Friends and water friends

Selwyn shot a glare at Di Angelo and shook her hand from his shoulder.  Was she trying to use her wiles on him?  After dealing with Adrienne over summer, he couldn't quite tell. How had she got into the Hospital Wing anyway? Didn't the healers put wards on the doors or something?

"I'm not preventing her being worried," he replied.  "I'm preventing her taking up space in the Hospital Wing.  She's a Slytherin and I have a responsibility to my students."

He refrained from adding his opinion about young love.  His own recollections were that young love was often anxiety ridden and embarrassing.  Thus, his desire to spare his students the worst of it.

"Dakota," he addressed the girl once more.  "If you don't come down to the dungeons, I will simply have to talk to you right here and I don't think you want Vaughn to wake up and overhear that."

Dakota glared at her professors, "Im not leaving his side until he is better. So just get over it. Take points away from me, give me detention I dont care. But try and make me move, and Ill scream." Dakota said in a threatening manner. She was not in the mood to play games and this was a game she would not play. She was not going to leave Vaughns side no matter what her professor said or did to try to convince her to do otherwise. She lied back on the bed and closed her eyes, trying to soothe the spinning pain of her head

Selwyn really ought to have taken points from her, for being rude to her professors. But Dakota was about to have a really uncomfortable conversation, so he decided not to. Perhaps Professor Di Angelo would like the privilege, though from the way she prattled about young love, Selwyn doubted she'd take the opportunity.

He sat down on the bed and pulled the curtains shut about them, discreetly erecting a silencing charm as well. For though he privately thought Dakota deserved to be embarrassed, he hadn't been lying when he said he considered himself responsible for his students' wellbeing. Certainly none of his own professors had believed it when he was in school. That was, in fact, part of the reason he was doing this.

Now, how exactly did one go about giving advice to a teenage girl? Selwyn sighed and raked fingers though his hair.

"Okay, Dakota, I know you're not asleep," he informed her. "I'm going to give you some good advice and its up to you whether you take it."

"First point. You're a Slytherin so I want you to stop all this hysteria. You only ever do it when you're around Vaughn, so I can only assume it's for his benefit. I don't care who you date, but for Merlin's sake have some dignity."

"Point the Second. Nobody can steal your boyfriend because he doesn't belong to you. He is his own person. So stop harassing the other girls. When he kisses other girls, he is relying on you getting into a fight with them so he can act like the poor knight in rusted armour. Your boyfriend is what we typically call a player."

"Third. Nobody wants to be treated like the centre of your universe. I know you probably think it's desperately romantic, but when you're on the receiving end, it's really creepy. I'm part veela so I've been on the receiving end more times than I can count. I want you to come to me at the end of next week able to tell me all about your new hobby that has nothing to do with your boyfriend."

"Do you have anything to say? Questions?"

Dakota glared at he professor as he spoke, getting more and more angry as the words escaped his mouth, "Professor please stop." She didnt want Vaughn to wake up and hear what he was saying. She hated her life enough as it was. "It doesnt even matter anymore. Im considering transferring to a different school as it is. Perhaps Beauxbatons. Or I might just drop out all together. Not that anyone here would even care." She said in a depressing voice. When he called Vaughn a player she growled and glared at him, "Dont you dare speak down of him. Vaughn is a great guy!"

Nobody could say he hadn't been patient.  But unlike some people, Selwyn's patience was not infinite.

"Kid, half my family went to Beauxbatons," he informed her, decidedly unimpressed.  "Madame Benoit expects her students to act like proper young messieurs and mademoiselles."

As she quickly angered at his observations about her boyfriend, Selwyn clapped his hands.  Seriously?  Did he really have to act like an infant's teacher?  It seemed so.

"Poise, Dakota!" he reminded her.  "You're a Slytherin.  Presumably you were sorted into our house for a reason."

"Look," he softened his voice.  "Vaughn's going to be in here for a while, right?  So instead of spending the entire time fawning over him while he doesn't even know you're here - and may I remind you, he won't know whether that Gryffindor's here either - why not spend some time on yourself?  Make it so when he wakes up he's the one who has to get your attention."

"I hate to put it so blatantly," and he wasn't sure telling her this was even part of his job, "but most guys like a bit of a challenge, you know?"

Dakota looked at vaughn. Her heart breaking slowly. "I lost him because i acted like a slytherin. I lost him because of the way i am. Maybe i should just forget it.... But how do you forget your first lpve?" she loked at her professor with tears in her eyes. "I dont know what to do about all this. I cant just forget him. But i dont want to be hurting anymore. I dont want to feel this pain and heartbreak" she said. Maybe Dakota should just become cold hearted and soulless. That could make her life so much easier in a way. She sighed and looked down at her lap trying not to cry

Dakota seemed to be eternally damp, what with all the crying she did. And call him a cynic, but Selwyn was beginning to wonder if she did it on purpose. Was there a spell for that or was she just a very good actress?

"You know heartbreak isn't literal, don't you?" he said. "If you're feeling literal pain you should probably get checked out by one of the healers. That wolf might have snapped a couple of your ribs, too."

Alright, he may have given up on the girl. Selwyn was seriously considering asking Theodore whether they were allowed to kick people out of their house. He was sure when the other man was introduced to Dakota, he would agree and have that ragged old hat on the girl's head in no time. There was obviously something wrong with her initial sorting. She seemed-

Aw, no WAY! There was one thing Huffles and Snakes hand in common. Loyalty. Slytherins were always die-hard loyal to those they loved. Even when that love was a teenage infatuation, it seemed. He rolled his eyes in exasperation. No wonder all their Heads of House had been so distant, they were clearly trying to keep as far from Slytherins under the influence of hormones as possible.

And it wasn't even as though he was any better. He had Adrienne staying at his place for this exact reason.

He stood up and smoothed the blankets on Dakota's bed, suddenly feeling a bit more sorry for her.

"Sorry, Dakota, forget I said that," he tried to apologise. "Love's a difficult thing. I don't think any of us know what we're doing. But I was serious about not getting too hung up on this guy. You're only fourteen, at least get yourself a hobby, yeah?"