So, why didn't Patch Abercrombie lie when Olivia "read his mind"? Why didn't he tell her he was thinking of what he'd have for tea that night or whether he left the tap running in the prefect's bathroom? Why didn't he tell her he trying to remember if he'd fed his owl or not and save himself the expense of two butterbeers? Because he didn't want to. Simple as that. Patch wasn't one to pass up on the opportunity of a Hogsmeade trip and he liked Olivia. He somewhat doubted the girl would have met him ordinarily, without the promise of her butterbeer being payed for, though; they didn't know each other that well, they weren't in the same house or the same year. Patch still thought he liked her, though, even if she was a Hufflepuff, a house he - wrongly - labelled as the weakest.

Patch assumed the girl knew where to meet him. It was obvious that a Nancy Drew 2.0 like Olivia Loverocke knew about all the secret passageways through Hogwarts castle, probably more than he knew, even, and would know that on dark, dusty third floor of the castle stood a hunchbacked old statue with a slide snaking through the bottom, into a murky tunnel that lead to the bright, booming sweet store that was Honeydukes. Whilst Patch was thankful this corridor existed - it was a nice place just to sit sometimes, nobody ever came up here and, of course, even somebody as loud and outgoing as Patch needed time alone - but it was evident the caretaker never bothered with it. Patch imagined the man cleaning the first floor of the castle, then the second, then the first floor being dirty again, then the second, and walking and sweeping and mopping and tidying in circles and never getting beyond the second floor. It sure did explain why the entire corridor he was padding through, his shoes making horse-like clip-clops on the stone flooring, was dustier than an old chimney. Patch found himself coughing and spluttering like an old man up here, sending the dust particles in the air flying all around him in odd directions, even with his fist at his mouth.