A Friend of a Friend PV Cosmo Keith Closed

Excited to see @Simon Kincaid

The days of summer had flown by, and Cosmo found herself clinging to each hour with new fervour. She filled the time by swimming and painting, exploring and running and climbing. It was wonderful but tiring, so today she was serenely walking under the dappled light of some trees by the great lake, and she planned to find a nice place to sit. Letting herself take a breather when things became overwhelming was something that Annabel had taught her daughter from a young age, and boy did Cosmo need it this summer.

For one thing, this was the first time she had been geographically close to anyone attacked by SCAR, not to mention anyone who died. It took a while for the youngster to wrap her mind around it, and she still hadn't quite come to terms with everything. Then there had been the maze, which while being a superb adventure had been trial in itself, draining for all those who entered its depths. To top it all off, truth or dare was a lovely, if chaotic time - but after meeting so many people Cosmo was truly ready to calm down.

A gust of wind rustled through the green leaves above, and Cosmo took a deep breath, filling her lungs and closing her eyes for a moment as she walked. It was delightful to feel solid ground beneath her buoyant feet, and smell spring on the air as it filled her nostrils. Merry humming filtered through the trees as Cosmo walked, and she was so entranced with everything around her that when she came across Simon she startled a little.

"Simon! I didn't expect to see anyone this far away from the campgrounds today! Do you mind if I join you? I've been looking for a nice place to sit," a wide smile settled on the young gryffindors face at the sight of her best friends boyfriend. She had been meaning to get to know him better, and maybe this was the perfect opportunity.

"Yeah, that's kind of the point..the further out you are, the less likely you'll run into someone that ruins your concentration for conversation," he muttered, glancing out to the grounds before them and then finally glanced up to Cosmo. The look on his face was steady and absolutely serious.

But this was Simon Kincaid and his humor was similar to that of her best friend's. They liked to have this little charade going on, this sort of acting when it came to situations and this was one of them. Finally a smile broke on his face and he leaned over to move his guitar so she'd have a nice place to sit.

"Kidding, only kidding. I'd love for you to join me, Cos. Besides, I don't think we've ever really gotten the chance to know about one another." And maybe that was more important than ever. At least since he last saw Haley at her home to when Summer Camp began, he sense something changed or something had happened but Haley wasn't really giving any details about it. It had him worried. Maybe her best friend and himself could figure it out so they could help her.

"So do, please sit. And hello," he leaned over again, this time extending out his hand to her. "Simon Kincaid, second year Hufflepuff and London native. Pleasure to meet you."

Semi Silly, Semi Serious with @Simin Kincaid

Cosmo's smile only dropped for a second before she noticed Haley's familiar humour showing on the hufflepuff boy, sometimes it was just so obvious how perfectly they fit together. "Oi you tosser, I make perfectly fine conversation!" Cosmo was grinning, and as she plonked down beside Simon she nudged her knee against his in a friendly gesture. "You're right about getting to know each other, and I've been meaning to find you for a while now anyway actually..."

It might have been a little mysterious to trail off on her sentence but Cosmo really didn't mean anything by it, she just knew that jumping straight into talking about her worries for Haley wouldn't do. As much as their common friend needed talking about, the ice could be broken first.

"Well hello there Simon Hufflepuff Kincaid of London, my name is Cosmo Keith, second year Gryffindor and local resident of Chesham!" she did a silly little half bow and extended a hand to shake Simons with. "An absolute delight to meet you as well, good sir," it was an absolutely ridiculous pantomime, and it had Cosmo in giggles before she could even finish. The whole thing reminded her of Haley though, and her smiles faded once again. Cosmo's hand returned to her lap and she began to fiddle with the hem of her dress, pondering. Surely Simon would have noticed his girlfriend was acting odd, maybe even he knew something that she didn't. With this realisation she wasted no more time, and looked up, out towards the lake as she began to talk.

"So I don't know if you've noticed anything strange going on with Haley this summer, or maybe she told you something but I think the trip to her grandfathers went worse than she's telling me," once out in the open, Cosmo felt her muscles relax a little. Now things would start to clear up, she just knew it.

Simon was quiet for a moment. Haley did seem to be more distant lately and she wouldn't go into specifics with him on the trip which was quite annoying. He cared about the girl and it seemed as though she was shutting him out for some reason or another. Then there was also the fact that he had a lot weighing on his mind and with Haley being the obvious person he'd go to - she seemed to have too much going on herself to put that on her. He wanted to help lift her up but not weigh her down.

Simon glanced over to Cosmo. He knew she was there to help Haley best she could and he admired that. He only wanted the best for their redhead as well. Haley was lucky to have a best friend like her. "Sounds like she's told you more about her trip than she's told me," he began, hoping to not sound as bitter as he felt about it. Honestly, his main emotion was worry here so he didn't want to muddle it up with other emotions, but they were there.

"She never tells me much when Aiden is concerned." He was rather sure that the Gryffindor next to him would know of Aiden. It was like Haley tried her best, even around Simon, to not talk about the boy and she always seemed to come back to him. Was Simon jealous? Absolutely. Did he have reason to be? He felt so.

Still, that wasn't the main issue here. He had seen the marks, he had experienced the distance. There was something more than just feelings for a boy that was causing Haley to stray from him. Now wasn't the time to go into whether or not Haley held feelings for others and he was just being strung along... Simon paused, closing his eyes a moment because he hated himself for thinking that. Haley wouldn't do that. Still, it sort of felt that way and he couldn't prevent himself from those thoughts surfacing.

"I wasn't comfortable with her going. Ever since she discovered the letter from her grandparents to her mother..." he glanced to her. Had she heard about that? "Well, it showed how heartless they were. I don't know what she's trying to accomplish by being there. They're cruel people and there was a reason that her mother abandoned them. She freed herself from them."

He looked down to the black stone ring with the snake ring that Haley had given him last year. It had once belonged to her grandfather and they had discussed about not wearing them upon finding out what kind of people they were (Haley wore one similar of her grandmothers) but they decided to still wear them, always, every single day, to try and show that the rings were better on the person they were with now. They overcame that sort of prejudice and they were better people for not believing that muggles were less than those of the wizarding world - or that parselmouths or dhampirs should be feared. It was a sort of unity - discovering who they were and not allowing that to affect them.

"I don't know why she'd go there," he said honestly. "Even if for closure...I mean..." he paused. He knew why she went. Aiden. And it was most likely no form of closure. ...Maybe he should have that ring.