Third Wheel (Matthew/Derek)

Ari was really enjoying her third term. Since she now had the privilege to go to Hogsmeade and could basically get a job, life wasn't so boring. Well, it wasn't usually boring, especially since this was Ari, and Ari made everything fun and exciting, so that just made everything more fun and exciting. It was one of those rare weekends when Ari had off of work, so she decided to take her two best friends along to show them where she worked.

She would've asked Arwen to tag along too so Matthew wouldn't feel so left out, but Arwen was just a second year and wasn't allowed to go on those glorious Hogsmeade adventures just yet. But Ari made a secret promise to her that the second she was old enough, Ari would make her first Hogsmeade experience a magical one. Because, well, Ari was magical.

Ari held onto Derek's arm and started pulling them along. She only invited Matthew because he was standing right there when Ari told Derek what she wanted to do. So, it would've been rude if Ari just ignored her best friend. And they were best friends, and best friends didn't ignore each other. Ari had really been craving ice cream, and she knew the boys would jump on the idea to go with her. Because ice cream was simply the best. And so was Ari.

Ari and ice cream were pretty much the same, except, one couldn't eat Ari. And Ari did come in a variety of flavors, but none that would taste appealing. Ari wanted so bad to bring some of the interesting flavors of ice cream home with her to share, but she was sure the parlor didn't allow that. And it would be melted by the time she would get to Ireland anyways. So it didn't matter.

Today, Ari had warn some skinny jeans, a sweatshirt with "Sometimes I dream of Summer" with a big happy Olaf on it, and a white hat to match since it was a little cold outside. She hummed a little tune as they were walking. It was the song "In Summer" from Frozen because it was cold outside, and Ari expected to see Elsa singing let it go off in the distance and having that be the cause of the winter. But alas, Frozen was fictional. And fictional things didn't happen in real life. But Ari still held a fraction of Hope no matter how many times Matthew told her to shut up about it. Ari asked, "Do you like Frozen Derek? Obviously you should! Since it's my favorite movie, and I pick the best movies. Right Matthew!?"

Ari smiled as she had two of her favorite people with her. She twirled her hair around her finger and said, "I really like ice cream, I'll get extra sprinkles I think! What about you Derek!?" She purposely just said Derek, because this was supposed to be just her and him, and Matthew was just along for the ride, and Ari guessed that he missed hanging out with her. As no matter how many times Ari tried to find him in the castle, he seemed to not be in his usual places. So, Ari thought that since it was ok to ignore Ari, which It so wasn't, because Ari was the coolest person ever, that this could be revenge.

Of course, because of his slight obsession with the beautiful redheaded Slytherin who had recently become his co-worker at Puddifoot's, Derek was more than eager to agree to go on a trip to Hogsmeade for fun rather than work with the girl. He was supposed to be working the normal shift, but he managed to convince his mother to let him off, for the sake of this girl who he liked a lot and who maybe could be his one true love. But he was taking it easy. When he had agreed, he hadn't been aware that Matthew was also invited. A split second later, the other boy received the invitation. For a moment, he'd worried that Ari only thought of him as a friend and was actually in love with Matthew, but then he realised that it was such a ridiculous idea, of course it wasn't true. Matthew was so oblivious to all things in the real world, there was no way he could possibly like Ari back. And Ari didn't like him either. Hopefully.

He still went along, hoping that perhaps Matthew would at some point piss off and give him time alone with Ari, but knowing that even if he didn't, they might have fun anyway. Who could resist ice-cream from Florean's? He was sort of looking forward to it, not only getting to go out and do something, but also because it made him look popular, with his cool little group of friends. Not like a loner who did homework and stared at Ari from a distance. So he was going and he was convinced it would be fine.

When he saw Ari, Derek smiled. She was so pretty. And her obsession with that old muggle movie was absolutely adorable. She looked great in the jumper with the weird snowman thing on it. So yeah, she was pretty perfect, really. Matthew, on the other hand, while Derek found him funny and liked him and stuff, he was annoying like usual. At least he stayed behind them while Ari grabbed his arm and pulled him along the road to Hogsmeade. That was alright.

"I've never seen it," he admitted in response to her question. He had seen very few muggle movies, and those he had were much more recent ones. "But I want to, obviously," he added hastily. "Since it's your favourite movie and all, so it must be good." Before long, she had moved on to a different subject, and one which he was much more knowledgeable about - ice-cream. "I'm going to get a butterbeer one, probably - it's freezing, so I don't want an actual freezing cold ice-cream," he decided with a shrug. "And extra sprinkles as well." He noticed suddenly that Ari wasn't really paying much attention to Matthew. This was strange. Were they not best friends? Was Ari annoyed with Matthew or something? He didn't get it. And he should, because he was cleverer than Ari and Matthew put together.

Matthew was in a particularly good mood that day, because not only was he going to Hogsmeade, but he was going to Hogsmeade with Ari and Derek! As in, he wasn't going to be going with just Ari, as he was normally the only one nice enough to put up with her. This time, Derek was coming, too! Which was a huge improvement, and Mattew couldn't help but grin happily as they finally started heading along the road to Hogsmeade. He'd managed to get off work for the weekend, which meant he could hang out with his friends and do whatever he wanted! Ari grabbed Derek's arm to drag him along, and Matthew shot his awesome friend Derek a sympathetic glance. Poor guy. Matthew knew what that was like, to have Ari cling to you. Not fun at all, especially once she started singing. Then, Derek would really regret walking so close to her. So, for the time being, Matthew was content to walk behind them.

Matthew snorted when Ari started talking about Frozen, and when Derek said that he wanted to see it. "No, mate, you do not want to see it," he chimed in from behind. "I've never seen it either, of course, but I would never want to. I mean, it's a girl movie, Derek. We wouldn't want people to think we were girly!" Matthew made a face and shuddered just at the thought of it. He would never watch that movie. Not even if somebody paid him a billion galleons to watch it. Well, okay, maybe then. But only then. "Anyway, I hate how long of a walk this is! It should be closer to the school, so we don't have to walk so far. Every time I work I haveto walk ages just to get there, and it isn't very fair. I hardly have any time to do my homework then! I mean really, don't they care about our education?!"

Not that Matthew really cared about his education either, and he'd much rather have loads of money than do well in school. But nobody else was saying anything interesting, so Matthew had to say interesting things to make up for it. When Ari asked Derek what kind of ice cream he wanted, Matthew completely ignored the fact that the question wasn't directed at him and jumped right in. Obviously. "Ollie always gets boring flavors of ice cream, but I try to get the cool ones! Like, last time, I got smoke flavored ice cream! It was awful, and made me rethink wanting to be a fire breathing dragon, but I ate the whole thing," he said proudly, beaming. "But this time, I'll probably get something like lasagna or chicken ice cream. Because those both sound weird but only because they're not normally ice creams. They're both good in real life." Matthew looked between the two of them excitedly as he finished talking, but neither of them seemed to be very interested in him. What was going on?!

Ari rolled her eyes as Matthew started blabbing behind him. Like literally, did he get the hint that she wanted him to leave? Ari realized that Matthew was a little oblivious to things like certain people thinking that they wanted to be alone and he was just there getting in the middle of the conversation, but when he started bashing Frozen to her Derek, she wouldn't stand for this. She stopped walking and said, "Frozen is NOT a stupid movie. My Aunt Evelyn says to never judge a book by it's cover. Well, that's a movie, but you get the point. I'm hoping you get several other points too." Ari doubted he would. She laughed when he called it a girl movie. She replied, "I bet you watch it at home ALL the time. And anyways, how would you know its a girl movie?" He would've had to have seen it to know it was a girl movie.

They continued to walk along, when Matthew continued to talk. She was trying to pay attention to only Derek, but it was a little difficult with him rambling on behind them. Matthew started complaining AGAIN. She rolled her eyes and said, "Well, maybe it wouldn't be that far of a walk if you weren't fat." He really wasn't fat, but Ari didn't know what else to say. If he didn't get the hint after that, she didn't know what else she could do to get him to leave. Sure, he was her best friends, but best friends didn't ignore each other all the time. She wasn't stupid. She knew what he was doing after about the third day of them not speaking to each other. It was probably around the time when she finally saw him walking to class one day and he ran in the opposite direction when it hit her that he was avoiding her.

She shrugged when he mentioned the types of ice cream he wanted. Ari had always gotten chocolate. That was her favorite so she was going to stick with that. If he was really her best friend, he would stick with her favorite too. They finally reached the ice cream parlor and she said, "I'd like a chocolate ice cream with extra sprinkles please. And for you Derek?" She smiled as the nice lady handed her her ice cream. She said, "Maybe we could go visit your family at the Tea shop!? I really like working there! It's really fun!" It was the truth. Sure it was  little boring at times, as a lot of people didn't come in to get tea, but it was still fun working with Derek's family and getting to know him a little better. She looked at Matthew who was probably feeling left out because he didn't work at the amazing tea shop either. She said, "You should get a job at the tea shop too Matthew! That way, you can be cool like us!" But of course, nobody could be cooler than Ari, not even Derek.

As much as Derek wanted to listen to Matthew's surprisingly straight-forward logic, which made perfect sense, he also didn't want Ari to hate him. Maybe he could get away with just not mentioning Frozen again. It would save him the embarrassment of being thought of as a girl by his peers. Ari's reasoning wasn't as good - you wouldn't have to see a movie to have a good idea of its plot. Movies like that often were easy to judge by their cover. Anyway, weren't all movies by the Disney muggle company about princesses? Matthew had a good point if that was true. Then again, what princess movie had a talking snowman in it? He didn't watch a lot of movies, but when he did he needed to make sure they were manly movies. The best thing to do was probably just to completely avoid the Frozen one after all. Then he didn't have to take either person's side on the matter.

Matthew's voice did start to get annoying after a while, and he couldn't help but laugh when Ari called him fat. He wasn't trying to be mean, it was just that Matthew wasn't at all fat. But all the complaining he was doing sure might make him sound like it. "Wait, you actually do your homework?!" he said, turning around in astonishment. Being the good Ravenclaw he was, Derek always did all of his homework as soon as he got it but he certainly hadn't imagined Matthew to even do it at all. From what he knew of the other boy, he wasn't exactly the studious type. But maybe he'd got everything all wrong! Probably not, though. He was always right. Matthew must just be lying about being concerned about homework and grades. Or doing it for dramatic effect, because he was so fat, like Ari said.

They reached the parlour, and Derek hesitated while Ari ordered, trying to be certain that she was making the right choice. "Uh... I'll have a hot chocolate one, please. With chocolate sprinkles." The woman, who he knew as Elizabeth from his days wandering around Hogsmeade as a child, handed him the ice-cream, and he smiled gratefully. "Thanks, Liz." Then he turned back to Ari. "Yeah, if you want," he grinned. His little brother wasn't Ari's biggest fan, but he could get Trevor out of the way if he wanted to. "Well... you could, Matthew," he said hesitantly. "But I don't know if we're hiring." That was a blatant lie - his mother definitely wouldn't mind any extra help she could get, but he didn't want Matthew interrupting the only time he got to spend alone with Ari.