She could find something here. For sure, something. Anything. Almost every other thing was used as a potions ingredient. So it wasn't exactly a very tough task, was it?

She walked towards the lake, keeping an eye out for possible ingredients. She still had 15 minutes to go and was sure she could make it on time. Just then, she spotted a patch of plants at the edge of the lake. Let's take a look.

She examined the plants. Hmm....aren't those? Yep, nettles. She clipped a bunch of that and placed it in a packet. She clapped her hands.

Success. Task accomplished. GRIN. GRIN.

She turned around and walked. C-R-U-S-H.

Yikes! CATERPILLARS! She stepped away in a jiffy and...HEY! She went down and with a disgusted look picked the squashed caterpillars. They were also some kind of ingredients weren't they? And dead at that. She put the three caterpillars in a separate packet and moved towards the class.

Forrest didn't have the SLIGHTEST idea about a potion ingredient, nor did he have much time to find out what was used in potions. Being the muggleborn he was, he knew muggle medicine was made of herbs, so he'd gone directly to the lake. He was panting from all the running, and there he plopped down somewhere and opened the book to maybe find something that he recognised.

Nothing... all the names were foreign to him--or so they seemed in his panic. He turned the pages quickly, eyes always on the ingredients part, but Chinese would have made more sense than those wizarding names. He closed the book in panic and looked around as if something would shine like in those video games, when you had to collect an item. He kept looking around, with a desperate expression, but nothing came alive...

The grass... the lake water... a wild daisy and--and--he found a dead stick that must have fell from a tree nearby. Those would be his ingredients. It was better than returning empty handed, yes?

Yes.

Pulling a handful of grass, he shoved it into his hands, as well as the dead stick and that daisy. He didn't have a container for the lake water, so he quickly ran to the castle and down the potions classroom to get his water bottle.

...

After getting the bottle from the classroom, he returned to the lake. He drank half of the water inside and emptied the part he couldn't drink into the lake. Then, walking a few metres forward so that the water he'd emptied there wouldn't get inside the bottle. Filling it up with the lake water, he closed the lid carefully and ran back to the castle.

Falling.. wouldn't be the first time.. Can we just look back to the opening feast.. goodness that was horrid.. she blinked and sat down scratching Fluffy on the head lightly.. " hey little dude." that sounded funny with her british accent.. heh oh well. " yeah.. plus you haven't played in a term or so right? I mean im alright just distracted from playing cause my stomach's been hurting still it's weird." she said looking out onto the lake as her friend spoke. she smiled slightly " that's lovely, really." and it really was she loved when her best friend was this happy. " I've been about the same.. minus." she pointed to her stomach.. damn thing wouldn't go away

Since he had suggested the lake, Gwendolyn found herself walking in that direction. Heh. It seemed that somehow, they always tended to pick the lake. So anyway, the seventh year was STILL trying to figure out what she wanted to say.

On the one hand, she was quite proud of herself that she finally managed to at least try to speak up her mind. On the other hand, though... she was mentally facepalming herself. Why. Why couldn’t this have waited? Why now.

WHY?

Ugh. And besides- she hadn’t even thought about WHAT she was going to say. So erm. She would do her best to avoid an epic fail. Gahh. Couldn’t she have just gone to find ice cream at the Great Hall?! No, she had to suggest going for a walk.

Genius, Gwen. Genius.

Anyway- she eventually drew her attention back to the Gryffindor. ‘Zeke?’ Just making sure that he was listening.

Well. Hypothetically Tora could have already gone swimming. "Just to continue my argument, I could wear protective gloves. That eliminates the problem of sticking my wand to my skin and the problem of the grindylows biting it off." So there. She was uber tempted to smirk but kept it in. No good to get cocky now, that was how one made mistakes.

She then turned to the other girl. "Audrey is a pretty name." She said. One of her muggle friends was named Audrey, but she didn't want to mention that just in case this girl wasn't fond of Muggles. "We were just talking, before you tripped over me- about how we could swim- or not swim- in the lake in the winter time. My argument is for by the way."

An owl came swooping down near Tag and dropped him off a package. A package? But who would be sending Tag a package? He hadn't even owled someone for anything, not really. So, this was very random. Inside the package he found a letter from Colin telling Tag that he got him some money, candy and cinnamon rolls.

Immediately Tag began to look through the package of candy, scooping out the ones he liked the most and unwrapping the, well, wrapper. With a quick glance to the sky Tag looked up and waved by to the white owl.

Lex smiled over at the girl as she joined them by the lake. The name Audrey was familiar but she couldn't remember where she'd heard it from before so she'd let it die there. The girl's name was Audrey. "I'm Alexa Cambridge, you can call me Lex though." That last bit was meant for them both. Most everyone called her Lex.

"Are you a first year as well?" Ah but before she could get an answer they were talking hypothetical things again. Alright. She had this too. "Okay, you use protective glove on your hands? Fine, we'll say you do, how do you swim? It'll make it harder then you could end up drowning from swimming difficulties not to mention the grindylows could just grab you by the gloves which are attached to your wand--they could grab that instead you know, either way you'd still be going down and let's say you don't, you're wand will be permanently attached to the glove. That'll get mighty uncomfortable and make casting the more difficult spells even harder not to mention how ridiculous you'll look being the Firstie who got her wand stuck to her glove." Trust me, not a good reputation to have.

She yawned a little. "I don't see what the point of all this hypothetical stuff. What are you asking again?" It was harder to remember things when she'd lost interest. Short attention span you see.

"Thank-you," she said to Tora, referring to the compliment on her name. Swimming? That was something Audrey was not partial to at all. Glancing at the lake, she shuddered a little. Sure, she didn't mind looking at it, and of course she was interested in the things that could be found in the lake, but that didn't mean she wanted to swim in it. At all. "Oh, I'm not for swimming in the winter at all, nor in the summer."

"Nice to meet you Lex," she said with a smile. A first year as well? Audrey assumed she meant that Tora was a first year. "I'm in my fourth year, but it's my first year here at Hogwarts. I actually just transferred from Beauxbatons Academy of Magic." Her french accent laced her english words as she mentioned the school she previously attended. So far Hogwarts was very different to her old school. "What year are you in?" As Lex replied to Tora and explained what could happen if the girl went swimming in the winter she raised an eyebrow. It was certainly true what the girl was saying. First impressions were so imporant, especially at a new school.

Deciding that the crisp November air would do him and his recovering skin some good, Airey put Pebbles' leash on and headed out to the lake. Maybe he would try skipping some stones like he used to do when he was a Hogwarts student out here.

CLUNK

CLUNK

CLUNK

Pebbles dragged behind the professor like the loyal pet rock that she was, getting dirty in some of the more muddy spots on the ground, but he was not paying attention enough to notice. Too fine a day to worry about something like dirt. Unless it fell on his suit that is.

Waving at several students as he passed, he found a spot near the lake and sat down on a large rock where he just gaze out at the water for a moment. Hmmm, wonder if good ol' Squidy was out there right now watching and if he was still ticklish. Not that he would really want to test the creature now - Pebbles was scared of giant things. They tended to crush rocks.

Minerva couldn't help but smile when Ariana pet Fluffy, "Best gift you could have gotten me. Thank you again for her." She was so surprised when Ari had given her fluffy two summers ago, but Fluffy had become a huge part of her life and she loved the little fluff ball.

Ari was right, she rolled her shoulder absentmindedly as they talked about quidditch. "Two terms actually, Fifth year I came to late to school, because of the ordeal with my grandparents and stuff, so I just announced and then was asked to sub for the final match. Last term, well I had a horrible tryout and didn't make the team." She frowned at that thought, what if she didn't make it again this term. She would be sad about it, really sad. "I'm nervous for the roasters to come out." She couldn't help but worry, the puffs had talent, a lot of talent.

She couldn't help but eye her friend, "Is it still bothering you? Maybe you need to get it checked out/ Concern written all over her face. She really wanted Ariana to get checked out if she was sick. She didn't want her to be in pain. Giving her a small smile though when Ari said she was happy as well, that had to mean things with Oakey were going well, right. "You and Oakey doing good then?"

"I'll just meet you up there, then," Mo agreed, although he didn't take more than a few steps before the awful condition of Mika's shoes became apparent. And her trousers were a state. Plus... look at the back of her shirt.

Merlin, it was like this vacuum was designed for Mika-zones or something. All zones in which Mika was likely to enter, make a mess, or become a mess. They might as well just rename the spell to something Mika-oriented.

"Erm, just... Vacuvus," Mo chased Mika down, trying to vacuum the mud from her shoes and from the back of her shirt as she headed back to the castle. There... that seemed to be most of it. Should he go back and try to vacuum the ground again? Erm... probably not.

He absent-mindedly followed her to the lake, his eyes all the while looking at the ground his feet were walking on. From the concrete floor to the green grass.

Upon hearing his name, Zeke looked up and instantly shot a smile to Gwen. "Yep?" It was somehow painful to see her a few inches away, to just be with her, to be near her...and yet feel like she was far away, not within his reach. A precious gemstone he laid his eyes upon in a high class museum or exhibit that he can't take away.

No. Ice Princess was not his to keep. She wasn't even his to begin with.

......

Oh the joy.

‘I umm... just wanted to tell you that...’ Pause. The Ravenclaw just stared at her shoes for a moment. A rather long moment. Just finish that sentence..., she told herself. But for some reason, all she could think about was everything that could go wrong.

UGH.

She would just have to gather her non-existent courage. Pft. There was a reason why she wasn’t a Gryffindor. She was no good at these things... Gwen always tended to back out in the last minute... And now she was seriously considering finding some stupid excuse and just get back to finding ice cream.

Well... better finish what she wanted to say. ‘So ummm... I umm...’ TWO WORDS THERE. Making progress. And then she finally raised her eyes from the ground, not staring at her shoes anymore. Still trying to find her words and trying HARD not to change the topic in the last minute. So another moment of silence.

Until finally...

‘I love you’

.................................

....................

Zeke just stared at her, barely blinking with the same incomprehensible expression. His mind currently could not process what Ice Princess told him. Slowly his jaw dropped open, while he was finally beginning to understand what was happening.

'SHE WHAT?!' He finally grasped the situation and his head was going bonkers. 'D-did she just- Is this some kind of- For rea- WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?' With the beat of his heart racing wildly, mouth still wide open, eyes wide as well with disbelief....everything about him simply screamed wide and wild. As some kind of reflex he shook his head in an attempt to wake himself up if this was some sort of dream he's having. Mind you, he's dreamt of this a lot of times.

His index finger and thumb on his right hand reached out to pinch his left arm....for reassurance. In case this was real life and not his normal dream where he wakes up in the middle of the night and suddenly BAM, the dream's over time to get back to reality. "Ow," the seventeen year old flinched.

Okay.

ZEKE, THIS IS REAL LIFE FOR MERLIN'S LOVELY BEARDS AND GODRIC'S HUNDRED LIONS!

Okay....uhm. Don't screw up, don't screw up. Her words rang in his ears forming an echo. The kind you hear when you scream your heart out in the mountains. 'I love you....I love you...I love you....I love-'

Wait. WAIT. Hold on a second. The echoing in his ears stopped as much as he wanted it on replay forever. This was all too good to be true. Was she pulling a joke on him? Because as good as this was to Zeke, it was not a funny joke.

More silence ensued as he tried to think of a proper way to respond to this. Does he say I love you back? Ask if she was kidding him? Kiss her? Hug her? Jump around and run through Hogwarts screaming the good news?

Later on he just decided to go for it, not thinking of anything else. Right now it was just him and her, in Hogwarts, in front of their place, and this was their moment. The Gryffindor completely forgot all memories of anything at all. Just Gwen...and him. Together. Godric that sounds so wrong yet so right in so many ways.

"I-I-I l-lo-love you too, G-g-gwen."

Yeah. YEAH. He did love her. More than anyone ever. His lips curved into a smile, the most authentic smile he's ever given. She loves him and that's all that mattered now. Zeke leaned forward and gave his Ice Princess a tight hug. Squeeeeeze!

He pulled back with that same silly smile on his face, cupped her face with his hands as gently as he could manage, looked at her eyes as if they were seeing it for the first time, leaned in and kissed her.

Things were getting better? "That's good." And that usually tended to happen, thankfully. Things sometimes got bad, but they also usually got better after awhile. Even if it wasn't generally fun waiting for it to get to the "better" part. But at least it did come. Eventually. "A lot of food," Penelope said, raising her eyebrows but also smiling, sorta impressed. Always good to bring a lot of food wherever you went, just in case. You could never have too much food after all. "You don't mind sharing?"

YES. She could feel it, the fresh air gushing by and pleasantness spread all over. This was definitely the best place of the whole castle. She walked along the edge of the lake, hoping now and then, thinking about random and distant things.

The water looked calm and silent....

RIPPLE. RIPPLE. RIPPLE.

Whaawaaszaat? Initially she'd thought it was some water creature coming to the surface but then it wasn't. She knew it wasn't. How?

Well if one could spotted a professor throwing stones at the water, it shouldn't be a water demon. Huh?

And she spotted something near him. What was that? Rock-like..round..eyes...EYES?

"Uhm...hello professor" she called, as she moved towards him. "You really know there's something next to you, don't you?" she asked, because he looked very absent-minded then.

Aaaaand silence.

Gwen just looked back at Zeke, waiting for some sort of a reply. You know... this would be about the right time to say something, she wanted to say jokingly to ease the tension, but she couldn’t mutter a word. Her heart was beating way too fast right now. Gwen bit her lip as she waited for the Gryffindor to speak, completely failing to see him pinching his arm. This would have probably been the time when Gwen would have started to overthink this, hadn’t Zeke said something. Wow. Wait. Not just something.

AJGDFBCKGNGBDJJH

He just...

...he just said he loved her.

Although this was the reaction she could have only HOPED for, Gwendolyn was a bit confused. This all was... Err. What was the right word to finish that sentence?

A smile appeared on her face as Zeke hugged her. Yes, Gwen was smiling. The person who could only show a mean grin or a smirk was SMILING. And yes, obviously she hugged him back, with her heart still beating way too fast. And then...

Zeke kissed her. AJGDFMH. This was actually happening! Gwen put her right hand on his shoulder, almost out of an instinct willing to push herself away and back out. But that was NOT her intention. She eventually wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back. As she looked back at Zeke, that smile appeared on her face again. This was all... This was all so amazing. That was the right way to end the sentence.

BIG SMILE.

REALLY BIG SMILE.

This was beyond words.

He had to admit, the seventeen year old was a bit surprised when she returned his kiss. Knowing Gwen, she would have pushed him back and I dunno, get mad at him for doing that? For a split second his eyes opened and stared at her incredulously. Letting out a slight chuckle, Zeke closed his eyes again and kissed her passionately. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to him as well, as if they weren't even close enough already.

As his eyes opened again, 'Beautiful.' She was just too gorgeous, even more when she smiles. Ugh, he couldn't resist. He smiled back at her but then visions of Evie began to come up. His sight flashed back from Gwen to her, and her to Gwen. What on earth?

'Damn, no no no no no. Head, don't die out on me now.' Zeke's vision slightly blurred. Yay he was now having double vision. His eyebrows met in frustration. How could he ruin such a perfect moment? To hide it, he casually let one hand up to his face that was looking away while his other hand was still wrapped around IP's waist.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dansgurl

YES. She could feel it, the fresh air gushing by and pleasantness spread all over. This was definitely the best place of the whole castle. She walked along the edge of the lake, hoping now and then, thinking about random and distant things.

The water looked calm and silent....

RIPPLE. RIPPLE. RIPPLE.

Whaawaaszaat? Initially she'd thought it was some water creature coming to the surface but then it wasn't. She knew it wasn't. How?

Well if one could spotted a professor throwing stones at the water, it shouldn't be a water demon. Huh?

And she spotted something near him. What was that? Rock-like..round..eyes...EYES?

"Uhm...hello professor" she called, as she moved towards him. "You really know there's something next to you, don't you?" she asked, because he looked very absent-minded then.

He began to search the immediate area for some smooth rocks - or really rocks in general because he could always just use a spell to flatten them out. Managing to find a few, he picked them up in his hand and he leaned over towards Pebbles. "Don't worry, you are not related to any of these," he reassured her. Pebbles could be very sensitive to other rocks and their feelings.

"Oh, good day Miss Kaul," he greeted the Gryffindor as she approached. Something beside him? "Do you mean Pebbles?" he asked while picking up his pet rock - her googly eyes and ears flopping around a bit. "I'm just taking her for her daily walk."

It was weird how she had gone from the permanent wish to never see the Gryffindor again to loving Zeke. Heh. Yes, she loved him. And it ONLY took her FOUR years to realize that. Erm. Wait---

. . .
What was going on?

Noticing his reaction, the seventh year just took a couple of steps back. Yes. Away from Zeke. Really... what was happening? ‘Zeke... are you alright?’ Clearly, he wasn’t. She just crossed her arms as she was still trying to figure out what was the matter.

His other hand felt her slipping away. What, was she avoiding hi-

Zeke's vision blurred even more as he heard Gwen's voice asking something in a muffled voice. Ohno. NO. You will not be collapsing here. Both his hands were flailing slowly in front of him in search of his IP. Did she disappear? Was this another dream? WHAAAAT was going on?

As he took some steps forward, CRASH! The Gryffindor fell on top of something....or someone. "Owww," he tried to raise himself up with his arms, failing horribly. Instead he attempted to raise his head and get a view of the scenario. Opening his eyes, they weren't blurred anymore. Well thank goodness for that one.



Seeing he had fallen on top of Gwen, he immediately sat back up, moving backward. That must have hurt....unless this girl could withstand his weight which was not likely....unless she was some kind of weight lifter....which was not likely too. "I'M SO SORRY." Great. You just ruined it, Zeke.

Pebbles? Pebbles? The girl eyed the little rock. It was funny looking really, with all the wide eyes and ears. "Uhm....it has a name?" Let's make things clearer first.

"And you're taking it for a...walk?" OH, it walks? Right, she was getting a bit confused here. "It looks like a...." PAUSE. "...rock?"

And rocks don't walk. Or was she missing out something important here?

First things first. "PROFESSA!" Back to being excited. "It was a wonderful first class for me!" she said, with a bright smile. Astronomy was the first class she'd attended and it was...AWESOME. Really, with the muggle thing...AH, really awesome. She'd enjoyed playing the black hole. HEH.

‘Zeke?’, she tried again, hoping that the Gryffindor would reply something. Seriously- WHAT was happening? What was this? Maybe... low blood pressure or something?, Gwen started thinking, but she immediately got distracted- Merlin’s beard- he was falling.

O_______________________o

‘OW’

The fall kind of hurt. But she was fine. Fine... fine... no broken ribs... The seventh year just tried to stand back up. Though, in the next moment, she saw a scratch on her hand. Gah. Must be from the fall. She could use a simple healing spell for that. Just as soon as she will find her wand.

‘You couldn’t have gone for a normal hug?’, she said rather sarcastically. Great, Gwen. This was SO the right time to joke. She just looked back at the Gryffindor, who was apologizing. ‘It’s fine Zeke’, she said calmly. She was fine. On the other hand... ‘Are you alright?’ Well... she was a clumsy person, but this... falling all of a sudden... you just couldn’t blame it on your clumsiness. So really Zeko- what was wrong?

His eyes wandered over to where her eyes lingered at. Crap, he's gotten her wounded. Not good. "Fudge. I'm so sorry again. I could uhm, erm," he could what? He's got no bandages on him, no healing whatnot. The Gryffindor's mind was so flustered that he's forgotten that they could use magic on it. "Sorry." He finally gave up, and tried to stand up.

"Yeah, just a minor headache," right, because you can't admit you just saw Evie in the form of IP. Urgh. He still couldn't get over her. Nonono, stop. Just stop. He shrugged it off with a smile and brushed off some grass that got on his pants.

Looking down at IP, he offered a helping hand. Not that he was much of a help, really.

And Zeke was still apologizing. ‘No, really. It’s fine’, she mumbled as she looked for her wand. The scratch didn’t hurt... that bad. Erm. Anyway. Once she had the wand in her left hand, the seventh year pointed it to the scratch. Well- a simple healing spell would do. With a non-verbal Episkey, the Ravenclaw watched as the scratch on her hand disappeared.

Minor headache? Seriously, Zeke? ‘Minor?’, Gwen just raised an eyebrow, though not to mock him, but because she actually cared. So. What was the matter?

While waiting for a reply from the Gryffindor, the seventh year noticed the extended hand. With a smirk on her face, she took his hand and stood back up.