The Hanged Man

[Lucas Montgomery]

It had a been a week since the dance and Lucas still hadn't confronted Nikki. The subtle glares and tripping jinxes he got from her house mates were enough to say, "stay away from her". That's not to say he didn't deserve it, but it was starting to wear a bit thin. He decided to get away from everything and sit by the lake to think.

Lucas climbed into a tree and looked out at the water. He had sent an owl message to Angel. He wanted to speak with her and see where things stood. He hoped that she still cared about him the way he did for her. There was the fear that no matter what happened, he was destined to be alone for some time after this.

With his mind truly in other places, he was quite distracted. Before he knew it, several birds came flying by the tree and Lucas lost his balance. He felt himself lurch backwards and fear gripped him as he thought he was going to break his neck. Luckily for him, his robes caught around a branch and he found himself hanging upside. "Just perfect," he muttered to himself.

He struggled to reach the branch, but found just about everything in his robe was falling out, even his cards. "No!" he shouted and watched the cards hit the ground. Luckily there was no breeze or they would have scattered. He groaned and looked down. There staring him in the face were several cards that almost seemed to mock him: The Lovers, The Hanged Man, & The Starr

"Hello? Can someone help me?"

[Angel C. Starr]

It wouldn't be as simple as saying that Angel was avoiding Lucas, she was more or less not seeking him out. It wasn't that she was mad at him, or really upset with him. If she was mad at anyone it was herself for getting involved it such a big mess. Now she was just trying to keep the rumors to a minimum, being a Starr she had some lessons in damage control.

On reading his note she had decided it was time to talk to him, at least she would tomorrow. Today she was enjoy the outdoors before the weather got too terrible and maybe catch up on her Herbology. Running into Lucas really wasn't intentional and really there was no way of avoiding it.

Making her way towards the lake she had noticed some hanging from the tree, her heart started to beat frantically. Running over to help them she looked up to see the face of Lucas, her face paled. So much for waiting till tomorrow...

"Now I knew there was some reason my father never let me climb trees and I think now I understand." Pulling a smile on her face she tilted her head to get more of a prospective from his angle. "That's quite a sticky wicket you're in." Her lips shifted to a little frown, she'd always considered using the phrase before but now she found it just sounded funny.

[Lucas Montgomery]

"That's quite a sticky wicket you're in."

Lucas shifted his upside down head to see Angel standing below him. He wanted to smile seeing her there, but sadly this wasn't how he wanted to see her. He looked pathetic and somewhat weak hanging there. Lucas shook one of his hands at her in an attempt to wave.

"Uh...hi, Angel," he said softly. "Yeah...this is a bit of a wicket. I'm glad to see you...you look good...even upside," Lucas tried to joke. He let out a little laugh, but felt that maybe it wasn't a good time to be making jokes.

"I'm glad you're here. I was hoping we could talk...but first. Do you think you could help me?"

[Angel C. Starr]

"Yeah, I got your note..." She admitted with a small blush, feeling a little ashamed for avoiding him for so long. Angel hadn't always been so concerned about what people thought about her so she felt silly for being so worried now. Still...this was different, people usually saying these things about her usually weren't her classmates.

Turning the attention to the task of just getting Lucas down from the tree she pushed any other thoughts away, or at least tried. Tipping her head again to examine the branch that had a hold on his robes. "This would be so much easier if you could promise me you'd land on your feet and not your head."

That last thing she wanted to do was break his neck.

Collecting his stuff that had fallen to the ground her face paled when she saw The Star card facing her. With a frown and collected the cards together and put them in a pocket of her purse. Getting her wand out she first decided to take an extra precaution and charmed a large fluffy pillow below him, just in case.

"Now I'm just going to do a levitation spell, just I've never really did one on something so big so be prepared to...well fall if it happens." Pointing her wand at him she called out the incantation and with a bit of hope and skill he was now dangling in the air without the aid of the tree branch. Not exactly the hard part, that would be trying to land him gracefully. Which went pretty well until the last few inches when she got excited and he crashed down on the pillow. "Oh bugger, I'm sorry Lucas I really didn't mean to do that. I underestimated the height.." She rambled on an apology, her face turning bright red.

[Lucas Montgomery]

Lucas closed his eyes for a moment and smiled. "I have faith in you, Angel. If I were Temperance, than maybe I could make that promise," he said with a slight laugh in his voice. He knew Angel was a competent witch. She would be able to get him down. And with that thought she proceeded to do just that.

He felt the sensation of floating with out a broom to be rather odd, but Angel's poise and control with her wand made him relax a bit more. Plus the site of a large pillow below him offered some comfort. He stayed calm as she brought him down and felt a bigger smile creeping on his face. However, his smile turned into shock when he felt his body go into a free fall for a half moment.

"Ooof!" he shouted as he landed on the pillow. He his heart was racing as he thought for that brief moment, he was going to break his neck. Plus if he did die, he'd have to walk off with that clod, Death. He took a deep breath and looked over at Angel. She was beet red and apologizing. But it was alright, she got him down safe and sound.

He picked himself up and raced over to Angel and put his arms around her. "It's ok, Angel. Thank you! You did great!" he said with happiness. He felt his arms move into a hug and a smile crept on his face. He was glad she was there.

[Angel C. Starr]

"Are you sure you're okay? I mean we can get you to the nurse if I broke something." When he pulled her into a hug her apologizes ended, her mouth staying closed for a change and she pulled a smile on her face.

Angel was certainly happy that he was fine but now that he was out of the tree that left her brain unchecked. The thoughts from before returned, especially the ones about that disaster of a dance. Since that night she had heard some pretty mean things being whispered, mostly from admirers of Nikki. It's wasn't something entirely new to have people talking about her but it rarely was this mean.

"I guess you know now that climbing trees is a little overrated?" Angel joked with him, trying to get rid of some of the tension built up inside her. She didn't know where things stood with them right then and she was even less certain than she had been months ago. In fact she was trying very hard to not take this whole mess as a sign that she wasn't meant to be dating.

Pulling out of the embrace Angel pulled his cards back out of her purse, they made her a little edgy to have in her possession. "Plus we can't have you losing these." She said straightening them up before handing them back to him. Nervously glancing at her feet she noticed she missed one, bending down to pick it up she realized it was The Tower. "Nice..." She muttered under her breath, quickly she moving to give that one back to him as well.

[Lucas Montgomery]

Lucas gave another smile and kept his gaze on the Gryffindor Girl. He felt a mixture of happiness and nervousness. He hadn't seen the girl since the night of the dance and he feared that the ripples from that night would cause hardship between the two of them. And he didn't want that. He wanted to stay with her and show her he was a decent guy.

"I'm alright. Nothing's broken. I'm just glad you're here," he said with a smile. Though when Angel handed him his deck, his smile faded a bit when she also gave him one of the cards lying on the ground. He looked at it and shook his head. "I won't let this card ruin anything or come true," he said stuffing it back in the deck.

Lucas looked back up to Angel brushed his hand against her cheek. "I am so sorry if I did anything to hurt you or embarrass you that night. I should have done the right thing and tell Nikki the truth from the start," he said looking the girl in the eyes. "Now with all of this happening, my fear is that I'd lose you because I was a fool."

[Angel C. Starr]

"Things are pretty screwed up right now, perhaps it can't get any worse?" While Angel tried to put an optimistic twist on things she still knew things could get much worse. So what if a few classmates thought she was a whore? It was a big school and she could avoid the taunts or give detentions to the braver ones who'd say it to her face. "Or I may have just jinxed myself..."

It would be lying to say that the card hadn't upset her, there was an ominous feeling she got when it was in her hand. Silly for a girl who doesn't believe in 'fortune telling nonsense' but it struck a chord with her. Perhaps she'd attribute this mess to it but she had too much common sense to not know that it was their fault, there was no one or nothing else to blame.

"Don't think I'm angry at you about this...well I might be a little but I blame myself for this too." Letting out a deep sigh Angel brought her memories back to that night, surely Nikki had made him feel guilty enough that it was unnecessary to remind him how big of a mistake he made. "I knew about your relationship with Nikki and I certainly didn't let that stop anything. Sure that makes me question my moral fiber but I can't be mad at you. I knew what I was getting into."

Yes she knew what she was getting into but she never considered the consequences for a moment. "We did something really wrong, I mean I can't get the look on Nikki's face out of my head. And I was her friend...just further proving I'm a terrible friend...even despite the rumors about her 'activities' that shouldn't have made it right in my head."

[Lucas Montgomery]

Lucas nodded at everything Angel was saying. She was right and Lucas knew it too. He was going to say something, but he stopped with his mouth open for a second. Angel's words left him a bit perplexed.

...even despite the rumors about her 'activities' that shouldn't have made it right in my head."

He looked at the girl confused and then finally spoke. "Wait...what activities? What rumors?" Lucas asked hoping to get a straight answer. He hadn't heard any rumors about Nikki during his time together with her.

[Angel C. Starr]

It had been a slip of the tongue, of course she'd never intended to bring up the rumors. After all she had no evidence of them being anything other than just gossip and lies. It wasn't like there were things going around the school that wasn't true, in fact Angel had a few rumors about herself being spread by word of mouth.

"Oh you know the kind of rumors that go around in the halls, I mean none of it you can really take too seriously." She started, trying to find the right words to get her out of the hole without making it deeper. "Just some things I heard about her being involved with Thom, but Thom is linked to a long list of girls including me. Not like you can honestly believe..."

Still there was something about this rumor that made her believe it more than others, and that was who she'd heard it from. 'Thom? Probably with Morgs or off snogging Nikki..' And those words had come from her cousin Mallory, while she had sounded bitter still Mallory didn't really spread rumors. Not that she was going to tell Lucas this, she hadn't intended to breach this subject in the first place.

"It's probably nothing, just me running my big mouth...plus this is none of my business." From the sound of her voice she wanted to change the subject, she wasn't comfortable talking about Nikki like this.

[Lucas Montgomery]

Lucas listened to Angel with some concern. If her implications were true, both he and Nikki were no saints. But there was no proof of this and Lucas always tried to give people the benefit of the doubt. But when Angel said Thom's name, something clicked inside him. Seivert! he thought to himself. Hearing his name lent a small amount of credence to what Angel was saying.

However, Lucas didn't show his disdain for Thom at that moment. He wanted to keep a calm and collect head for Angel. Though it was going to be tough. Ever since he helped Thom with that tutoring session and the vision they shared, Lucas was growing more and more territorial around anything that involved Thom.

"You're right...just rumors," he said at last. "I'll put it out of my head for now and focus on what's important right now...us," he said looking in her eyes. "I know what happened was bad, but...I really do like you Angel. Ever since we first kissed and any moment since, you're always on my mind. I want to see where the road takes us," he said reaching his hand out to her.

[Angel C. Starr]

Angel bit her bottom lip feeling very confused. A part of her really hoped that those rumors about Nikki were just a bunch of lies because she didn't want to see Lucas any more hurt. Then again...if Nikki was cheating then what right did she have to judge the two of them? That would clear up this huge mess and clear her conscious, wouldn't it?

She certainly wasn't fooling herself, even in that case Angel still knew that it was wrong. On the other hand she didn't believe what they had was wrong. Cruel words that her classmates would sling at her wouldn't make her stop seeing Lucas. Angel Starr would decide when this relationship ended and she wasn't about to give up Lucas now.

"I couldn't agree more..." was all she said before moving up and placing a small kiss on his lips, pulling away a sure smile was on her face. "Though we best be on our best behavior...in public at least."

After all she had her remainder of a reputation to protect and her prefect position.

[Lucas Montgomery]

Lucas was filled with a combination of relief and joy. Usually when his emotions ran high, he got premonitions on these sort of situations. However, he did not get that feeling this time. Perhaps Angel's personality and influence kept a calm over him. What ever it was, it made Lucas happy.

He felt Angel's lips on his own and couldn't help but smile afterwords. Lucas looked her in the eyes happily and nodded to Angel's words of caution. "Yes, I think that's a good idea. But when alone..." Lucas said turning his smile into a grin. He then laughed and put his arms around the girl. "I'm so happy right now," Lucas said.

"What would you like to do with the rest of the day? Or do you have things to do?"

[Angel C. Starr]

"For you I have an empty schedule, though I should be studying for History...how about a compromise? We could head to Hogsmeade and get a bite to eat, then you can try to get some of those boring facts to stick to my brain." Hopefully Lucas was better at that class than her because it was the one thing weighing her grades down.

Well that and the fact that she couldn't study in her own common room because the younger students were gossiping about her, at least those her own age knew better. Sure she could have given then detentions but that wouldn't help the real problem or make her stop hurting. The words did have a bite to them...

Grabbing his hand Angel smiled up to him, "But it won't be only work, I promise. After all this is one girl who just wants to have fun." She said before pulling him into one more kiss. "Now come with me to The Three Broomsticks, I'm so famished I might do something crazy like snog you in front of the whole school." Which was pretty tempting but it had nothing to do with a hunger for food.

[Lucas Montgomery]

Lucas took a moment to ponder on Angel's compromise of food and then studying. It was a fairly good idea. Right now, Lucas wasn't in the studying mood, but maybe after a moment of fun with Angel, he'd be able to focus. "Capital idea," he said to the Gryffindor. "History is not my favorite class, but it's not as bad as Herbology," he said with a laugh.

He felt Angel pull him into a kiss and he immediately put his arms around her. He had a quick flash of something, but it was faint and not nearly as powerful a vision as he had had in the past. He opened his eyes after the kiss and looked the girl in the eyes.

"Now come with me to The Three Broomsticks, I'm so famished I might do something crazy like snog you in front of the whole school."

Lucas happily nodded his head in the affirmative and began to follow the girl. "I wouldn't object if you want to do some more snogging," he said with a little smirk. "But I can be good and wait till after the studying."