WHO: Lucy Martin & Ben Fenwick
WHAT: Ben's being an ass, a.k.a. himself >[
WHEN: Evening
WHERE: Library

Lucy plopped down in a chair down at the front of the Library of Hogwarts and put a hand to her forehead, sighing. She had a few minutes before Ben was supposed to get there, leaving lunch early to organize her thoughts. She had to have a plan of action if she was going to go about this right, had been thinking about how quite to do this since he had put that kink in her plans, but she had been coming up blank.

Now, just like then, she still found herself completely confused and lost for what to do. She would hate, hate to have to tell Emmeline she had failed... she did so want the two of them to be happy again. But he refused to talk about the problem with anyone! It was so frustrating and sad and...

Oh, there he came. Lucy spotted his tall form entering through the front doors and hurried to take out her Muggle Studies textbook, look like she had been working some before he came. She struggled not to look up at him as he approached, but when he got there, sent him a cheery smile that she for once in her life was not truly feeling. She wondered if it really looked genuine.

"Thanks for coming," she said, sounding as thankful as she could make herself. "I really appreciate it, Benj--Ben." The least she could do, she figured, was try to use his preferred nickname. She wondered if he'd be so okay with her calling him Benjamin when he wasn't in a good mood, and she definitely didn't want to annoy him.

The slight, less than enthusiastic smile Ben gave Lucy was probably the only thing reflecting his thoughts at the moment, which mainly revolved around how stupid it was to agree to this when he was in such a crappy mood. But, unfortunately, the fact that he was aware of how awful he'd feel afterward if Lucy failed muggle studies when he'd promised to help her only weeks ago made him ignore those thoughts.

"Sure thing." He replied quietly, pulling out a chair next to her. He didn't fail to notice her changing her mind halfway and calling him Ben, and he knew it was probably to avoid annoying him, and guilt flared inside him again. There she was, being as sweet as she'd always been, and he still wasn't able to give her a true smile.

"What can I help you with?"

Oh! Wait--what? Lucy blinked and sat up straighter all of a sudden, as if she had been in something of a daze. Help her on... Muggle Studies, zut alors! She had been so preoccupied with thinking about how she was going to bring up the topic of he and Emmeline that she had hardly paid attention to making up a story for what she needed help on.

Shuffling around with her papers rather hurriedly, she flipped the pages of the book and--nothing, there was nothing here that.. it was her Herbology book! ... Oh, this was not good, not good, what was she going to do? She didn't even have her homework with her or her real book or--

"Ummm..." Lucy struggled for what to say, feeling a blush tint her cheeks rather profoundly. There... well, she was stuck with it now, wasn't she? Quietly, tentatively, as she looked sheepishly up at him, she said, "Look, Ben... I wanted to--I mean... Emmeline and..." She was hardly coherent, oh she wanted to die!

Yes, he should've seen this coming. But he didn't, because he'd thought that a sweet girl like Lucy wouldn't lie to him, and now that he was proved wrong, he felt rather stupid. And angry. Why had he been feeling guilty about not helping her earlier, again?

But even with all the anger swirling up inside of him, Benjamin Fenwick had to admit; this was rather adorable of her, setting up a plan only halfway. She was appearing more naive and innocent than ever, and it almost, almost made him smile.

"For fu- heaven's sake, Lucy." Ben spat angrily, barely restraining the fowl words as he stood up again, moving her eyes away from her. He wanted to say more, but he knew he'd end up hurting her, and he's had enough of feeing guilty. Without adding another word, he spun around and started out of the library, flexing his fingers in annoyance.

Oh oh oh no, this was so bad! How could she had blurted out like that? She had to go and not plan things through and be rash and insensitive about the situation and Dieu he was walking away. Biting her lip to keep from the urge to cry about how stupid she had just been, Lucy jumped up from her chair, leaving her stuff behind, and sprinted after him out of the Library.

"Ben, stop, wait!" she exclaimed, just then turning a corner to see his steadily retreating form. She was so dumb, so so dumb, now maybe she had ruined things even further and oh goodness what was Emmeline going to say? She really had wanted to help, but now it seemed like everything was spiraling downwards so fast. And if he hated her, Lucy didn't know what she'd do with herself! "I'm sorry, please!" the small girl pleaded, reaching out to grab his arm. He had to stop, she had to explain! She had to talk to him about this!

Ben did stop, but had no intentions of waiting to her her say more than she already had. There was no denying that her pleading did soften his anger, but alas, it wasn't enough. Because when you really think about it, she did lie to him after promising that all they'd talk about was going to be Muggle Studies related, didn't she?

"Look," He started out in a quiet, yet highly aggressive tone. "Tell Emmeline not to send anyone to talk to me, and please, refrain from lying to me next time. I don't want to talk about it, and that's that. Alright?"

Lucy felt her cheeks heat quite a bit when he accused her of lying and of being sent by Emmeline... mainly because both were true. When he said them like that, they sounded like such very horrible things. Oh, why couldn't she have thought about it like that before she had agreed to come?

Either way, it wasn't going to help her now. Now that she had already gotten him angry with her, the least she could do was try to get some progress made.. even if she was quite certain that there was nothing that she could do that could make him angry at her or Emmeline any less. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she said, not letting go of her hand on his arm, "But she's worried about you and--and so am I! You can't just keep being like this, you're pushing away your friends and you're miserable... You have to talk about it sometime or you're never going to feel better!"

It might sound extremely silly and childish, but hearing her apologize again was quite startling. Not because he doubted that what she'd done was wrong, because it was, but she was the first person to really say sorry. Aside from that Slytherin ponce, but Ben knew he hadn't meant it. Emmeline only argued, Frank only told him what he should do, everyone else ignored him or got angry with him, but only Lucy had actually said sorry, and it felt good, and comforting. Which was quiet effective because had she not said it, he would've grown even angrier when she proceeded to tell him what he has to do.

"I don't have to talk about it," He insisted, but in a slightly softer tone. "I have every right to be miserable if I want to, so everyone should just, back off."

Lucy almost sighed in relief when his tone dropped some of the anger it had been holding. Almost. She wasn't quite relieved yet, because he had pretty much said he wanted her to go away and no matter how angry at her she knew he was, being told to back off hurt. Moreso because it was from someone that she considered a friend, and probably one of the sweetest boys she had ever met to boot.

She hated arguments, she hated them--when was the last time she'd argued with someone, anyway? Lucy couldn't remember a time in recent history.

"You've got to realize, Ben," she said, her tone still as persistent as ever, "that as long as you have people that care about you, you're never going to get them to 'back off'."

"Then fucking stop caring." He was well beyond the point of feeling grateful at any ounce of love he was getting from the people around him, mainly because of the frustration he's been holding back for the past six years. Ben did secretly want it to stop, all the anger and frustration, but it seemed to be quite addictive, especially because of the stubborn arguments Emmeline has been throwing his way. Couldn't she just say she was sorry, and mean it, so they could just move on?

He let out an annoyed sigh, closing his eyes for few seconds as he did so. "Don't become one of them, Lucy."

Lucy bit her lip again, this time not sure if she could stop herself from crying. It always felt so much worse when someone cursed and no one had ever cursed at her (not counting a group of the Slytherins, of course). The use of the word was shocking enough for the sensitive girl that she let go of him immediately and turned her head away.

'Don't become one of them'? Don't care? What was that all supposed to mean? How could someone be so ungrateful for the friends that they did have? The idea was incomprehensible to her. Did he not want to be her friend anymore?

Oh no, that would be horrible. What had she done? "I'm sorry," she said again, her voice shaking some. "I'll leave, if that's what you want. I'm sorry I had to get involved. Just don't hate me, please?"

The Gryffindor startled, his eyes widening a little and his mouth dropping, completely taken aback by her reaction. Her quite unique reaction, actually. He was not used to having someone not fight back, or storm off furiously. He was definitely not used to someone so worried about being hated by him and actually expressing it, and he was most certainly not used to being around someone as innocent and vulnerable as Lucy, to the extent that simply forced him to want to protect her and keep her from breaking.

He felt guilty, angry at himself for blowing up like this, more than he'd felt ever around anyone else. Her hurt expression was enough to make him frown deeply and forget that she was the one doing something wrong here.

He was not used to that.

"I don't hate you," He spoke softly, not reaching out his own hand to gently touch her arm, hoping it was enough to express his regret at the way he was behaving. "I just... Need someone, that might," He wasn't good with words, and that was obvious by his struggle to form a coherent sentence that might actually convey his true thoughts. "I have a lot to be angry about, and I need, I want that at least one person would agree to pretend everything is fine around me, and not demand that I talk or stop being angry."

Lucy didn't look up as Ben touched her arm, nor while he was speaking to her in his new, calming manner. She was much relieved that he had stopped sounding angry. She horribly hated it when people sounded angry...

He said that he needed someone to ignore the problems around him and treat him like they normally would. Now that Lucy really thought about it, maybe that was a wise thing... it made sense, surely. She supposed that if she had a problem that she wanted kept to herself that she would rather her friends act like everything was alright than asking her every moment of the day if she wanted to talk about it.

At that train of thought, a lightbulb seemed to suddenly go off in her head. Oh, poor Benjamin Fenwick! Oh goodness, if she had only known...! She would have never agreed to go talk to him for Emmeline if she had known that it would make him happier if she just acted normally with him.

"I can do that, I guess," she answered. Lucy wiped at her eyes before looking up to him and giving him a small, tentative smile. "If that's what will make Ben happy, I mean."