A friend? "Really? Well, she's very cute. I think we're going to get along." A mischievous look was shot at him before she moved on to walk toward the library with her pile floating before her. "Were you heading for the library?" They could go together? Or if he had something else to tend to then... in fact, it'd be better if he didn't get into the library and saw her big poster that indicated detention and all. She didn't want the rumors of being found in the library brewing romance with someone else get to Joao.

O__o

João raised his eyebrows at her, especially at her mischievous look as a smile appeared on his face. "I trust you that you won't do anything to the girl," he said as if cautioning her. In a way, he was. He didn't want Louisa to spoil his... friendship with Evelyn. Hopefully, she wouldn't also introduce herself as his girlfriend. Because then, their 'fun' together could be... hindered.

"Oh yes, I'll--" study for my Animagus training, "--study some transfiguration. How about you?" In fact, it was better if she didn't go there as well. He wanted to keep his training secret.

Do something to the girl? HEH. Heck she was going to do A LOT to her. If her suspicions were right. Louisa's face, though, didn't betray any of her plans. She kept her smile, "Nah, don't worry. I'll make sure I'll be wandless." The girl then chuckled, "What, don't you trust me? Do you have something you don't want me to find out?" It was a tease... based on a very serious matter.

Transfiguration! Oh! "Oooh! That reminds me.." She landed her floating pile of books on the floor and grabbed the big red leather book. "I made you a photo frame. You know, by transfiguration. I did it from scratch!" Her cheeks were turning rosy again as she went back to him extending her hand, "I hope you like it. It's to keep one of our Brazil photo in it." She had a twin frame too.

Tayla lead the way from the fourth floor corridor to the tapestry to show Sophie what she meant. She looked up and admired the design. It was supposed to be the most grand tapestry in the castle.

"I think there's a story behind this, but I'm not sure what it is," Tayla began, assuming Sophie had caught up with her. "There's also a passageway behind it, but it's sealed off."

Tayla turned around to see if her friend really was behind her.

Sophie hurried behind Tayla. Her older friend was faster than her and she had to catch her breath when she stopped beside the Gryffindor. She then looked up and admired the tapestry in awe.

"It is pretty wicked!" She turned her head to face the Gryffindor, blinking a couple of times. "A passageway?? Do you know where it leads?"

Seeing Sophie panting a bit, Tayla realized she had been walking too fast. "Sorry!" But she smiled when Sophie admired the tapestry.

Tayla shook her head sadly. "I don't know where it leads. Although I wish I knew. They used to call this 'The Mysterious Tapestry'. I think they still should."

Tayla continued to admire it. It really was a very grand tapestry. She wondered who designed it.

Turning to face Sophie, Tayla asked, "Have you seen Professor Scabior around lately? I was thinking to ask him about this tapestry..." Tayla hadn't seen their History of Magic professor since their last Care of Magical Creatures and History of Magic joint class.

Sophie just shook her head and smiled when Tayla apologized. Rushing to see pretty things was worth it!

The Mysterious Tapestry...? That sounded kind of... scary. In a very curious way! "Do you know how long it has been sealed? And who sealed it?"

Sophie looked at the tapestry again. Beautiful, beautiful. And extremely curious now.

When Tayla asked about Professor Scabior Sophie shook her head. "No, I haven't seen him lately." So her friend wanted to ask him about this tapestry? "This sounds like a great idea!" She said excitedly.

Tayla shook her head again. "No, not at all." She sighed and decided to visit Professor Scabior's office when she was done with all her homework.

"Want to explore the castle some more? I can help you carry your Astronomy things if they're too heavy," Tayla offered.

Sophie smiled at Tayla when the older girl sugested they'd explore the castle some more. She had been so busy with homework lately that she hadn't explored the castle as often as she used to a couple of months ago. "It's okay, my bag is not that heavy!"

"Umm... I like the outside! There are some places out there that I haven't been to yet!" Like the Vegetable Patch! It would be a long run and it was probably snowy, but Sophie loved snow! "I hope you like snow!" She giggled as she started running.

Tayla laughed and ran after Sophie. "I love snow!" she called after her.

Ellie...honestly didn't know what she was doing. Wandering? Wandering seemed like the best fit. And procrastinating. She didn't want to do her homework, she'd already gone out flying today, she wasn't hungry, so what else was there to do?

She thought about maybe writing home, but...she just didn't feel like doing that either.

Perhaps she could inspect the creepy tapestry that she usually avoided? Yeah, sounded like a fantastic way to waste time.

Glenn had stopped on her walk of the castle and saw the tapestry. It was interesting. Sorta. In a morbid way.

After going closer to examine it, she noticed another girl looking at it too. A girl with red hair: Treyen's girlfriend. Glenn let out a little squeak. The last time she had come face to face with this Ravenclaw things hadn't really gone well.

She had been wandering the castle in an attempt to run into someone she new, like a friend. She guessed she gotten her wish. Sort of. At least not the friend bit.

It was the squeak that jarred her. The Ravenclaw looked beside her at her new company. What was she, a mouse? Ellie raised an eyebrow at her. "You okay there?" Were there such things as wererats? Was the girl going to transform?

Needless to say, Ellie didn't recognize the Hufflepuff from her birthday.

"I- I" Didn't this girl realise that she was the girl who had disturbed them? "Umm-" Glenn considered running away but that would be rude. Isn't glaring too? That's what the Ravenclaw had done to her.

"It's a uh- interesting tapestry huh?" She said, pretending to find it very interesting.

Blink.

The girl very nearly seemed frightened. Ellie thought she might know why, but based on her next question, it seemed rather unlikely. "It is," she nodded, "And not just to look at. You know the story that accompanies it?" The Mysterious Tapestry?

"No. Not- not really." Glenn said, looking away from the tapestry to the Ravenclaw. The girl was being almost nice to her. Glenn wandered if the Ravenclaw had remembered who she was, would she be being as friendly?

Adam was tired from his run, but the weather had been so nice out this afternoon that there was no way that Adam could pass up the opportunity to go jogging. After all he had gotten on top of his homework; his classes were going well; and overall he was just in a good mood and nothing was going to bring him down. Well...maybe the letter from his grandfather saying that his father wanted to meet him. It had been several days now since he had received the news from his grandfather, but Adam still hadn't found a way to respond to it at all. In all honesty he wasn't sure that he wanted to see his father.

Naturally this sudden shift into deep thought caused Adam to not be paying attention, nearly tripping over a bit of uneven stone on the pathway, before managing to barely regain his balance by plopping down on the bench next to the tapestry. Apparently deep thought and Adam walking did not go too well.

Louisa slammed the library door shut and balanced the pile of parchments in her grasp, hugging them closer to her chest. She trotted along the corridor, ready to head for the common room and restart revision for another subject. Arithmancy was getting the best of her.

... or well, that was the plan. As soon as she approached the famous tapestry, she spotted a blonde someone. Someone who she'd never met in almost two months!

She froze, observing him from afar. Was he panting? His face was slightly flushed.. maybe he was just taking a break here? Yeah. Her own face flushed a bit as the martial art lesson came back to her and the way Adam's arms worked with the punching bag. He looked so...

AHEM. Nope. She shook her head and quickened her pace, "Earth to Adam... urgent call." Louisa dropped her parchments and bag on the bench beside him and sat on the very edge next to him, beaming. "It's been a while since we talked." And it was Louisa's fault, hiding in the library all this time. Her face, full with red blotches, must tell the story of her suffering though.

At the sound of footsteps a little ways away Adam looked up to find Louisa, his own face flushing slightly at the thought of her seeing him almost land butt over tea kettle, but thankfully his face was still red enough from the run that he doubted she would notice. It had been ages since the two of them had seen each other: Adam feeling partially to blame but at the same time knowing that Louisa was quite busy studying for the OWLs that were coming in the not too distant future. He gave her a warm smile as she plopped down on the bench next to him. An urgent call huh?

At first he had been more distracted by the rather immense load that Louisa was carrying in her arms but by the time that she sat down Adam suddenly became aware of the blotches on her face and the overall tired and worn down look that she had.

"Louisa, are you alright?" Adam asked, figuring that whatever it was was important enough that they could skip over the hellos and how long it has been.

Seeing him staring at her face, Louisa used her hand to turn his away shyly, "Don't stare at my face. It's awful. I tried to treat the... err... few blotches with a potion but it was too strong." See? No reason to freak out. Her face broke out coz of her depression of course but that was to stay private. "Things were a bit tough, y'know. D-did Paulie tell you anything?" She breathed out the question both afraid and hopeful that Paulie did the hard part for her. Not that Joao and Louisa were officially broken up... well they probably were but they never said the words.

Adam needed to know this tiny information. It'd hurt him if she didn't keep him up to date. Especially that his best mate was involved.

Adam took a hold of her hand as she tried to push his face away. "Don't be ridiculous," Adam said with a gentle smile. He wanted to say she looked pretty even with blotches on her face but for some reason he held the words back. It just didn't feel like the kind of thing that he should have been saying right at this moment. Things were tough? Did Paulie tell him anything?

Adam let out a small sigh. It was a horrible state of affairs when you're best mate that hadn't even know Louisa for that long seemed to be more in the loop about things than he was. "Um...no. I haven't really gotten a chance to talk to him much. Is everything alright? Did something happen?" Adam asked, realizing that he still had his hand on top of hers and moving it. Ever since that martial arts lesson Adam was having a hard time figuring out what to do around Louisa. The feelings were back and in full force and that was very obviously a big problem.

Happily, she kept her hand under his and forced a grin at him. That was how close friends reacted to each other if one of them was a mess right? Right. Also Paulie kept his part of the deal and kept his mouth shut... actually it seemed like he avoided having close conversations with Adam altogether. Very smart. Louisa felt slightly guilty though... no clear reason as to why was that.

She slipped her hand away from him and occupied herself arranging her parchments. Emptying her face from any emotion as she blurted out, "Joao and I broke up. Kind of. And... well, Paulie was there. Well.. he probably didn't even get it since it was a silent decision but yeah. We're over. And.." The lump rose and she pushed it down forcefully, frantically busying her hands with the parchments basically to hide their shaking and not let herself go emotional over it again. Not in front of Adam who warned her about him long ago...

...not that it was Joao's fault this time. Ironically it was all Louisa's doing. She didn't bare to hear another 'I-told-you-so'. So.. yeah.. better not to show those emotions. Keeping her eyes away from Adam helped a lot.... so far.

Adam was glad that he had managed to get Louisa smiling, although that didn't completely stop him from one noticing that there was still something slightly off about Louisa and two how pretty she looked when she smiled like that. Adam pushed the second thought way down and tried to focus more on the first reaction since that was definitely more important at the moment. He had clasped his hands together and was looking at the ground, knowing that Louisa usually talked more freely if he wasn't staring at her when she was trying to express something personal. However nothing could have quite prepared Adam for the words that came out of her mouth.

Adam felt his whole body stiffen as Louisa got going on what Adam now realized had a huge role in her current condition. Adam sat there when she finished talking, her hands fidgeting with the parchment as he tried to comprehend what it all meant. So they broke up, but it was a silent break up? At first Adam was questioning if this was legit, but Louisa surely wouldn't look like this if there hadn't been a certain amount of definiteness to it. And Paulie was there? Adam was dying to know exactly how his best mate had managed to be present at that situation, but Adam could tell that Louisa was about to crack and he didn't want to push the matter. After all that would just make things worse.

"I'm really sorry Louisa," Adam whispered, returning his hand on top of hers and giving it a little squeeze. "Did something in particular spark it?" Adam asked, not wanting to push the matter but feeling like maybe if he had a better understanding of what happened he might be able to offer some more appropriate or helpful comfort than just being sorry for her.

Once he squeezed her hand, she jumped, "No, don't. Please." And drew away. One more sympathetic gesture and she would lose all self-control. If you call jumping and recoiling from your best friend self-control. Without intending to, her eyes started stinging and she quickly wiped them with the back of her hand. "Sorry. I'm just tired. Worn out actually, I've been killing myself over study since it was the only distraction." From thinking too much about what happened.

She stopped working with the parchments but kept her gaze on them. If her stupid eyes produced tears, she should make sure that her notes stayed protected. "I'm fine. And if you're going to say that he doesn't deserve me or that he had it coming then please don't. Again." Sighing with a ragged breath, the newly sixteen years old continued softer, "This time I brought it to myself."

Another break-down moment when her eyes produced more tears. On the bright side she wasn't crying, not really. She quickly worked on wiping them away, "Here.. protect those." She pushed the parchments to his lap. They were the work of three hours in the library.. three painful on-going hours. "I'm not crying. I'm just... tired." Was she repeating herself? However, she fell silent and worked very hard on swallowing everything. Did she want to actually cry and lost the pathetic self-control? Yes. Did she want to say that it was very hard to break up with Joao? Yes. Did she want Adam to comfort her no matter how hard she pushed away? Heck yes.

Adam tried not to be hurt as Louisa pushed his hand away but he knew that it wasn't personal and that she just didn't want to show emotion in front of him. He understood. After all hadn't he crushed a can with his hand instead of letting Louisa know what he was really feeling? Hadn't he done everything in his power to push her away when he found out about his parents kicking him out of the house? At the time he had done the same thing and Louisa had pushed back, and now it was his turn to do the same. He listened as she spoke saying that she was tired, keeping his eyes away so that she could let the tears fall as much as she wanted to.

"No, I wasn't going to say that," Adam said with a small shake of the head. "I don't know what happened and you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but I know that there's nothing that anyone can say that is going to make it hurt less. Love is just....painful," Adam said with a small shrug of the shoulders. He used the word love but he wasn't sure if Louisa had ever come out and said that she loved Joao. She had least strongly liked him, and Adam wasn't always the best with words, so hopefully she understood what he was trying to say.

He made eye contact with Louisa for the first time as she started pushing her pieces of parchment onto his lap. He took a hold of them before scooting closer to her so that he could set the papers on the other side of him on the bench. They were now so close that Adam could put his arm around her. "Listen Louisa, you have been there for me when I have been at my worst and have shown you the worst of me, so I just want you to know that you don't have to hold back with me. If you need to cry then let yourself cry, because I'd rather have you do it here with someone who cares about you then trying to hold it in and suffering alone. Take it from someone who knows...keeping it in doesn't do any good."