Where HAVE You Been?

Now that she thought about it, Adrienne hadn't seen Kaiden at the feast last night. Sure, she'd looked and not seen him, but she had assumed that perhaps someone was in her way or that she had simply missed him. Of course, for a Ravenclaw, she really should have thought through the possibilities. Not that it was her job to expect bad things of Kaiden - the only thing that would lead her to believe anything bad about him was if she thought back to when they met. That had been a right mess.

Adrienne definitely would never have guessed that the boy had missed the train. He hardly seemed the type to be late to things, and she was already on edge from learning about the rubbish Marriage Law that had been passed. Finding him was a must.

As she made her way down a few floors, she started wondering if he had been hurt or if something bad had happened. What if his parents were telling him about the law and telling him who he would marry? The thought made her skid to a stop on the fourth floor. Why did that bother her so much?

Crossing her arms over her chest, Addie huffed and started walking towards the next staircase.  Like he had known she was coming, Kaiden was at the other end of the hallway. What on earth was he doing? Frown etched on her face, she made her way over to talk to him.

It was funny how life worked, right?

Well for Kaiden, life was anything but funny right now. Not only had he missed the train and Welcoming Feast, he'd also found out that he had to get married soon thanks to the stupid law that had recently been passed. He wasn't even graduated yet, and he already had to marry and probably have a kid. That was the last thing he wanted right now, he needed to at least graduate before any of that happened.

His parents weren't taking the law any better than he was, but their reason was completely different. They were upset because he wasn't going to be allowed to marry into another Pureblood family as well as Ciara wasn't allowed to either, which was fine by him. He hated the whole Pureblood elite thing that his family and some others wanted to keep alive. He really just couldn't care less who he ended up marrying.

Okay, maybe that wasn't all true. He did care who he married, but he meant the blood status of the person he would want to marry. The only thing he was really mad about was that thanks to this news, he had been late and missed the train. He had to be taken there through a portkey into Hogsmeade. After entering the castle, he'd made no attempt to get to the Welcoming Feast since it had already started and his entrance would be noticeable, so he decided to walk around until everything was over.

He'd been walking back down toward the Slytherin Dungeon when he saw someone walking toward him. He froze at the sight of the person and he noticed that she seemed upset or angry. "Er... Hey Addie." he greeted softly.

Though she had planned on griping at him, his expression and tone of voice immediately informed Adrienne that she would feel incredibly guilty afterwords. Letting her hands fall to her sides, she gave him a half smile in greeting. "Hey.." She replied just as quietly. It didn't seem the occasion to hug him in greeting - something she didn't do often, but had no problem with around her good friends. Everyone seemed on edge that day, so she had avoided physical contact with anyone.

"I.. You're alright, yeah?" She asked, changing the direction of her questions, "I mean, I heard you missed the train." Addie knew her voice sounded a bit miffed, but she was just worried and stressed about the whole law - not to mention her final year at Hogwarts!

She knew that whatever happened to him wasn't her business, admittedly, but Addie had learned when she was young that she worried about people she cared about. Sure, it tended to get her into some tight spots, but some things she didn't mind dealing with if it meant comforting or taking care of others. Especially on a day like this, when she had realized that she would have to explain to her parents that she didn't necessarily get to choose who she ended up with for the rest of her life. Who she was required to have kids with. And forgive her language, but she was not looking forward to having a bloody child while trying to study for her NEWTs. Truthfully, she was afraid of the entire affair.

Adrienne couldn't decide it if was strange that she couldn't bring herself to be upset with him. It wasn't like she was someone who had a right to be upset with him. Knowing this, she sighed and looked at her feet. "You don't have to explain if you don't want. Everyone is just really stressed today."

Addie's tone of voice was not one Kaiden liked right now. She seemed to be angry about something, even if it was slight. He thought maybe it involved him but then he thought he was probably just making himself seem more important than he probably actually was to her. She asked if he was alright and the question kind of took him by surprise. He looked at her and blinked a couple of times, before he answered.

"Er... Yeah, I'm fine. Why?" he asked quickly. She began talking about him missing the train and he tensed up. Kaiden looked away from her and sighed. "Yeah, I missed it... But it was because my parents were trying to tell me something about the stupid marriage law that was passed." he tried to make it vague but he knew that Addie would probably assume that there was something more to what he was saying.

If his parents had only wanted to talk about the law, he wouldn't have missed the train. There was obviously something more that he wasn't sure he should tell her about.

"Good." She nodded when he verified that he was alright. While Adrienne was aware that his wellbeing perhaps, in his mind, wasn't something she should concern herself with, she couldn't help it. Even when she had first met him, as upset as they both were, she had found that something about Kaiden made her want to show concern and let herself worry. That hadn't really happened since Asher left.

Kaiden looked away and she found herself nearly leaning to try and see his expression. The moment he mentioned the marriage law, though, Addie huffed. "That stupid law. I can't imagine they're very pleased about it, are they? I mean, how am I supposed to explain to my parents that I may or may not get to choose? My mum will have a heart attack."

Adrienne only just then realized how horribly her family would take all of this - they were Muggles; they would understand even less than she did. And she hated not understanding something, especially when it applied so directly to her. Her eyes widened as she stared at the floor. This was all so awful and complicated.