Nate had not actually intended to end up in the statuary gardens, but he was beginning to suspect that the castle enjoyed fucking with him by depositing him in random places. The library, for example. It's the only possible reason for why Nate has ended up there so often recently.
Of course, Nate could also blame Katya, who dragged him along to the garden and then abandoned him so she could make out with Matthias.
He had turned to leave, letting Katya get on with her tongue-play, when he heard a girl crying and his Hufflepuff instincts stopped him in his tracks. Were they — Slytherins, yeah. The redhead looked familiar, and he wracked his brain to try to figure out why before he realised that she had the same eyebrows as Nadine Farlette in sixth year, which meant she had to be Nadine's younger sister Lydia, in second year. And hadn't Lydia had a very loud feud with Kieran a few months ago because he'd insulted her French best friend —
"Yvette, right?" Nate asked, heading towards the three girls. "Are you okay?"