Whoever said "friend" ?!

Dexter was outside, a book in his lap as he scoured its pages for helpful hints. In his right hand was a child's toy, more or less, a metal robot that was supposed to be able to move. Dex had begun to tamper, to try and make it talk and dance. The dancing had come easily and it made noises, but he was trying to charm it into being able to hold coherent conversations. Unfortunately, that more or less consisted of inventing a safe form of AI. For now, Dex was hoping to mimick the effects rather than actually create it. To do so, that meant he needed to slowly train it. And for that he had a lot of patience.

But patience was always in short supply when Philippa was involved.

His ever-present shadow had followed him down to the lake, and he was doing his best to ignore her. Every time her high-pitched voice seemed to drift into his head, he felt all progress and calculations he had been working on since the last interruption just... poof. It was weird that he was always able to ignore his peers and yet the younger Hufflepuff girl in the knee high socks who followed the professors for reasons very different from the reasons he did was always able to distract him.

He looked away from his book at the robotics one lying next to his knee on the soft, sun-dried grass. He reached up and scratched his nose before glancing over the spell book in his lap. He turned to the robot and tapped it on its head with his wand, muttering a low stream of latin words. The robot began to speak, using broken English and pirate curses. Dexter sighed and ran a hand through his hair, causing his bangs to stand straight up.

“What is wrong with this?” he muttered. “I've done every sound spell in the book, every mood enhancer, every brain stimulator... It must be some sort of combination I'm missing. What complexity of conversation am I missing?” He chewed his lip. “There must be an equation for conversation...” He began to rifle through his bag. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cherry jolly rancher and unwrapped it. He popped it into his mouth and sucked on it. “Hm.” Duncan, his hairless rat, slipped out of his pocket and ran down the length of his arm to sniff the robot. He jerked his head back and ran back to his pocket. “I understand the sentiment,” Dexter grumbled.

Sitting with Dexter usually ensured boredom for the over-active Hufflepuff. Today though, she found Dexter incredibly interesting. He was tinkering once again but for some reason, today she found his incessant habit to be rather thrilling. Pippa was lying on the grass on her stomach, her legs swaying forwards and backwards in the light breeze whirling around them. Pippa had a magazine in front of her and she was flicking through it, reading up on the latest wizarding gossip. Pippa didn’t necessarily care for it but it was something to do. She’d be quick to assure you, however, that the magazine wasn’t hers; and it wasn’t. She’d picked it up in her dorm. One of the girls had it in amongst an array of different magazines. Pippa had also pilfered a lolly-pop from somewhere and was enjoying the artificial tastes that it supplied.

Bringing her hand to the stick, Pippa twisted it and brought the lollypop from her mouth. An audible ‘pop’ could be heard and she smiled, giggling quietly to herself at the strange sound. Pippa’s wide eyes drifted over to her quiet companion and smiled at him. He didn’t see but he was, as per usual, absorbed in his work. Pippa put the lolly back in her mouth and dropped her eyes back to the magazine. She kicked her shoes together above her body and frowned at the text laid out before her. There was enough gossip to fill the Ministry and Pippa couldn’t decide what to read first. She decided to flick forward a few pages and began to observe the catwalk pictures that, like all wizard photographs, moved. She watched as the models sauntered down wearing their pieces and Pippa, felt compelled to do the same.

Decisively, Pippa abandoned the magazine and jumped to her feet. She straightened her beanie before swivelling around and wandering around, lengthening her strides and swinging her hips exaggeratedly. Giggles began to escape the sides of her mouth as she walked and she tumbled down beside Dexter who had now begun to mutter to himself. Pippa leaned over and peered at the object he’d been tinkering with. She pushed her glasses down her nose and frowned a little before looking up at Dex. She took her lollypop from her mouth and held it out to him, an innocent enough smile on her face.

“Dexy...” Pippa cooed, her smile widening into a cat like grin, “Can I dye your hair?” Philippa’s request was innocent enough. She knew what the answer would be before she’d even voiced it: no. Pippa didn’t care though, she just continued to smile. Pippa twisted around and rested her head against Dexter’s leg. She stretched her legs out and looked up at him. Pippa’s eyes drifted to the rat, Duncan, and she smiled at him. She held her hand out for the animal to sniff and she looked back at Dex. “I want a puppy,” she told him, a serious look on her face. “I don’t think my mum will let me though. My dad might. I want a white Scottish terrier. Do you think Professor Doyle would notice him at school? He could be our doggy, Dexy! What should we name him? I like Radley myself...or Dolly...”

Pippa's Attire

The turning of pages usually bothered him, particularly since he knew that the pages being flipped were not something of literary merit. But he was used to much worse distractions from Pippa, so this was actually quite appreciated. She moved suddenly though and he moved his head closer to the page, trying to stay trained on the book. But she was moving, and he was curious. He glanced up and immediately regretted it.

One look told him she was mimicking a model walking down a catwalk; the only reason he knew this was because she had pointed out models that she wanted to dress him up as. He shook his head and dropped his eyes back to the book, lifting it so that his nose was practically touching the page. Giggles were enough to drive him to lowering his head even more when he suddenly felt someone collapse next to him. He sighed.

"No," he responded, without missing a beat. "I'm fairly sure I told you so the last time you asked." She seemed unfazed as she turned and laid back, resting her head against his leg. "Get off of me," he said but moved the book away so that she would not hit her head on its corner. He knew she would not move. She stated her latest whim and he looked up. "Dear God, mercy on the creature that becomes your pet. You'd dress the thing up and give it some strange name."

She continued on, fueling her delusion about getting a puppy. At the mention of Doyle, Dexter rolled his eyes. He did not keep tabs on Pippa's social life, but she seemed to have a strange fixation on the male professors... Not that he cared. It was just... weird... Then again... It WAS Pippa. "A dog would not be allowed and I would not accept responsibility of a dog. And both names are exactly what I was referring to earlier."

Philippa was not naive. She expected exactly what she received: a no. She grinned, her lips parting wide to reveal a set of sparkly white teeth. Pippa turned over and rose up onto her knees. She gripped Dexter's forearm and leaned over, placing her head in front of his book. She closed her eyes and smiled, wrinkling her nose in a positively adorable way.

"I love you, Dexy!" She cooed, dragging the syllables out for effect. She opened her eyes, grinned and kissed him on the nose. Pippa giggled and hopped away to avoid being swatted. She jumped a little and promptly did a cartwheel. Why, she did not know...she just did.

"I know what we should do, Dexy!" She exclaimed happily, bouncing back over to him. "We should go to Hogsmeade! Or Diagon Alley! Diagon Alley has a better pet shop. We are getting a doggy whether you like it or not. You know you want one secretly! I tell you what, if we don't get one then I will dye your hair when you're sleeping!"

Pippa grinned again and clapped her hands together. She reached up and pulled her cupcake hat on her head. She promptly pulled it down over Dexter's hair and grinned.

"You're so beautiful, Dexy!"

Dexter had just managed to regain his focus on the page when suddenly, a bright, bubbly face lit with joy filled his vision. "Ah!" he yelped jumping back, his glasses leaping upwards and landing back on the end of his nose, dangerously close to falling off, his hair bristled with the anxiety that she had caused. The book had almost flown out of his hand but he pressed it flat.

He glared flatly at her, unamused by her antics and not at all happy with her words. She opened her eyes and for a second he glared back at them, and then she kissed his nose. She lept out of the way as he did so too, the book flying into his chest as his glasses fell free from his face, his eyes wide and his head shaking away her touch. "Pippa!" He yelled at her. He blindly swept a hand through the air, but his unaided eyes and her quick reflexes meant no contact.

He saw her get up and move about, though he could not make out what she was doing. He felt about in the grass and picked up his glasses, wiping them off on his jeans and trying them on. He rolled his eyes as she began talking and wiped the remaining dew from his glasses with his shirt before snatching up his book and searching for his page.

"You will do neither," Dexter replied dryly. "It is not a Hogsmeade weekend, therefore, we can not goto Hosmeade nor Diagon Alley. And you could not get into the Ravenclaw common room, nor the boy's dormitory, so that plan is foiled." He smirked to himself, thinking his point had been proven, when a hat was suddenly being rammed onto his head. He let out a strangled yell and fell backwards, struggling to push Pippa off him. "Gerroff me Pippa!!"

His shout did not faze Pippa. In fact, it made her laugh. She tipped her head back mid-stride and let a long, musical giggle slip past her lips. The sound danced on the breeze before disappearing into the air. She crouched down and bunny-hopped towards Dexter, determined to get a smile out of him. He wouldn’t relent, she was sure, but Pippa wanted to at least try and get him to flex those facial muscles of his. He spent far too much time frowning than he did smiling and he’d soon get frown lines if he didn’t go careful. She certainly wasn’t going to accept the blame for them if he did.

Hopping closer to him, Pippa's own smile widened across her face. She poked her tongue out at Dexter and replied in a sing-song voice,

"Don't be a party pooper, Dexy!"

Pippa grinned at him, smiling knowingly before hopping closer once more. She put her hands on his and pushed against them, forcing the book closed. She leaned forward again and kissed him on both cheeks before springing away. She then turned dramatic, placing one hand on her head and feigning utter despair.

“How can you be so cruel!? I’ll just go and drown myself shall I?”

And, without waiting for his word, she flounced down towards the lake, inviting him, with a smile, to join her.

Pippa definitely would never give up and would never realize that Dexter just did not want to smile, did not want to be touched. She was amused by his pain and then proceeded to awkwardly hop towards him, making funny faces as she approached. He sat up, rolling his eyes and scoffing, shaking his head as he pulled his book back into his lap, determinedly trying to read.

He tried to ignore her as her tinkling words reached his ears, instead raising fingertips to his temples and mouthing the words in the book, doing whatever he could to keep reading and ignore the ultimate distraction that was the ball of sunshine Hufflepuff. And he was almost able to, too. As long as he had his book open, he could escape.

It suddenly closed and he felt his cheeks grow hot as she kissed them. "Pippa!" he yelped scandalously. She had already lept away and was putting on the dramatics. She bounded off for the lake and for a second, she thought she really meant to drown herself and he began to move. "Pip-" But he realized even Pippa wasn't that crazy. He sighed and opened his book.