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When Seb suggested that Declan could come to his house to watch television, the blond boy looked down at the desk a little. "I don't know if my parents would let me. They're very strict," he sighed and scooted his chair closer to Seb's, laying his head against his friend. "I wish I could though. I'd like to watch movies with you." Declan frowned, then shook his head to clear the bad thoughts from his head. "No, no sad. You said this was a new start for me, right? So we can hang out here and I can tell you about all the books I like." He forced a smile onto his face, hoping that his friend wouldn't worry about him. At least he wasn't teasing him like the other kids had when they learned Declan had never watched a telly. Some people from his church had tried to convince his parents that they could watch sermons on the telly, but his father had been adamant that they didn't need it. They could listen to the Pope's broadcasts on the radio and that was all they needed. "Hey, I have this other book that Mrs Nora gave me. It's called The Tales of Beedle the Bard. They're magical fairy tales. I could read some with you."

Reaching into his bag, Declan grabbed the book in question, pulling out the hard cover book etched with the title The Tales of Beedle the Bard by Beedle the Bard. He put the book down on the table and laid his head against Seb, smiling at his friend. "I'm excited for this one. My parents never read me fairy tales as a little kid. If I ever have kids, I want to read them for them." He never really considered having children and truthfully, he wasn't entirely sure how that worked. Either way, he opened the book and turned the book to the first page. "The first story is The Wizard and the Hopping Pot. That sounds exciting!" Declan glanced over at Seb and smiled, his bright blue eyes sparkling like stars in sunlight off the water. Turning the page again, he smoothed out the page so it didn't try to close on him. Then he cleared his throat and started to read. "There was once a kindly old wizard..." Reading through the whole story, he finally came to the last line, "lest the pot cast off its slipper, and begin to hop once more." Sighing as he finished the story, Declan glanced over at Seb. "What did you think about that?"

Declan chuckled and nodded as he listened to Seb's evaluation of the story, then handed the book over to him. "I don't really have any stories to compare it again. I only got read the bedtime stories that were Bible themed and they weren't very good." He would certainly be punished if his parents had heard him say that, but he didn't care. New start, right? He had many new stories to read and base his opinions on and gosh, all the books and stories he'd been allowed to read were terrible, just terrible. "The next story is The Fountain of Fair Fortune. Do you want to read that one? I'm excited to hear it." A beaming smile graced his face as Declan glanced over to Seb, just wanting to hear the boy read to him.

Declan could hear the apprehension in Seb's voice when Deck suggested that he read the next story in the book. He watched him take the book and turn to the page with the start of the story, then start to trace along the line. With a frown, Declan watched him struggle with the words. There was clearly something wrong with his reading and it clearly frustrated him greatly. The blond felt tears sting his eyes as he watched the frustration, finally nodded and accepting when Seb said he wasn't in the mood to read and that Deck should take over. "O...okay," he said, picking up the book. Then he bit his lip a little, chewing nervously on it. Setting the book back down, he decided to comfort his friend first. Shifting a little, he rubbed Seb's back and rested his head against him. "I only read a lot cause I didn't have a telly to watch and cause my mom and dad practically made me read a lot. And if you like me reading to you, I'll always read for you." He flashed a smile, his blue eyes twinkling happily. "Do you wanna keep hearing these stories, or do you want to do something else? After all, there's a big castle for us to explore."

Concern reigned over Declan's mind right now; he was concerned not only because he struggled to read, but also because his friend was upset now and it was Deck's fault. Seb seemed to want to continue reading the book, but Declan didn't know if that was a good idea. Sure, he could keep reading to Seb, but Declan thought that the memory of struggling to read in front of him might keep him in a bad mood. "Hey, I got an idea. Wanna see the amazing view from the Ravenclaw Tower? You can see the lake and the forest. Even the Quidditch Pitch. It looks scary tall, but also pretty cool." He smiled, hoping the change of topic would brighten his friend back up. Getting out of the library, being surrounded by books, might help as well. And the totally awesome view from the tower would brighten anyone up, though truthfully Declan was a little scared of the height. Anything to help get Sebastian's mind off his reading struggles. Declan was definitely going to pay a visit the nurses to ask them if they had any idea what could be causing his struggle. Declan wanted to help his friend and if that meant talking to someone, the blond boy would do it.

Alice had received a note from Seb, although it was written in the scrabbly handwriting she recognized as belonging to Olivia. It had said that Seb had something important he wanted to talk to Alice about and to meet him in the Library after she got out of class. The blonde had spent the entire day in class wondering what Seb could want to meet her about and had been worrying it was something she'd done. Or maybe it was because he had feelings for her and wanted to talk about them!!! She'd blushed furiously when she thought that idea. Alice had had feelings like that for Seb since about the middle of last year. Right around the time she'd discovered and shared the fact that she was a girl and not a boy. The way Seb had handled that made her feel like she liked him as more than a best friend and the teen was questioning her feelings for him. Through subtle questioning of Ms Marni and others, she'd realized the feelings were romantic in nature. The blonde had done some reading on it and realized that it was entirely normal to develop romantic feelings for a best friend, especially at the age they were at. So maybe Seb had developed those feelings as well and wanted to talk to her about it?!

As she entered the library, Alice glanced around and saw that Seb wasn't there yet. She walked over to the section that they normally went to, the fiction section, then found a place to sit down. She read the short note again, then clutched it to her chest. Her heart was thumping loudly and she could swear she heard it in her ears. What if he did confess his love for her? The blonde shifted nervously and smoothed the creases from her skirt. Gosh, she loved this skirt... It was blue and had floral patterns and just made her very happy. Shaking her head, she fidgeted next with the necklace she was wearing, then the watch on her wrist. Anything to keep her mind occupied until Seb got there. Gosh, what was taking him so long?

Alice was nervously fidgeting with the flap on the pocket of the sweater than she'd borrowed from Sebby, trying to get it to sit straight. She almost missed when Seb actually entered the library, but she caught the movement from the corner of her eye. Immediately her heart started to flutter and she shifted nervously on the seat she'd been sitting on. Adjusting her skirt again, she smiled when Seb started walking towards her. She hoped her face wasn't conveying the deep worry she was feeling as he came over to join her. He invited her to join him at a table they frequented and the blonde practically jumped from her current seat. Also, he called her Liss and that made her heart flutter a little. She loved that little nickname using her preferred name. She sat down at the table with him, her heart beating a thousand miles a minute. This close to him, she was certain he would hear her accelerated heartbeat with his enhanced wolf sense. He started speaking, talking about how she came out as transgendered. She nodded because she wasn't sure that she would be able to actually make words right now. Was it actually happening?! Then he took out a book and placed it on the table. Seb said he'd been doing research about his gender as well and told her that he was non-binary, which was on the transgendered spectrum, but not as far as she'd gone.

Oh... she thought to herself. OH! The blonde smiled and wrapped her arms around Seb, hugging him tightly to her. She was upset that he hadn't been here to confess his feelings for her, but she was more than overjoyed that he'd discovered himself and was telling her. "Oh Sebby, I'm so happy for you!" She released him from her hug and sat back up in her seat. "So do you want me to call you he, or she, or they? Something like that. Xe, I think is one of them?" Alice was sure if Seb had been doing research that he had put at least some thought into if he wanted to change his pronouns. The blonde could also always help him decide on a choice if that's what he wanted to do. She glanced at the book he'd brought with him and asked, "Also, do you mind if I read that?" Since he had shared this with her, she wanted to do all the research she could as well since she was familiar with nonbinary, but hadn't pursued it in depth.