You did what!? PV Aaron Jones Finished

Aaron wasn't feeling particularly hungry that evening, and he decided to head out to the Training Pitch before dinner. Lately after classes, he would change out of his robes into something comfy - in this case, a dark hoodie and jeans. Earlier in the year, he would've asked Professor Bercegeay for a school broom to go for a ride and train - but she no longer worked here, replaced by Professor Jemari whom he did not have a close relationship with (yet) and wasn't sure he ever would. So he was stuck on the ground as he walked to the Training Pitch, finding it deserted and perfect to just think about things.

In his hands, Aaron actually held a certain something that his parents had sent him. He had been debating giving it to Lydia for days now. The timing just seemed so off, and he didn't think it was the kind of gift he could give with no explanation. What if she overthought it? And what if she didn't want it? Things were still weird between them after the disastrous Secret Blossom Ball, and he wasn't sure when things would get back to normal. Honestly, he was just feeling so down these days and had no idea what to do about it. But.. the thought of giving her this and seeing her face light up made Aaron smile a tiny bit at times. Maybe he should just do it.

Almost like a sign, Aaron glanced up from where he had sat in the middle of the pitch to see an approaching figure. That of @Lydia Cooper. For the first time in a while, Aaron's face fully lit up at the sight of her. Surely this meant that he should give her the gift! He jumped to his feet, small giftbox still in hand as he made his way over to her. Before he could say a word of greeting, though, Lydia spoke first.

What she said made his stomach sink, and Aaron subconsciously stuffed the giftbox into the pocket of his hoodie. Lydia definitely would've seen something in his hands as he had approached, and seen him stuff it into his pocket, but he doubted she would ask about it considering the topic she had decided to bring up. It was only then that he noticed how serious she looked.

"He was being a jerk," Aaron said, his tone immediately and extremely defensive. There was no point in denying the fact. He wouldn't lie to her about something like this - there was no reason to. Sure, he wished that she had never found out about it, but now that she knew, she would undoubtedly want an explanation. What had Rafael told her? And even worse - why the heck was she hanging out with him anyway? After what he had done at the ball? "What did he tell you?" Aaron asked, crossing his arms in another defensive gesture. He didn't appreciate the way she had appeared out of the blue with such an accusing question. Especially when he had been so excited to see her a moment ago - only to have that feeling dashed.

It had only been a couple days ago that Lydia had shown up at breakfast with an injured hand, having punched a kid named Ruka for saying something bad about Rafael. Was Aaron going to be next? Because no way was he going to apologize for clocking Rafael for the insulting things he said. Aaron's resentment for the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain only seemed to be growing, because every time his name was brought up, an unpleasant interaction followed.

-Interacting with @Aaron Jones -
-Mentioning: Rafael D'Spacito-

For a small second, Lydia felt like she had exaggerated; seeing the way her best friend's face had lit up when he saw her made her feel almost guilty for attacking him that way; she even considered apologising for it, but when he answered her saying that Rafael had been a jerk, that idea went away. She did also notice Aaron putting something away, it had looked like a small box, but she decided not to ask him about it for the moment, there were other matters at hand.

Crossing her arms in front of her, her eyes fixed over her best friend's face, Lydia was trying her best to keep a somehow composed attitude. He sounded defensive, and his body language -that she had subconsciously mirrored- showed it; his next works made her raise an eyebrow, as she tightened the grip over her own arms. She needed to stay calm and try to get answers, this was not the time to give in to the emotions. "He told me you punched him, in the face, when he asked you the permission to bring me to the Ball," she answered, her voice hard. Why did he need to punch him, did he really hate Rafael that much?

The Gryffindor boy's words sounded in her head, how he thought that Aaron had feelings for her... could he actually have been right? Was that the reason why he had punched the Quidditch Captain?

Another thing that really upset Lydia was the fact that Aaron had decided not to tell her about the punch; he had lied and decided that the whole thing was not worth a mention -or at least that's what Lydia thought happened. Looking up at her best friend, a frown on her face, the red headed girl kept staring at the boy, almost as if she hoped to understand why that happened. "Why didn't you tell me? Was that not important? Don't you think it's something I should have known?" she asked, an exasperated sigh leaving her lips. "I- if I had known- I wouldn't have tried to make you guys get along. Why though, why did you punch him? What did he possibly say for you to just... use violence like that? He wanted to do something nice for me, and you just... hit him in the face,"

The more questions she asked, the more she felt like she was shaking; all of the tension in her body was screaming to be let out, her nerves all tense, as she felt like she was on the verge of crying. She had to resist that urge though, the last thing she wanted in that moment was for Aaron to ask why she was crying, and it wasn't like she could blame it on the whole punch thing. The kiss with Rafael was inevitably going to come up in the conversation, but the longer she could avoid that, the higher were the chances for her to learn why her best friend had decided to use her crush as a punching bag.

Well, this wasn't going to go well. The way she mirrored his stance in crossing her arms made Aaron instantly aware of this. And now that they were close up, he could see something in her face that was oddly familiar. He imperceptibly tilted his head, examining her face and finding signs of distress. She looked puffy, and her eyes were red. Had she been crying?

Aaron had no opportunity to feel bad or ask about her distress before @Lydia Cooper was speaking again, this time answering what Rafael had told her about the fight. Again, Aaron felt defensive in every part of his body. He stiffened and raised his chin slightly, looking down at his shorter friend. Rather than interject with his defense right away, he stayed quiet and let her rant about how he should've told him and why did he not. He scowled slightly, knowing that she was siding with him before she had even heard his side. Why else would she sound so impassioned?

"You know why I didn't tell you? Because of this!" he said, rage blazing behind his eyes. "From the moment I first saw you around him - that first flying practice we all did together - I noticed you acting different! Like you are completely blinded by him and trust him more than anything or something!" He knew he was ranting at this point, and he didn't quite realize that he might say something he would regret. "You've only heard his side of the story, and it feels like you're already siding with him! You really think I would punch him just 'cause he was trying to do something nice for you?" Aaron scoffed at this point, looking away from Lydia. He was so mad that she thought so little of him, and he uncrossed his arms. His fists clenched at his sides as he turned back to her.

"Did he tell you that he insulted you? And that he insulted my Quidditch Captain?" he snapped. "Not to mention he insulted me too! But forget that! It was him insulting my friends that got to me! He was talking about you like you weren't your own person! And he was saying mean things about Saskia's strategy during our practice match!" his voice had raised at this point, and he was practically trembling with anger. Why did he need to defend himself to his best friend? She was supposed to side with Aaron always!

"I didn't tell you because I didn't want to ruin the ball for you, and you like him for some reason that escapes me, so I wanted to let you make your own decisions! If he were an actual gentleman like he constantly claims to be, he never would've told you about this! You're even crying because of it!" he said, that last part finally making him feel a bit bad about arguing like this. He didn't like seeing her cry, and he hoped she didn't break into more tears. But maybe they were angry tears. Maybe she was only crying because she didn't want to be friends with him anymore. That thought made him balk slightly, his eyes becoming a bit wide as he waited for her response.

-Interacting with @Aaron Jones -
-Mentioning: Rafael D'Spacito-

Aaron's body language, his arms crossed, chin raised up as he looked down at her, made Lydia's anger raise a little bit; he looked upset and angry with her, but here she was the one that had a reason to be angry -or at least that's what she thought. She looked up at her friend, her eyes never leaving his almost in a challenging way; he wanted to act upset? Well, so could she.

The way he spoke, how his eyes seemed to be wilder than she had ever seen him, made it clear that the boy in front of her was properly upset. Not that she had any doubt about that. She didn't interrupt him, she wanted to hear everything he had to say before she talked back. His words however made her stomach turn, and not in a good way; Rafael thought that Aaron had a crush on her, and the way he talked... he did sound jealous of Rafael, of the fact that she liked him.

The more he talked, the more he said, and the more Lydia's worry grew; how could she ask him if he had a crush on her, without him getting more mad? She had never seen Aaron that upset; yes, he had almost punched a fellow Hufflepuff in the common room once, but that was a different situation, they had almost died. In her mind his behaviour reminded her of Rafael's, with how he was anger, how he kept clenching his fists; ironically, the young badger was way more like his "enemy" than he thought.

While he was letting it all out, Lydia kept looking at him, right in his eyes; but when he suggested that she was crying because Rafael had told her about the fight, she looked away, focusing her gaze on the boy's shoes. Of course she wasn't crying for that, but rather because she had poured her heart out to the boy she liked, he had kissed her back, only to then run away after saying that he couldn't do that.

When Aaron had finished talking, Lydia took a deep breath and looked back up at him, her eyes determined. "I'm not crying because he told me about the fight," she started. "You say I act different when I'm around him? That's because I don't know how to act when I'm with him! I- it's like my brain shuts off, and all I do is embarrass myself, or him, or both. I'm not blinded by him, I just- I like him, and I want him to like me back; I do trust him, yes. He's...complicated, I know, but-" she took a deep breath, trying to order her thoughts, "He's a good person, a good friend as well. You guys are more similar than you know..." the last part was almost whispered, as she looked away from her friend once again.

"How did he insult me? Because he wanted to ask your permission?" she shook her head slightly, in disbelief. "I know I am my own person; he knows that as well. I'd never let someone behave as if they have any... any kind of right over me. He wanted to do something cute, almost old fashioned; he wasn't trying to insult me. And for the insult to Saskia, come on Aaron. It's Quidditch, and he's the captain of the opposing team- the losing team. He probably couldn't find any other flaw in the Hufflepuff team, so he tried to go for something not true- it happens everyday in football and any other sport," Lydia knew how both Rafael and Aaron were passionate about the sport, so it didn't surprise him that something like that would happen. But for her it wasn't that important, it was only a sport in her eyes -a sport that she liked, yes, but she knew well how kids got when feeling competitive and maybe a little sore for having lost.

"The ball... you could have told me back then, it was already ruined after all..." looking back at her friend, Lydia uncrossed her arms. "He's not a bad person Aaron. I- I don't always understand him, or agree with what he does, but- it's not my job to change him. I know he has the tendency of being short tempered, and it's definitely something he should work on, but I also know that when you punched him, you acted exactly like him," She shook her head again, holding up a hand as if to show that she wasn't done talking yet. "I'm not upset because you punched him, or because he told me or whatever. You didn't tell me. That's what hurts. You thought that keeping it a secret was better than letting me know that you can't stand him. That- that you don't trust me enough to be both your friend and- well, his friend as well,"

Lydia dried her eyes with her healthy hand, and looked away from the badger boy. "And really, I'm not crying because of this. It's... it's because we kissed, me and Rafael. We kissed and... then he said he couldn't and ran away,"

A good person? A good friend? He and Aaron were more similar than he thought? Aaron scoffed at these descriptions of Rafael, looking away from Lydia and tightening the crossed arms across his chest. Why was this even happening right now? What in the world had prompted the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain to start spilling his guts about a private moment between himself and Aaron. Lydia did not have to learn about any of this, yet here she was with only Rafael's side of the story. And even though Aaron was telling her his side of it, it was like she didn't care. She only wanted to believe Rafael. That he was the good guy in any and every situation.

"Well fine then! I'll make sure not to ever defend you again if this is how you'll react to it!" Aaron spouted in response to her defending Rafael's action of being 'old-fashioned' and asking his permission. It was not cute in Aaron's eyes, but apparently everything Rafael did was cute to Lydia. "And I know you don't care about Quidditch like I do - even Rafael cares more about it than you - so don't act like you know how it feels to be insulted in that regard! Yeah it's just a sport to you, but you know I want it to be my life!" Aaron was growing beyond frustrated with his supposed best friend. "You weren't even there in the bathrooms, so stop defending him already! You're just taking his side in everything!" The young boy felt like he was going to explode at this rate.

Lydia started talking about the ball - about how Aaron could've told her about the encounter in the bathrooms back then - but she didn't get it. He didn't want her to know about that whole thing. She didn't need to know about what had happened between him and Rafael. He wanted her to realize he was no good without Aaron having to encourage that feeling. She just didn't get it. She said Rafael wasn't a bad person, and that by punching him, Aaron was acting exactly like him. This had Aaron uncrossing his arms and clenching his fists by his side. How dare she! But then she held up her hand before he could interject, and he begrudgingly let her finish.

"I'm not upset because you punched him, or because he told me or whatever. You didn't tell me. That's what hurts. You thought that keeping it a secret was better than letting me know that you can't stand him. That- that you don't trust me enough to be both your friend and- well, his friend as well."

Aaron felt his hands unclenching from his sides as he processed Lydia's words. He was trying not to react immediately - because he sensed that familiar feeling he always did when he overreacted. Like when he had punched George after the Common Room fire. He took a deep breath, his vision blurring only slightly before he was able to refocus on his strawberry blonde friend. Then he spoke, "Fine, Lydia. Be mad that I didn't tell you right away. But then how come you aren't more mad at him too? You're over here arguing with me about not telling you or whatever - although this whole argument you've been just defending his actions - but I don't see you getting mad at him for not telling you. There were two people involved in that fight, and he without a doubt started it!"

And then Lydia dried her eyes and dropped the bomb about her and Rafael kissing. That's why she was crying. Aaron felt like his mind was reeling as he processed the information. "What?" That's the only word that left Aaron's mouth as he tried to understand what she had just said. They had.. kissed? When? Why? They were supposed to be on the outs after the ball. When had they reconciled? Had it been- just now? That's the only explanation that made sense as to why she was crying. "So I get yelled at and he gets kissed," Aaron's voice was just barely above a whisper, as he tried to make sense of the situation.

He was still focused on how this situation impacted himself - that his best friend was taking the side of an absolute jerk - and now she was kissing that jerk and would be taking his side over everything now, but- Wait, had she said he had run away after? Aaron felt his anger dwindling at the realization that she was hurting beneath all the anger and the yelling. But- he still had a right to be angry right? Like- just because she had just gotten rejected, didn't he- But- Well-

"Are you okay, Lydia?" he finally asked, his voice weak as he tried to figure out the correct response to the situation.

@Lydia Cooper

-Interacting with @Aaron Jones -
-Mentioning: Rafael D'Spacito-

"I don't need you to defend me!" Lydia threw her arms in the air, letting them fall back down on her sides. "I'm able to defend myself, And-" she stopped in her tracks as Aaron started talking once again, and she crossed her arms across her chest once more, her eyes looking straight at her best friend. His next words hurt the girl a little bit, sending more tears to collect in her eyes both from the frustration and the pain. "Well, I'm sorry I'm not the perfect best friend!" she almost shouted,"And I never said I didn't care about it. I know it's important for you, I was just trying to make you see why Rafael said what he said. He knew that the Hufflepuff team is way better than his team, so he tried to pick on stupid things, even fake ones, to try and make his team look better. I'm not taking his side!" the last sentence was said in a hard tone, as the red-headed girl slightly pouted.

She listened to Aaron's words then, letting him talk as she listened. He was right, she should have been more upset with Rafael about the fight as well; it wasn't like she was not upset with the Gryffindor boy as well, of course she was! He had punched her best friend! But at the same time, she was upset, and hurt, by Rafael because of other reasons as well, reasons that in that specific moment prevailed. She didn't know how to answer to that, probably because she knew that her answer would have made her best friend even more upset.

But of course she wasn't able to keep the kiss a secret for long, and after the words had left her mouth, she looked back at Aaron, biting down hard on her bottom lip as she tried to hold back her tears. The whole situation was already so tense, with her heart beating fast in her chest right after having being broken by Rafael, that the whole argument with her best friend only added to the frustration and hurricane of feelings she was having in that moment.

Aaron's answer to her words didn't make things any easier. That one word, followed by his next comment made Lydia feel worse than before; she knew it wasn't fair that she was letting all of this out on him, that it wasn't his fault if Rafael had run away, and she knew that if the whole fight topic would have come up any other time, she wouldn't have reacted as bad as she had now. But of course the timing was horrible, and she had ended up treating her bet friend in a horrible way.

Lydia's eyes were fixed on the ground, as she felt more tears run down her cheeks. Gosh, lately she wasn't able to do one thing right; first the ball, then Ruka, then Rafael and now Aaron. It was an endless series of bad choices, one after the other.

She hadn't even realised she had started sobbing, not until she felt her chest rise up quickly, almost in a jump, and when Aaron asked her if she was okay, all that she could do was to shake her head as she tried to take a deep breath.

"I- I'm sorry," she finally managed to say, before she broke into a proper sob, her whole body shaking as she cried. Lydia brought her hands up and covered her face, almost as if she was trying to stop the tears from falling, but it was completely useless: now that she had started to let them out, she wasn't able to hold them back anymore. She felt so cold inside, cold and empty, and her heart was aching from the reject and the hurt she had caused to her best friend. It was all too much for the young girl, all too overpowering for her to be able to fight or stop her tears.

The moment Lydia looked down at the ground, it looked like she had given up and was defeated. Why? Why did she look like that? All because of freaking Rafael? Why did that guy even exist? Aaron was feeling infuriated at both Rafael and Lydia for different reasons, but he couldn't stay mad at the latter for very long.

Lydia was fully crying now, and Aaron didn't know how to handle it. His own brown eyes grew wide at the sight of his friend breaking down into tears. He had never been good around tears. His friends didn't cry normally - back home, he had mainly guy friends and none of them would ever cry in front of each other. Here at Hogwarts he seemed to have an abundance of female friends, but even so he had never had to deal with any of them crying so far. The closest had been when Willow freaked out during their flying practice one time, but she had quickly wiped her tears away and they had moved on from it with lunch. He didn't think Lydia would be walking away from this any time soon. What was he supposed to do?

The twelve-year-old felt his heart hammering in his chest as he struggled to think of his next move. But in the end, it only took a few seconds before he walked closer and wrapped his arms around her. He didn't know how else to comfort the crying girl.

"Don't be sorry, it's okay," Aaron ended up saying, his own anger fading as the girl cried in his arms. In actuality, he was still very upset about the situation, but he was pushing his feelings down seeing that Lydia really needed someone to comfort her. So he stood there and held her, waiting for her tears to dry or for her to be able to speak up. He almost wanted to make a comment about what an idiot Rafael was for running off after the kiss - but he worried that would upset Lydia even further. So he kept that to himself, and instead said something a little more comforting. "Whatever happened, everything will be okay. It will pass." He didn't know the details - he wasn't sure he even wanted to know, unless it would help Lydia to talk about it - but he knew that Lydia didn't deserve to be crying right now.

@Lydia Cooper

-Interacting with @Aaron Jones -

Lydia never liked crying in front of other people, she always felt too vulnerable, too open, and she wanted to be strong. But in that moment, with everything running through her mind at the same time, she couldn't keep holding her tears in. It almost felt liberating, letting the drops fall on her face as all of her emotions poured out in waves, like a stormy ocean. She didn't know why she had apologised to Aaron, or well, she did know why, but she also felt stupid in doing so. There was nothing else she could have done, and Aaron was her best friend, so letting him see this side of her, fragile and hurt, wasn't something she should have apologised for.

The moments seemed to pass so slowly that it felt as if months had passed since she had first broken into sobs. The sudden feeling of Aaron's hug took her by surprise, her body jumping up tense for a second. Then Lydia felt all of her guards going down as she wrapped her arms around her best friends and kept crying. In that moment it didn't matter that she had just been yelling at him, upset for the fight between him and Rafael; her best friend was there to comfort her, no matter what.

It felt good, safe, knowing that Aaron was still there for her, despite the way she had treated him. His words reached her mind, and it took her a second to register them; even if she didn't completely believe that things would have gotten better, not yet at least, Lydia still nodded as she tried to slow down her breaths. She felt exhausted, drained, as she slowly calmed down and the tears stopped getting her cheeks wet.

Unlocking her arms from Around Aaron, she quickly wiped some tears from her eyes, before she looked up at her best friend. "T-Thank you," her voice was shaky and fragile, but it still sounded genuine. "I'm sorry, I don't know why I just- I have no idea why I started crying like that," a sigh left her lips, and she shook her head a little. "I have so many things going through my mind, and so many emotions that I have no idea what I'm supposed to feel... I'm upset with you, with him, with myself as well because I know-" as she was talking, the red headed girl kept her eyes on her hands, her fingers nervously interlacing with each other.

"I know that I'm overreacting about your fight with Rafael. You didn't want to hurt me, and I treated you horribly. I'm- I'm so sorry," Lydia gave Aaron a half smile, "Can you forgive me?"

The first-year Hufflepuff boy held his best friend as she cried her heart out, unable to do more than try to comfort her with a few words here and there. It was weird knowing that she was crying because of some jerk like Rafael - why get so worked up over him? But he knew that sometimes you cried because you needed to. Maybe it was more than just Rafael getting to her. Maybe it was their whole fight about being friends and everything. Aaron felt sad either way, but he tried to tell Lydia that everything would be okay.

When she finally released her grip on him and Aaron looked at her, her face and eyes were all red from the tears. She wiped her face before thanking him in a really weak voice. Aaron was still frowning from the whole situation, but knowing she could see his face now meant he tried to smile a little and reassure her. The easy thing to do would be to just accept the apology and move on from this. That's what best friends did, right? He was still so upset deep down, but maybe he should just let it all go. Why hold onto his anger when she was clearly so upset by the whole situation? And she was apologizing...

"Yeah... yeah, I forgive you," Aaron said after a moment's hesitation. He considered apologizing himself, but he was not at all sorry about hitting Rafael. And their argument had been on both of them. "I mean, I'm still a little upset with you, but- I'm not so mad I don't to be friends, silly," he said, offering an equally half smile. As he casually placed his hands in his hoodie pocket, the weight of the gift in his pocket seemed heavier. He'd almost forgotten about it. Should he...? No, now wasn't the time. Instead, he fiddled with the friendship bracelet around his wrist, though the action was hidden by the fact that his hands were in the pocket.

"We should head inside," he said in the next moment, looking towards the sky then back at his redheaded friend, once again reminded that her face was still a bit puffy from crying. He figured maybe she wouldn't want to immediately go back inside. "Or do you want to walk around the grounds for a bit? We don't have to talk, we could just walk."

@Lydia Cooper