A Secret Weapon (Julian, Lyra, Open)

[Lyra Newbury]

"Well you weren't there, were you? I didn't know he was supposed to be kept hidden. But we got our introductions out of the way for you, I suppose. Though he wouldn't really tell me what he was doing here. Just a favor to you." Among so many other things she was confused about this morning, that one now sat on the top of the list. "In the Common Room," she answered, but barely hesitated before commenting on the next question. "I don't want Rystain to be angry with me. He thinks I lied to him. And that I'm a whore." And he had mentioned something about marriage, but clearly that was just to further his point about what a mistake it would have been to choose her over Lani. "If we go hide Julian away, will you please tell me whats going on? I don't think I can handle anymore today." Granted, she was probably doing better than Sam, who looked like she was going to pass out from exhaustion at any moment. "Or, I guess I could stash him somewhere and you could get some sleep. If the boys saw you now, there certainly wouldn't be an issue of who got to take you to the ball." She forced the joke, and a chuckle. It was obvious.

[Samantha Montgomery]

Sam nodded and sat back down. "He's here for you." then she laughed at how that came out, "No he's not supposed to be hidden and I admit that it probably would have gone better if we could have gotten Rita's article out and mine for that matter." she sighed, " I didn't mean for him to be a fiance, but that does sort of work to our advantage if he's willing." her mind was racing and she remembered Lyra, " Rystain...ended things with you." that was the nicest way of saying she got dumped, " The quickest way to keep your reputation is to have another guy in the picture. Rystain had two girls, you're not the whore Lyra, He is."

[Lyra Newbury]

"If he's willing?" Sam's explanation was only making her more confused. "I'm not going to marry him. Wait. What?" The confusion was clear as day on her face. "Rita's article? Sam, you have got to start from the beginning. Why are you having Rita write an article about me? I don't want to be a laughing stock like Professor Black." She suddenly realized how many similarities there were in her, Rystain, and Lani's relationship compared to the Herbology professor's love triangle with the Auror and Rita Skeeter. She felt sick.

Sam's next statement eased the confusion, but not the nausea. "So you want me to pretend to be having an affair with Julian, so that nobody will see that I'm hurt. Sam, that's...brilliant. But its not going to get Rystain to leave Lani. He's not the jealous type. Apparently that's me." Rystain was Lyra's main objective. Lyra's reputation was Sam's. Samantha definitely had an easier obstacle to overcome, but in her devastation Lyra couldn't have come up with something like that. And so quickly, too.

[Samantha Montgomery]

"No. Not an affair." she said clearly." You must allow yourself the proper time to grieve." now Sam moved from her seat to where Lyra was at, " Rystain will figure out his mistake soon enough. Rita's article...which I'm going to do my best to persuade her to write isn't going to be about your break up, but rather the mysterious knight in shining armor. An old boyfriend of yours. It was tragic how you had to split up, perhaps he was the only man you ever loved and yet he was torn away from you. It's only now that he has managed to get back to where he belongs by your side...for as long as you need him. He's not just a rebound, he's someone who you've known from before Hogwarts, and only saw at home."

That would take care of public eye.

"Now...for Rystain." which Sam knew of course was Lyra's goal, and she could keep her goal and Sam would try and help.

"A birdie will whisper the truth into his ear soon enough...Have I covered most of it?"

[Lyra Newbury]

Lyra had no idea when Sam had had the time to come up with such a detailed plan, let alone execute it. But she had and Lyra was thankful for it. The only thing still confusing her was the part about Rystain, and just what that little birdie would be telling him. But she figured it didn't matter at this point and it would be easier to play along like it was nothing out of the ordinary if she didn't know all the details that involved people other than her. She was good at Divination, but not that good.

Lyra leaned over and hugged Sam tightly. "Thank you so much Sam. You have no idea how much of a comfort you are." She hugged her again before heaving a relieved sigh and standing. "If you want, I can deal with Julian and you could get some sleep?"

[Samantha Montgomery]

Sam was nearly crumbling at Lyra's hug just at the strangeness of it, but she returned it quickly enough.

All of this was strange to her. She had decided however, that she was going to help Lyra and one thing went to another thing and she just ended up covering most of her angles. Course she had stayed up to do it but once the ball started rolling there was *one* more thing that had to be done, and then another and then another, and pretty soon she was working the whole scene. It was probably what made her a brilliant editor for the magazine as well as a business woman. She was so young...too young really to have that responsibility put on her shoulders, but her mother certainly had never thought of that, and so it would have been strange for Sam to think she was too young.

Her father, her brother, her fiance...well anyone really who got marginally closer to Sam than others didn't know how she did what she did. How she faced fifty year old business men head on, how she wasn't afraid of...anything.

But then there was Lyra...something Sam could hold on to. A friend, a girl friend, who Sam could talk to about, girl things. About crushes and dresses, hairstyles and boys. Lyra had befriended her, and yes there were times when Lyra was a little gossipy or unintentionally strange as far as friends went but it was Sam's desperate attempt at childhood, at being a teenage girl that formed a barrier of protection. Sam wasn't willing to lose the first real girl friend she had made.

"It's alright, I've got class soon enough anyway and I should talk with Julian as well." she laughed lightly, "We've left him in the Slytherin common room there's no telling who's going to try and hit on him."

[Lyra Newbury]

"Odds are, it'll be Lani," Lyra interjected bitterly. "Yes, let's go save him." She laughed a little as she stood, then crossed the room to the door and headed up the stairs to the common room.

[Samantha Montgomery]

Sam's lips curved into a smile, " I wouldn't worry about him too much. He knows better than to stray." and Julian did. Especially when doing a job, his only concern would be for the girl he was with, no one else.

Sam followed Lyra into the common room to see that they weren't wrong in assuming a girl would hit on him, there were already two other nameless sixth years vying for his attention.

[Julian Faust]

Sam owed him deeply for this stunt. Now he was stuck here dealing with these two twits that between the two of them could probably form a sentence...maybe a half of one. No he assumed that the only thing the two girls were good for were in the bedroom and hey he wasn't judging because they did have their uses, but right now he didn't care.

When Sam and Lyra arrived his eyes went first to Sam to make sure she was in one piece before they went to Lyra. It was Lyra he approached and Lyra he kissed on the forehead quite simply excusing himself from the other girls as they came in.

"Everything alright?"

[Lyra Newbury]

Since there were witnesses she didn't make a fuss over Julian kising her forehead. She was rather miffed now that Julian couldn't have filled her in on Sam's plan. It wasn't that complicated. But then, it probably was best that her friend told her. And his soft lips, while no substitute for Rystain's, did make her feel better. "I suppose," she answered him. "Have you kept yourself busy?" she asked, looking past him to the sixth years who were staring between Lyra and Julian. Clearly they had heard about last night's drama.

[Julian Faust]

"Busy indeed." he said smirking at her and trailing his lips from her forehead to her neck, "Pining and waiting for my lady love." his words were soft and indulgent, but sarcastic enough for him still to be considered charming and not over the top, "So busy I think I deserve a reward." he teased then pulled back and looked at Sam.

"So this is the friend you wanted me to meet?" he asked as if he was surprised to see Sam. "Montgomery is it you?" he asked with a smile, "Lyra, didn't you know Montgomery's fiance is-" he stopped there.

Sam and him had agreed that it would look better if they didn't know eachother only because someone might suspect a plot if they did, but then upon realizing that Nicolas was one of Julian's best friends, there was no way for Julian or Samantha not to have known one another, so the plan had been altered that they were distant acquaintances instead, but he had just made a boo boo he was sure. Nobody knew that Nicolas was Sam's fiance, no one knew that Sam even had a fiance.

[Samantha Montgomery]

Sam's breath hitched, everything was fine, the acting was superb and then that bomb, she recovered though by rolling her eyes, "Nicolas and I are not engaged you silly man." she laughed, " Julian how nice it is to see you again." her breathing had changed just a small bit, nothing serious, but later Julian would have the tongue lashing of a lifetime.

[Lyra Newbury]

She smiled at his kisses, watching the other girls from the corner of her eye. The confused looks on their faces told her that Sam's brilliant plan was working. She smiled brighter. "Yes, this is-" Julian continued before she could interject and then her head whipped around to look at Sam with the same confused glare as the sixth year girls. Sam was engaged? Sam spoke then, to clarify, but she was still confused. "Nicolas?" Who was Nicolas? Why did Julian say she was engaged? Maybe it was just a twitch of his, since he had told Rystain that he and Lyra were engaged. But maybe it wasn't that.

[Samantha Montgomery]

"A friend..." she answered shortly, " From long ago, but not my fiance." she cleared her throat. "Speaking of fiances..." she began, changing the subject, "When did this happen? Lyra was just telling me that she's engaged!"

Sam realized now that they were putting on an impromptu performance as more ears started perking up at what was going on between the threesome. Lyra was engaged?

[Lyra Newbury]

Lyra didn't know what to say, she was still stuck on Sam possibly being engaged. But if she stuttered through her replies it would look fake, which it was. And having everyone know that she was pretending to be engaged to get over Rystain would be worse than having everyone talk about how she broke down over a known ladies' man. The fact that they were best friends would be out-shined by the fact that they were sleeping together on a fairly regular basis.

"It's a little complicated," she replied finally, wrapping her arms around Julian's waist. Yes, complicated. They would need to make sure their stories matched perfectly. She tried to remember everything Sam had told her only moments ago in the dormitory. "We grew up together, but Julian had to leave me the bastard." She said this jokingly, hoping he would help fill in their fictitious history.

[Julian Faust]

Julian placed a hand over his heart "woundedly"

"Ouch love...that hurts." he kissed her forehead again, "I didn't want to leave you...you were my best friend after all..." then his grin got a little cheeky, "Okay perhaps we were more than friends, but you know very well that I had to leave to oversee my father's company...how was I ever to think that you'd be available when I came back home? If I hadn't thought that I might have denied you, your girlish delights, I would have asked your father for your hand long ago. We're older now, and well.." he sighed turning her to face him, "I'm the luckiest guy in the world that you said yes..." he smiled, " And that there's no other guy I have to kill to vie for your attention."

It wasn't so much his words but the way he was looking at Lyra, as if she were his everything, his soul, his love, anything that mattered, that languid prideful look that girls dreamed of. He took the opportunity to study her face, the worn lines from just this recent drama and he was almost reverent as his hands hovered lightly over her cheeks brushing her hair behind her ears so he had an unobstructed view of her face, "I missed you..." he whispered, before dipping his knees and laying a startling soft kiss on her lips that grew hypnotically insistent before he pressed his forehead to hers.

[Samantha Montgomery]

Samantha's brows rose again, as did several others, meanwhile there were girls sighing around them.

It was clear that others were eavesdropping but that was one hell of a performance, Julian had Sam fooled, if only for a moment with how intently he was looking at Lyra. At the soft kiss, and then the clincher with his forehead resting against the girl's as if he just wanted to be close to her.

Sam could have clapped and handed him the oscar right then.

[Lyra Newbury]

Too many times had his impromptu speech glossed over Rystain, though quite effectively making the point. Too many times did the others in the room look back and forth, caught between staring and trying to look as if they weren't watching. His performance was impressive, and even made her smile honestly a few times. But she was still broken and this was still too much, too soon. She looked meaningfully into Julian's eyes as his forehead rested upon hers. She needed a break.

"Sam," she turned back to her friend though remaining as close as ever to her 'fiancee'. "You wouldn't begrudge me a few hours alone with Julian, would you? I've missed him terribly." She knew Sam would give her whatever she needed, and right now all she wanted was to get out of the castle without suspicion. Alone time with her estranged lover would certainly be a worthy excuse. Now that she knew what was going on she had nothing to distract her from Rystain and Lani, though the confusion didn't distract enough when it was there.

[Julian Faust]

"C'mon love.." he whispered and regardless of Sam's reply bent his knees and slowly, gently so Lyra could follow his actions without being startled, he lifted her up and held her high against his chest, "Just tell me where to go." he said asking Lyra where she wanted to be taken.

[Samantha Montgomery]

"Oh no...no please go...enjoy..uh new fiance ship..." she said smiling if she was a bit inarticulate at the moment, "It was lovely seeing you again Mr. Faust..." she smiled dipped into her customary curtsy and smiled wider when he lifted Lyra up. This was going to be just fine.