogwarts Grounds

Already another year was coming to a close. How quickly time seemed to fly by. Soon they would all be adults, their lives altered irrevocably. She had lost Alice last year and now she was losing Ned and Cam and Lester. They had been staples of her life at Hogwarts, always there for her. And yes, she could admit that her friendship with Cam was not what it had once been, nor was it with Lester. But at the end of they day they were still her friends. She needed to talk to them, to set aside the old wounds. To reassure them that she would still be their friend. And with Cam she had begun that process. But Lester was a different story.

Lester had been her first kiss, her first taste of a dream realized, her first regret. She had tried to put the last year and a half behind her, but it was hard. The only thing that seemed scarier than talking to Lester was letting him go without a word. She'd been civil, living up to what she's said at the Christmas party. They could return to a friendship. But Sisse always felt so forced around him, pretending everything was alright. Pretending they could be friends. She had demanded it of him after all.

But instead of acting like the Gryffindor she was the moment there were no more exams to study for and nothing left to do than to spend time with her friends, Sisse had slipped out to the grounds with her sketch pad and settled beneath a tree. She was going to miss this, even if it was just for the summer. There were so many memories under this tree. So many of them revolving around her friends. Without realizing it Sisse had begun to sketch one of those memories. The shapes of her friends forming under the arc of the branches.

The sound of a cracking branch had Sisse suddenly looking up at the tree, her hand raising to cover her eyes against the sun. Was it a creature in the tree? A branch falling? Someone falling out of the branch?

Lester Hatchitt

  

---

*sniff* Bee made her look all grown up <3

Tree-climbing was one of the more childish things he'd tried to avoid thoughts of graduation, but that wasn't going to stop Lester now. He was, for one thing, too far up in the tree to second guess himself. He'd been too high up to realize that Sisse was underneath him until he heard the branch starting to crack under his weight.

"Move!" he urged her, before the branch finally snapped and he crashed towards the ground.

---

  

---

set by lady!

A voice verified that it was indeed a person and without waiting to see who it was Sisse dove out of the way, her skirts making it hard and tangling around her so she ended up half rolling away before the branch and person fell. Except the branch caught on her skirts, pinning her in place. And that's when she noticed who it was.

"Lester! Are you alright?" She scrambled toward him already reaching for her wand to try something - anything- if he wasn't alright. Any mortification from the last year and a half gone in her concern for Lester.

  

---

*sniff* Bee made her look all grown up <3

The wind slammed out of his lungs with force, and Lester moaned pathetically. (Nothing was broken, but he sure didn't have any air at the moment.)

---

  

---

set by lady!

"Lester?" There was a frantic edge to her voice now, he wasn't responding. At least he moaned or Sisse would have been quite certain he was dead.

Her skirt twisted trying to hold her away from him but she pulled against it, leaning toward him shaky fingers finally grasping her wand. "Where does it hurt?" She asked him anxiously, peering down at him as one might a friend resting their head in your lap.

  

---

*sniff* Bee made her look all grown up <3

Lester gasped like a fish on dry land. "Knocked the — air out," he managed, flailing one hand pathetically at his chest.

---

  

---

set by lady!

Knocked the what, what had he knocked. In the seconds between gasps Sisse wondered just what could badly be knocked out. Oh. Air. But she was still worried. "Did you hurt anything else?" She pressed now that he could form words of some sort.

  

---

*sniff* Bee made her look all grown up <3

Lester took another gasping breath. "I don't think so?" he managed, words coming out slowly.

---

  

---

set by lady!

Sisse's heart felt like it was about to pound right out of her chest, even after he (somewhat half-heartedly, in her opinion) reassurde her. "Oh, good." She sighed. "Let's get you sitting," She suggested, holding out her hand to help him up, "And make sure."

  

---

*sniff* Bee made her look all grown up <3

Lester grabbed her hand and allowed himself to be hauled into a sitting position. He exhaled a dramatic breath. "Sorry," he said.

---

  

---

set by lady!

"You're quite alright." Sisse replied brushing his apology aside as she bracced herself against Lester's weight. Once he was safetly sitting Sisse's gaze roamed over him looking for any additional injuries. "Does it feel any worse to sit up?" She asked anxiously. Sisse shifted slightly and then was reminded that her skirts were still caught under the branch and Lester's weight so she remained as she was, kneeling next to him.

  

---

*sniff* Bee made her look all grown up <3

Lester shook his head at her. "No," he said. He inhaled again, just in case. "No, I think I'm actually fine." He'd gotten lucky.

---

  

---

set by lady!

"Oh, thank Merlin!" Sisse found herself exclaiming, hand unconsciously fluttering to her rapidly beating heart, "You gave me such a scare." It seemed foolish now and so she gave a small laugh to wave away the seriousness that had built in her chest.

  

---

*sniff* Bee made her look all grown up <3

Lester smiled wryly at her, blushing with embarrassment. "I'll try not to fall out of any more trees before the Coming Out Ball," he said. Maybe he ought to just give up climbing trees.

---

  

---

set by lady!

"Preferably after, too." Sisse scolded. Was he blushing? She couldn't blame him for that. She likely would be too.

He was probably going to think she meant more than she did by not moving so she supposed she should let Lester know her own predicament. "Perhaps you might avoid falling on my skirts too?" She gave her trapped skirts under him and the branch a pointed look.

  

---

*sniff* Bee made her look all grown up <3

Lester's blush darkened and he scrabbled away from Sisse's skirts looking mildly frightened. "Sorry," he managed.

---

  

---

set by lady!