Scrapes, Bruises, and a Thing Called Emotions (Madley)

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She wasn’t that injured, but if she could find an excuse to spend some time alone with Finley, she would, and when she saw him coming out from the end of the obstacle course, she automatically started towards him. But then, for just a moment, she froze, the memories of that dratted boggart still fresh in her mind, and she inhaled sharply, pushing those memories aside before going to him. By then, he was seated on the floor, and she placed a gentle hand on his back.

“Come on,” she said, quietly to him, helping him stand, and with a quick word to their Professor, she led him out of the classroom and to the hospital wing.

There was a slight limp to her walk, exaggerated slightly, but it would have been there even if she hadn’t, for her knee was scratched up from when she fell. But overall, she was mostly concerned for Finley; she hadn’t been able to see his performance, but he looked exhausted and spent, and overall just not too good.

Now, seated on adjacent beds, Madison offered him a smile, not quite feeling it, but forcing herself to act normal anyway. “So, how’d you do?” she asked, forcing a light tone to her voice as the nurse hustles and bustled about, muttering under her breath the entire time about dangerous classes, although Madison was certain that Jake would not have let them actually get injured. No, he was too soft for that.

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Drenched to the bone and exhausted, Finley had followed Madison from the Defence Against the Dark Arts with no hesitation. However, when he noted that she was limping, a new surge of energy filled Finley, and he helped her with the weight, taking some of it from her legs so that she didn't have to worry so much.

It might have been an insignificant injury, but Finley didn't wish for her to struggle on the way down to the Hospital Wing.

Making sure the Healer worked with Madison first, Finley did as he was told, sitting on the bed next to hers and waiting for the Healer to finish her work. He only needed to be dried off, really, but the Healer had forced a Pepper Up Potion on him, and Finley had drunk it in fear of angering the witch. It helped, though, Finley didn't feel quite so drained after he'd finished.

When the Healer had finally finished, Finley looked across to Madison, returning her small smile. His was definitely real though slightly worried about her health, Finley had heard the Healer say she would be absolutely fine. The question pushed all worry away though, and Finley couldn't help but smile more widely.

"I d-did great!" Finley told her, for once being confident in himself. "Well," Confidence never lasted long though. "I s-struggled on the ladder. But m-managed. Then I... I w-went swimming with the G-Grindylows. Managed to k-keep them away eventually, t-though." He explained, skipping the bit where they had pulled him under because he didn't wish to worry Madison.

"Then I used t-the freezing ch-charm." He explained. "And s-skated across the ice p-past the Fire Crabs." Finley was obviously proud of this feat, as he grinned to himself. "T-then I transfigured my s-shoes to flying shoes - l-like Hermes, and flew over t-the void. Well... a-almost. I caught the edge o-of the wall, and, s-somehow, managed to pull myself up.

"W-when I got to the B-Boggart, I didn't give it t-time to form properly. I-" The Ravenclaw hesitated, shaking his head in disbelief. "I managed v-verbal magic!" The news would be good to anyone who knew how Finley struggled, and he was going to have to write to Professor Ellingston to tell him the feat, especially with such a difficult spell.

"What a-about you?" Finley asked, genuinely interested in how Madison got on.

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Madison couldn’t help but smile at Finley’s first answer. Confidence was not something she saw often in the boy, but it suited him, somehow, and it made her happy to see him sure of himself. It made a change, and despite the stutter in his words, she listened intently to what he was saying, nodding at each part he mentioned.

“Skated? You mean to say you transfigured a pair of skates?” she inquired, genuinely impressed. It wouldn’t have been easy for him, especially since most verbal spells were out of the question, and she grinned at him to show she knew that. “That is awesome!” she added.

But then he mentioned defeating the boggart and him actually using verbal magic, her face lit up. “Oh wow, Finley! That is amazing! I am…” she hesitated, looking for the right word. Impressed didn’t quite cut it; happy for him was too shallow. “Proud,” she finished a second later. “I’m so proud of you, Finn. And I’m sure Professor Ellingston will be, too. You will write, won’t you?”

"What a-about you?"

The question was thrown back her way, and she shrugged. “The ladder wasn’t a problem, really. I didn’t even enter the water, though - I didn’t like the idea of going into their territory, so I used glacius then, to freeze over the water.” She paused, smiled a little, “I should have thought to transfigure skates; that would have helped me move across the ice.”

“As for the fire, I simply used the flame-freezing charm and walked through, and I put out the salamander fire with water,” she went on, then grimaced a little. “But I forgot about the fire crabs, and one got me. Don’t worry, though, I got him back.” At that last statement, she let out a laugh to show she hadn’t been truly hurt.

“The void was tricky, I admit, but do you remember that spell you were working on before the holidays? Ventus. I used that, although it took me a few tries to get it right. I made myself a bridge and just crawled over.” At this, Madison paused, thinking about the boggart, and shuddered involuntarily, just managing to keep herself from wincing. “And… And I got through the last one,” she concluded, stumbling over her words very slightly.

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The question of skating made Finley nod, clearly proud of his own achievements. He could tell Madison was impressed, not that he worried about that. It was nice, of course, but he was happy for himself, if no one else was.

“I’m so proud of you, Finn. And I’m sure Professor Ellingston will be, too. You will write, won’t you?”

The idea of the witch being proud brought colour to Finley's cheeks, and he looked away from her for a moment. It was a lot to deal with, truth be told. Very few people had ever been proud of him, and it made his insides go funny. That, Finley had found, was a constant happening with Madison, any time he thought of her, they seemed to flip. He knew what it meant - he'd researched it on his phone - but he wasn't going to tell her that.

"I w-will tell him." He assured the witch, because he wanted Professor Ellingston to know he'd done well, that the lessons hadn't been for nothing. That they had worked, but that letter was not for the here and now.

Finley listened closely as the witch explained how she had done it, they'd used some similar things, and he winced when she said she'd been hit by the fire crabs. But seeing as she hadn't got a burn, Finley didn't make a fuss - simply making note in case anything should happen.

He nodded at the mention of a spell they'd practiced before the holidays, knowing Madison had been relatively good at that one, despite it being a fifth year's spell. "W-well done!" He commented when she said she'd finally managed it to get across the void - why he hadn't thought of that, Finley didn't know, but his method had worked well enough.

But when Madison struggled over the last bit - something uncharacteristic of the witch, Finley couldn't help but feel something was wrong. Checking where the Healer was, Finley moved from his bed to the bed that Madison was sat on and sat on the side of it. "W-what happened?" He asked softly, trying to work out what she'd seen. "Was it y-your sister? She's s-safe, you know?" He insisted, because it was only a Boggart - as scary as they might be, they were not real and he didn't want Madison to be scared.

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"I w-will tell him."

The blush combined with his statement was enough for her, and there wasn’t anything else for her to add other than a, “That’s good.” No, she had said enough, and conveyed all she needed to. It was the most honest she had been with anyone other than her sister, really, and it was weird for her to have expressed such sentiment so genuinely. After all, emotions were not something helpful, and all they tended to do was get in the way and make simple things complicated.

At the words of praise, she simply smiled. Yes, she had done well, and she knew it. What else was there to say to that? That she had expected to do well? It would have sounded far too arrogant for her to want Finley to hear it, although it would’ve been the truth. In any case, she murmured her thanks.

As Finley got up to move to her bed, she raised an eyebrow.

Shit, she swore mentally. Had she shown that much weakness that even Finley saw through her smile? The part of her brain that was blunt and forthcoming answered with a simple, ‘Yes’, and she held back a groan. Idiot. Keep it together! What would Josh say if he could see you now? Weak. Pathetic. She scolded herself mentally, curling her upper lip very briefly in disgust when she was sure Finley wasn’t looking her way, and then returned her expressions to that neutral smile.

But the questions that came her way made that smile freeze in place. She had wished it had been Melody, because as twins, she would automatically know if something had happened. Besides, she could just as easily have texted Melody and gotten confirmation in seconds that her sister was well and truly fine. Heck, if she had wanted to, she would have called Mel the moment she finished the course, had the boggart had appeared as her sister in distress.

But it hadn’t been that. It hadn’t been that at all, and Madison just could not get the image out of her mind of Finley’s lips against that… that other bitch.

“No, it wasn’t Melody,” she said, words all but hurtled in disgust as she tried to push away those images and momentarily forget she hadn’t meant to share that information. “Like I said, I got through it. What happened? Basically what happens with all boggarts. It appeared, I made it go away,” she added, much too hurriedly, and mentally cursed at herself again. What was wrong with her today?

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The idea of the Boggart not turning in to Madison's sister made Finley frown at that idea. If not Melody then... Finley didn't know what it would have turned in to. "Oh..." Finley responded flatly, evidently trying to work out what she'd seen - much like the riddles that allowed them in to the Common Room, it was difficult to put his finger on the cause.

But the hurried statement of how a Boggart worked - something Finley knew well enough - was enough to tell the Ravenclaw something was most certainly up with his friend.

However, before Finley could prompt the witch, the Healer was back with a potion to put on Madison's knee. Finley quickly vacated her bed, moving back to his own so not to anger the older witch as she worked.

"You're free to go, Mr Allen." She told him, and Finley gave a small nod, before pausing.

"A-actually, I wanted to w-wait for Madison. P-please." He told the witch, who nodded, finished up with Madison's knee and then said they could go when they were ready, but that Madison was to leave the dressing in place for the rest of the day.

Waiting for the Healer to retreat once more, Finley looked to Madison, wondering whether to prompt her again. "Let's g-get you back to your c-common room." Finley told the Slytherin, moving around to pick up her bag for her as he shouldered his own bag.

He waited until they were outside of the of the Hospital Wing before he spoke again. "You know... w-whatever it is that you s-saw. There's n-no point in d-dealing with it on your own." Finley prompted, hoping she wouldn't mind him saying so. Madison had been there after he'd faced a Boggart for the first time, and it had helped, a lot. Now, he was returning the favour - not out of debt, but because he wanted to help her.

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As the Healer returned and Finley left her side, Madison was momentarily relieved that she didn't need to answer him right away. Indeed, she didn't know what to say, a first for her. She always had plans, and always had the brains to come up with things on the spot. But instead of words and options and courses of action she could take, there was this dull numbness, and the lingering picture of the not-Finley kissing the girl burning into her mind no matter how much she tried to push it away.

As she was discharged, she merely nodded, barely having heard the words; she was too focused on trying to figure out something to say. Was this how it felt to be weak and pathetic? It was... different, and not in a good way. Simply put, whatever it was that made her feel this way, Madison hated it and wanted nothing more than for it to disappear.

Not having the mental capacities to argue, she simply nodded at Finley's offer, still trying to figure out what she was feeling and why. No, not why - that, she knew. Finley. It was obviously him, but it was the what that bothered her the most. She could live without reason if she could identify the source.

But Finley - Merlin bless his heart, the innocent thing - kept pressing her, saying things that she used far too often in fakeness to believe them when they were sent her way. Except that she knew Finley meant it, and that was what probably irritated her the most. Why would he care? No, that wasn't the right answer; she knew that, too. Of course she knew it; she had manipulated him into this in the first place, teasing him and toying with the male mind.

"You, okay?" she suddenly found herself saying, her tone cold and harsh - but not directed at him. She was pissed at herself, for allowing emotions - whatever branch of whatever she felt fell in - into her mind and her life. "I saw you, kissing some dark-brown haired bitch, and she was kissing you back. That's what I saw, okay?" She paused, lowered her tone, but it was still icy in nature. "Are you going to help me deal with it?"

She hadn't meant to be rude to the Ravenclaw, and she bit the inside of her cheeks as the last word left her mouth. There had been too much loss of control in what she said, and Madison simply did not know what to do.

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The tone that came to Finley's ears was a harsh one, one that told him (too late) that he had over stepped the mark. He hadn't meant to upset her, only help her out so that she wasn't hurt by whatever the Boggart had shown. But, it seemed Madison wasn't quite okay with him doing that. The Ravenclaw simply swallowed, looking at her with an expression that showed he was willing to let it go if she really, really didn't wish to speak about it.

But the reality of what she'd seen was enough for Finley to be taken back.

Her Boggart had been him? With someone else. Finley couldn't help but find that confusing himself - how could he mean more to Madison that her own sister? Was she toying with him? No, Madison was out of sorts, this wasn't a game, that much... that much Finley was sure of.

"Are you going to help me deal with it?"

"I..." Finley started to speak, his words trying to tell her it was okay before he'd even thought it through. But the sentence didn't come out, Finley instead looked to the witch with a small smile - not amused, simply reassuring. "I can." He told her firmly, focusing enough to not stutter the short sentence.

With a quick glance, Finley noted the hallway clear, and he moved to stand before Madison. His teeth worried at his bottom lip for a moment, allowing him a short time to think. "Madison, I... I l-like you, a lot. A-and, I don't know w-who the other girl w-was. But, I can... I can a-assure you that I d-don't like anyone else." He told her softly, his eyes flickering from her eyes away and back again continuously as he spoke because he was very nervous saying this much.

"And... I... I should h-have asked at the Ball... When you, you said that-" He cut off, she would know what he meant. "W-will you be my girlfriend?" Finley asked (though it would come out more like willyoubemygirlfriend - ten times quicker than a normal sentence should have been), finally forcing his eyes (almost like puppy eyes in that moment) to stay on hers.

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For a moment, she wondered how he would respond. Her tone had been too harsh, and her posture had not been a friendly one at that. It was possible that she had just screwed up months - if not years - of work, and yet this was not the thought that crossed her mind. Rather, she was worried not that she had ruined her game, but that she had somehow hurt him. And the funny thing was, she didn’t even realise anything odd about this.

"I can."

The two words made everything in her brain just go absolutely quiet for a moment. Maddie blinked, having been caught off guard, and she stared at him, not moving or saying anything as he stepped right up to her. She stared as he began to speak, the words barely making sense.

But she understood them, as they were being said. Words, she knew, had power, but she was used to being the one having the power, and not having it used against her, and yet, as Finley spoke, she found herself unable to move, each word acting like a catalyst for whatever it was she was feeling, and the world sort of stopped moving. All that she could see was Finley, in front of her, and his eyes, and the words entrapping her further into the state she was in.

At the question, everything sort of just unfroze, and she blinked, opened her mouth to speak, and then found that, quite simply, she couldn’t. And so, she did the next best thing. Moving slightly, she leaned up, raising her heels a little, and tilted her head. Slowly, gently, she brought her lips forward, meeting with Finley’s, and kissed him full on, not letting it last more than a couple of seconds before breaking away.

“Is that enough answer for you, Finn?” she murmured, voice soft, for she was incapable of anything louder.

This was… not part of her plan. This had not been what she had intended. Not the friendship, not the bond they had, and certain not becoming his girlfriend.

But, finally, she had a word for everything she had been feeling. It was the stuff of nightmares, something that turned the most decent of people into crazies, and the most crazy of people sane. It was something that she had always treated like a disease, and something she had never intending on having or knowing, and yet here she was. Plain and simple, it was love. Madison Bishop was in love with Finley, and it felt all kinds of right.

Well, shit.

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Finley had, in truth, expected a worded answer to his question. His nerves were at an all time high as he waited (for only a short time) for Madison's answer. But that small wait was enough for Finley to want to take back the words, regret the words for a second and then firmly believe that that was the right thing to do. His head could try to tell him to regret it, or take it back, but his heart knew that it never would allow such things to happen.

And, he was so very glad his heart won out in that moment.

As Madison's lips touched his, very, very softly, Finley felt himself relax from the tension of those brief moments that had passed. This was what he'd wanted for some time - even if he had not consciously known it to be a want he had. His eyes had fluttered closed from the kiss, and - too shocked to really reciprocate or react - they stayed closed until Madison spoke.

“Is that enough answer for you, Finn?”

Finley's lips moved up in to the biggest grin he'd ever known. Of course that was answer enough, he hadn't banked on that, and he was seeing stars way too much in that moment to format any kind of response. However, Finley was an intelligent human being, he was not going to stand there and simply grin at the witch before him.

"That..." He managed, sounding a little breathless in that moment. His heart was hammering from the excitement of what had just happened. "W-was the best answer." Finley told her, the happiness radiating in his words in that moment. He had a girlfriend. A real, human, beautiful, amazing girlfriend.

Finley simply couldn't believe it as he looked at her.

The only trouble was, he wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to do now, so Finley let out a small, awkward laugh and rubbed his hand on the back of his neck, looking around for something to say and falling blank. He was too happy, too full of jubilation to know what he should do, so he simply waited for Madison's direction on the matter.

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