3 duelers walk into the hall Errand Closed

Rose's eyebrows raised with intrigue when Logan said she had plans. "What kind of plans?" The Hufflepuff's plans tomorrow night could be boring- meeting up with a friend, a study group of some kind, or just finishing up homework. But really? It was Valentine's day tomorrow, after all. You couldn't just do something boring like that without it relating to Valentine's day. Plus, it was Valentine's Day night. It wasn't like it was in the middle of the day- it was "tomorrow night." It sounded a whole lot like a date to Rose. Now, who was the lucky guy or girl? That was the question. And it seemed like Henry didn't know about her plans, but he guessed anyway on who she might be meeting. Someone named Elsian. Rose didn't think she had ever met this Elsian person, but she guessed that anyone that sweet Logan had a crush on couldn't be that bad. Assuming Elsian was Logan's crush. It wasn't ever good to assume, though, so Rose decided to ask. "Who's Elsian?" she asked, waiting to be informed.

"That's really cool," Rose said to Logan about Sherlock's name. She was glad that she had asked about it, since there was such a cool story behind it. It could have just been a boring story, but it actually was quite cool, so Rose was glad she asked. Both Henry and Logan had picked to name their cats after people- characters, really. And both of those characters were so fitting to the cats' personalities. Rose had named her cat after a star goddess, but really, it had just been a name she had found online and thought fit her a little better than the other names she had thought were cool cat names.

Henry said that he knew that she didn't often talk about her mom, and Rose immediately felt like she was intruding on something. He talked about how he was always here for Logan if she wanted to talk about her mom. It was like he was comforting her about something? It had been an innocent question, asking Logan about the purpose for her cat's name. But maybe it had cut a little deeper than Rose had expected. Maybe she was pushing too far with all of this, and maybe she shouldn't have asked. After all, it sounded like kind of a personal thing. Rose felt a little guilty for asking, even though there was no way for her to have known. Maybe she shouldn't have asked, after all. Logan didn't seem upset about it in any way, though, so maybe she hadn't just screwed everything up after all. "That is a beautiful story," she agreed with Henry, shaking the thoughts of doubt out of her system. No, it didn't even matter that much. There was no way for her to have known, and Logan didn't care. Logan wouldn't have told her if she really cared. Right? There was nothing to worry about between the two of them. She was just stressing out over nothing.

Sometimes Rose had to tell herself that. That it was implausible for her to ever have known. That she didn't need to worry about all of it, and it wasn't really even a problem. It was frustrating when her mind made such a big deal about something that didn't even matter in actuality. It was pathetic and it made no sense. If somebody blamed her for that kind of thing, she would fight against it. She would tell them that there was no way for it to be her fault and that was just so cruel of them to blame it on her when it wasn't even her fault at all. But the moment her own mind started blaming herself, she let it run its mouth about all the reasons, ways, and paths that the situation could be all on her. Maybe it was her helping nature, that she really wanted to help everybody she came in contact with. And when she didn't do enough for herself, she felt bad, feeling like they resented her when it was just all in her own head. Gah. It was just in her head.

Rose took to a simple nod as a response to Henry's comment about Miranda. Rose wasn't even sure what else to even say to him. She did kind of feel like a bad friend for not being caught up with his life, and even his love life, too. Where had she been when they had just "grown apart?" What had she been preoccupied with that she hadn't thought to catch up with Henry on Miranda and ask him how all of that was going? Why hadn't she been there when it had happened? Rose bet that Logan was the first to even hear about that, between Henry and Miranda because she was actually a good friend and actually cared about her friend's relationships. Why hadn't she asked him about it?

Logan probably knew.

Rose really wanted her mind to just shut up, so she shook herself from her worry and went back to decorating her cookies. She finished the very last cookie, then looked over them for little imperfections that she could fix. There were little places that she wanted to fix, but then, she had six biscuits that were close enough to perfect that Rose wouldn't obsess over them. Well, that Rose wouldn't obsess over them too much. She liked the designs, though, and thought they were at least decent, if she was letting herself be honest with herself. They were definitely acceptable by her own standards. They didn't look exactly like she had imagined them, or thought they were going to turn out, but they looked good. She turned her hands' attention over to Sherlock, massaging his neck. She was glad the kitty had stayed in her lap even after Chaska had left Logan's. Her siblings often called her the "animal whisperer," due to her attracting more animals than all her other siblings. This, of course, led to Rose leaning towards her siblings and whispering the word "animal" in their ears.

The redhead looked over to see how Logan and Henry were getting along in their cookie decorating goals. Theirs were really good. Some were a little simpler than hers were, but that didn't mean they were still amazing. Less was more, in this case. "You guys' c- uh, biscuits look amazing. You're doing a great job with them."

Henry commented, throwing a little French in the middle of his sentence. It would have been more impressive without the pauses, which were probably him searching for the words in the other language. He was only twelve, after all, so it wasn't like Rose was judging him or anything. It was still impressive, nonetheless, and Rose cocked her head. "Where did you learn French? I didn't know you could speak it." She also didn't know what Henry had even said to Logan in french, and wondered if Logan herself knew French. Hopefully they wouldn't both start talking in French, leaving her in the dust in the conversation. She knew, probably, like, ten words in french. Tops. And they were all very simple words. Like oui, which meant yes. Well, if you don't count when Rose's little sister learned that nine eggs in French was neuf œufs, with sounded like "noof oof" to her and her siblings.

That is when Henry mentioned the duels. Did he really have to bring it up? Rose wasn't at all confident in her performance on either duel. Read: she got her butt absolutely kicked both times. "Oh, I bombed mine," Rose said. "And not in a good way. I fought Ravenclaws, too, and one of the students on the other side- she was a powerhouse! A fourth year, I think. Her partner was a first year, so he didn't do much. But she flattened us." There was no use in lying or escaping the truth, so Rose flat-out told it. Rose was trying to make a joke out of this, but she really did feel insecure in how she had done. She didn't want Logan thinking that she was some kind of horrible duelist or something. Which couldn't be disproved, of course. But Rose just hoped that Logan and Henry wouldn't make fun of her, because that would send her confidence down to the dark depths of the earth. She thought she was good at spellcasting, wasn't she? She was good at Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts. She was good at this stuff. Or, at least, she was supposed to be. Or, at least, she thought she was.

Anyway, she wanted the conversation away from her and her failures, so she asked Logan, "How did your duel go? Is, um, Lucia Fox still your partner?" Yes, Rose had fought with Lucia Fox in Potions. This put her in a very strange position, forgiving Logan and still being bitter towards Lucia. It was not a good day on Rose's part, and she wasn't proud of her actions or her words on that day in the Potions classroom. There was a difference between the two Hufflepuffs, though. Lucia had been the one doling out all the spells and the damage to Rose and her dueling partner, while Logan hadn't even done much at all. If Rose was being honest, she would be sad to see Logan loose, but would be happy to see Lucia get utterly destroyed. That was kind of mean to think, but it was true. Logan was nice. Logan had been nothing but nice to her, and had tried her absolute best to make amends between them. She had been a little shy when they first met, and had waved to her across the Astronomy Tower. Lucia had retaliated at Rose's slight snap, and hadn't even tried to tell her that what she was saying was immature and that it wasn't appropriate how she was reacting.

Or maybe Rose just had angst.

Chaska went off to the side of the cookies on the table, and took to grooming her fur. It didn't really need to be groomed, but Chaska looked so graceful doing it, and she probably didn't even care. She licked her paws and drew them over her ears over and over again, preoccupied with her own elegance. When Loki batted at her, she would skillfully dodge his paws and then sit back down to continue her grooming.

Logan asked Henry about how his "furry problem" was. Rose almost asked what it was, but stopped herself before she could. If Logan wanted to tell her, then she would have just flat-out said it. Or Henry would have replied with an explanation. Once again, Rose inwardly felt left out. She hated it when people kept secrets and then waved them in her face, and that's what it felt like Logan and Henry were doing right now. They could have just talked about it some other time, couldn't they? If they really wanted to keep it a secret, they wouldn't even hint about whatever his "furry problem" was. Maybe they were just trying to team up on her.

No. No, Henry wouldn't ever do that. Rose didn't know Logan well, but she doubted Logan would do that either. Maybe Logan just wanted to check up on Henry and make sure he was okay in that area. Maybe it was nothing personal at all, and it had been riding on her mind awhile. It wasn't her fault at all. She was just trying to be a good friend to Henry. A good best friend, because that's what she was.

Right?

Rose's body seized up as she was attacked with frosting, her instinctual reaction. Her eyebrows raised, and she scoffed dramatically. "You wanna go there, Henry Knight?" she asked, picking up her own frosting bag. Rose and Henry hadn't ever had much playfulness between them. Not like this. Most of their talks were deep and philosophical. Or they were checking up on each other and their lives. Or they were confessing stuff. They even often teased each other verbally, but before this they had never really had this kind of playfulness between them. Physical playfulness. Now, you've all heard of a food fight.

This was not one of those. This was a frosting fight.

The redhead squirted frosting back in Henry's direction. She inwardly hoped they wouldn't get told off about this, because this was fun. Plus, she could always just take a shower later. It wouldn't be too much of a hassle to get herself cleaned up from this frosting. She would try to protect Sherlock from any of the frosting that could be squirted back at her. Chaska looked up from grooming herself, and decided to join in the playful battle, bounding over to the Slytherin and tackling one of Henry's hands and trying to hold it down with her paws. Rose wondered whether Logan would join in, and if so, which side she would take. Would she turn on her best friend, ally with him, or make it every man for themselves?

When three duelers walk into a hall, what do you get?

A big, competitive frosting mess.