"The point is, I'm not gonna tell you yet, what I'm all uneasy about. I'm still considering even telling you two. I might not even... Look, it's kinda hard to explain. If I feel like, what I might tell you , still needs to happen, I WILL tell you," Cardigan explained, feeling rather, tired. Hopefully Ella wouldn't be asking too much more. It really confused the Slytherin very very much. She wasn't the one to be, erm, pressured. It just wasn't her style.

Sigh. Ella probably didn't even know how lucky she was. At least she got a couple owls! Cardigan? She, so far, didn't get any from Logan at all, much less Owls from anyone!! Calm down, Cardigan, calm down. "Oh," She said, in reply to what she'd said. That pretty much summed it up. It must be pretty pressuring to be locked up in your room, but what did the second year know? Her parents couldn't care less about what she did! That is, if it didn't involve damaging anything of theirs or themselves...

Ella just sat there staring at Cardigan. She was still majorly confused but it seemed as though Cardigan wasn't willing to elaborate on anything so the second year just shrugged. "Okay." She said, looking out at the pond. She tried not to over think whatever it was Cardigan wasn't telling her but it still gave her an uneasy feeling.

The 'oh' made Ella frown. She hadn't meant to make Cardigan upset. She just didn't want any more lies. And so she had told her friend...they were still friends, right?...maybe? And yet she had clearly upset the girl. "Look, I'm sure he'd like to hear from you. He's probably just nervous...you know, after what happened." The little blonde really wished everything didn't come back to that but it always seemed to. "You should owl him." Ella couldn't believe she was saying this, knowing how Cardigan felt about the boy, but she knew that Logan and Cardigan had been friends before she ever came into the picture so..."He would want to hear from his best friend." She finished, looking down at her hands.

Erin heard a clunking noise of a foot heading towards her direction and then she heard someone calling after her.

Cold?

Erin did not even felt the coldness of the month. She was very consumed into removing those names under the cupids' figures. It spelled ERIN and BEEZUS. Erin will removed it from left to right until she reaches B. Scissors ready on the side. She didn't want to destroy the design of her embroidery therefore, she gives as much care in removing the letters. Now, it only spelled ERIN and BEEZU. Ah, thank God, it felt so bad but so good.

As Erin looked up towards the talking man, "You looked like, you're really cold," judging from the guy's jacket covering almost half of his face.Then, Erin shot a look towards his mittens. "Will you let me borrow those, then?"

As he got closer, he saw a little more of what she was doing. She must have made a mistake...or something, she was actually taking the thread out? "Make a mistake or somethin'?" he asked curiously, "It's very pretty." Looking around he wondered if she minded if he joined her "Mind if I join ye?" he asked before taking a seat. Ok, maybe he should have waited for her to say yes, but oh well, too late now.

Smirking a little he glanced her way again "Ye can use 'em but can ye still work if ye got mittens on?" he asked teasingly. He couldn't help it, the thought of her trying to pull out that thin thread with mittens on cracked him up! "I'm always cold here. Not used te the weather yet." It'd been only two terms he'd spent the winter here at the school, but yet he still just couldn't get used to the cold!

She wasn't making a mistake. No, she wasn't. Why couldn't anyone understand her? She didn't made a mistake. She was fixing something that she didn't want any longer. "Yeah, I guess so," said Erin roughly. "I made a mistake." Erin made a mistake for trusting her, for trusting that name on the portrait.

Join Erin? It's a free country yes. Erin couldn't say no even if she really wanted no company today. With him next to her, she felt colder, why was that. She wasn't feeling anything before he came but now, she felt more conscious? "Did you ever feel betrayed by someone you love?" Lovers are supposed to be loyal to each other, bestfriends should be too, right? And now, Erin was working onto the letter, U, next to S from the right.

"Yeah, you're right," with those mittens on, she couldn't focus on what she was doing. But she wasn't focus anymore because of outside forces just like him. "Erin, by the way."

His eyebrow lifted as she answered with a definite roughness to her voice. Okay then, something was eating at her that was for sure! Instead of commenting though, he just let it be. If she wanted to say what was bothering her, then she would, he wasn't about to question her reasoning for being rough, nor for undoing the stitches in the letters of...Beezus? Hmmm, he didn't recognize the name, but then again, it wasn't necessarily someone he knew anyway.

"Someone I love? No...I don' think so anyway." Amelia...she'd not betrayed him, he didn't think anyway, she'd just...disappeared. He'd only been in love with one person, and he still was. "Not unless ye count yer parents moving to Australia after living in Egypt fer the last five years anyway." he replied a hint of irritation in his voice. Yep, that counted in his book anyway. It was down right betrayal! Not asking his opinion if he wanted to move to Australia!

His corner of his mouth twisted up in a grin as she said it wouldn't work well wearing the mittens. Erin? Huh? OH! "Isaac."

Erin saw the guy looked at her stitches. Yes, he did. He might not show it, but he did peek. Nosy! But then, as Erin waited for the bombarding questions, nothing came. He is not as nosy after all. Merlin!

And now, his time for ranting about betrayal. "That was bad," Erin stopped on what she was doing and gave her full attention towards the guy who introduced himself as Isaac. "When did you move? Just last term?" Erin is raised both her eyebrows waiting for an answer. Yes, Erin is impatient. Family betrayal, Erin knew a lot of things about that. Erin was lied to by her known parents and she was given away by her real ones.

Shaking his head at her question, "Nope by the time I got back from school last term, they had it all decided that this past summer would be their last in Egypt, so shortly after I left te come back here, they were picking up and moving everything." That just made him mad...he didn't know if he could bring himself to move down there as well, visit maybe, but move? "Now thet I'm of age, I guess I don' haf te move there, but it still isn't right fer them te move, without giving me a choice."

Glancing back her way again, he wondered what had brought about the question in the first place "Did ye haf a betrayal?" he asked softly.

That was so much to tell and so much going on. "That's the problem with our parents, they treat us like we're puppets." Whatever they say, children should follow. Whatever they wanted, children should try really hard and most of the time, they give their children no choice. Erin could really relate to Isaac, well, in a different situation with a much deeper sense. "Won't you miss them?" If that happens to Erin, which would eventually happen to her sooner or later with the situation she's in right now, she's not really sure if she can handle it well.

And now, the betrayal thingy. Why would he even brought that up again? Erin thought, he dropped it already but he didn't. "Just silly stuffs." Bestfriend issues Major STUFF!

"No. Its call sharing." he smirked back. Hanging on a wall in Surrey? Huh? Did she seriously thinking to hang some of the pictures there? Yes, please. "If I do come across with it, the first thing I do is put it into my bag." Nope he won't let anyone use it against his roommate before him. He won't allow that.

Different levels of cute? "Hmm..Let's see." he thought for a while. "Not everything is cute in my head." He rarely used that word. "I think we use cool instead of cute. You know like the castle. The baby dragon." If that makes sense. "I think I only said the cute word to you." he said not realizing that there's a slight blush creep into his cheek.

So she knew. Right. Particular reason. yes, of course there's. Messer wants to tell Alec about Anya's answer. You know to see his face and his reaction but he won't tell the Gryffindor that now won't he? "Nothing. No particular reason. Just curious that's all." he shrugged.

"Umm..No." Messer shook his head. "I feel fine actually." Yeah, maybe the whole cooties things were lie.

Jory laughed at the thought of Alex and him teaching the fishes English. "Or better yet? They teach us fishy chatter,'' he said. "But learning a foreign language can be difficult,'' the boy added, winking.

"Ah,cool,'' Jory replied. "So you were expecting to be a witch. I read that persons who turn out to be witches or wizards show signs of magical abilities. Can I ask what signs you got?''

"They treat us like...we're still children." he added shaking his head, his elbows now on his knees as he sat there next to her. "It's pathetic, how can we grow and learn unless they give us a chance." Shrugging at her question "S'pose I will a bit, but I've learned te cope, being away from them during school. 'Least I can apparate...if I pass me test...te visit them. The question is though, where would I live?" He didn't want to live in Egypt alone...plus Amelia was up here!

Glancing her way again, he shrugged again, if she didn't want to talk about it he wasn't about to ask. Didn't bother him none, he was just a listening ear anyway.

Ahh, the duck pond...

...and no, Sierra wasn't here for the blasted, idiotic ducks. She was here to pluck the flowers growing near the pond. She'd passed by this place a time or two, and from memory alone, she remembered there being flowers. So she snuck out there, not really wanting to be seen plucking the flowers, and stood behind a tree while she waited for the right moment.

...and then that moment finally came. Sierra stepped out from behind the tree and began plucking the flowers that grew there. There were so many flowers that the ducks would never miss a good twenty or thirty. Sierra plucked flowers of all sizes and colors until finally she had enough.

Dropping the flowers into a tiny bag, she casually walked away from the area. All done here. Nothing to see.

Children? Erin is still a child. But not this big guy Isaac.

"I am," chuckled Erin in a tiny cheerful voice. "So, you're a...I mean, what year are you in? You said you're in the right age already?" 17 was it? For wizards? Since Erin was a Muggle, her Muggle parents would always treat her as a little kid until she finishes Hogwarts. Just that, she was not so Muggle anymore produced by Muggle parents.

"You can apparate?" Ooooh! Erin looks forward to apparating on her right age."How does it feel?" She would hear some students say it's kind of weird and dizzy.

Where would he live? "You live where you wanted to." Like if someone makes you happy in here, then stay here. If your happiness is still with your family, then be with them. "But you should still visit them from time to time. I know they missed you too."

"Maybe their that's what their language is called!" Alex smiled at Jory. "Yhe it can be hard though." she added.

"Yes I was since my two brothers before me and my parents." the lion looked towards the ducks for a moment as she tried to recall what happened when her first sign of magical abillities apeared. "Well it was when my brother Josh wouldn't let me on his bunkbed and it had annoyed me but next thing I knew the barrier had dissapeared and he fell from the top bunk." Alex laughed. "How about yourself?"

Smiling softly at her words, "I'm a sixth year, but turned 17 in October." he replied to her question. Still hard to believe he was of age! How could that be, it seemed like he still felt like he was just a little kid just learning how to use magic! Shaking his head at her next question, he made a face, "Well, I've not tried te apparate alone yet, I hope the classes start fer it soon. But I've apparated with me mum hundreds of times." No lie there, they travelled enough, to need to be able to apparate when needed!

"How does it feel?" Hmm, he'd been doing it since he was little, so it never really bothered him. "Well it's like being forced into a tiny little package and ye can't get out until ye reappear." Did that make sense? Or did he just scare the daylights out of the girl? "I guess it don' bother me none, since I've been doing it with me mum since I was a little kid."

"Thet's complicated...I want te go back te Egypt, where I've lived fer the last 6 years, but...I've got this girl..." Yeah, Amelia. If he left her to go to Egypt, he'd never forgive himself. He wanted them to be together, and it was hard to do if they were a continent apart! "I definitely will visit them though." he replied nodding.

Jory and Alex had been talking so much, he had forgotten about the ducks until one quacked quacked loudly. The Puff looked around at the duck. "Sorry, Ducky,'' he said cheerfully, throwing a huge piece of bread to the duck. "Hope that makes up for forgetting you.''

The Badger laughed aloud when Alex recounted what happened to her brother. "That would have been a sight to see!'' he exclaimed trying to picture the scene. "My dad got it first. Every morning he wakes me up to go jogging with him. Well, that morning for some reason I was lazy. He kept poking me to get up but I won't. And the next thing I heard was an almighty crash. After I jumped out of bed I spotted dad on the ground along with my bedside table,'' Jory explained. "See, he liked to jog in place while he waited for me to get up, but while he was doing that his shoelaces got all tied up into a very perfect bow. You could imagine how perplexed we were. And thank fully he wasn't hurt.'' Jory still found the memory quite funny.

Trin walked to the edge of the duck pond and sat down with a thump.

She smiled at the ducks swimming around the pond and wished she'd thought to bring bread or cookies or something. 'Oh well,' she thought, 'Guess that means I'll just have to comeback soon.'

Reaching into the bag at her side, Trin pulled out a very worn looking paperback book, crossed her legs in a lotus-like style and began to read, her eyes darting quickly across the familiar words on the page.

Talk about claustrophobia. Erin wished she'd experienced that too. Apparating with her parents, except that they were Muggles and there was no way they'll be able to do that. "Cool!" chuckled Erin. Isaac gave Erin the goal to finally aim for her sixth year, so that she would be able to pass the test for apparition. "Yeah, it made perfect sense," answered Erin looking at her embroidery. She almost forgot, she was doing something and she needed to proceed to removing the letter Z from BEEZ.

With a pair of scissors on her right hand and a needle on the left one, she started to do what she was supposed to be doing.

...until she heard about his girl, Isaac girl. "Really?" Erin was surprised. "So, who is she?" Erin might know about her. Erin was never an insider but she does know quite a few of people in Hogwarts.

Desiree wandered down to the duck pond, intent on taking advantage of the fact there were no classes today. She wasn't sure why she came here though, she didn't have some crazy love for ducks, but it was peaceful. She hadn't really gotten a chance to just.. take in Hogwarts since she had got back, and after the news she just found out, some time with herself was exactly what she needed.

She found a tree near the water and leaned against it, eventually sliding down till she was sitting on a rock. Looking around she saw another girl sitting by herself but she was reading, and Des wasn't in the mood to talk. She recognized Erin, and thought about waving, but she was talking to an older guy. So she just sat and watched the ducks swimming through the water, her mind wandering to other things..

like Zhenya and Gary. trying to avoid thinking of Raven Desiree was impressed, Gary was a fifth year, and she had to admit, attractive too. And he was sweet! From what she could tell anyway. Not that she was surprised since Zhenya was perfect; they were quite a cute couple. Des was snapped out her thoughts as she noticed a baby duck only a foot away, staring right at her. She started doodling a drawing of the little duck in the mud beside her. It didn't move, it was like it was posing for her.

The duck nibbled away at the piece of bed as Jory apologized to it. "Now this is when we really need to be able to communicate with animals." Alex joked.

The fourth year grinned. "It was my oldest brother Samuel was first to apear at the door after hearing the thud." she laughed as Jory told her what his first sign of magical abilities was. "Yip thank fully he wasn't."

Well he hadn't scared the daylights out of her. As far as he could tell anyway. He knew if he'd not apparated with his mum before, his skin would be crawling after someone told him that! "Good." he replied with a grin. She'd read his mind...he hadn't said anything aloud, he didn't think...but he'd been worried he might scare her or sound like he'd drank a babbling potion! Leaning back on his mittened hands, he sat there silently as she worked more on the letters she was undoing.

Looking out over the frozen pond, he thought more about his parents moving. He just didn't agree, it wasn't right.

Those thoughts almost made him miss her next words! "Uh, yep." he replied nodding looking back at Erin. "Amelia Pendragon. She's in the same year and house as me, Slytherin." he answered promptly. "And started here last term as well."

Still hardly focusing on removing the Z letter form BEEZ, she was taken aback from Isaac's words, not by the name of the girl but him being a transfer, "Oh. You are? I mean a transferee?" said Erin. "So, you mean to say you're also one of those Snakes who's got the buddy thingy?" Erin didn't know much about that, clearly, she wasn't a Slytherin but she was very sure, her friend Raven had talk about it in one of their many conversations. She missed her so much, she'd been gone for like forever.

Amelia Pendragon. Erin murmured the name two or three times and finally, "...Amelia...Pendragon." Pendragon. She didn't know her. She was sure. OH. Maybe because Erin was discharged from Hogwarts halfway the term last year. Nod. Nod. "Well, I wish you two happiness, then. If I get to see her in the corridors, I'll make it a point to say hi to her."

"A transferee?" he asked surprised, shaking his head "Well...no, but I did start last term. I've been homeschooled up until last year, so I didn't actually switch schools or anything, but I am new." he replied. Did that make sense? Or...maybe that did make him a transferee, someone who transfered from homeschool to hogwarts. Wait...Buddy thingy? What was that? "I uhh, don' think so. What's thet?"

"Yep, she's got lo...erm short, really short hair, not te tall, dresses very trendy." he answered, so she'd at least know what Amelia looked like. Still weird for him to think of her in short hair! It'd been how many months now? He wasn't sure he'd ever be used to that one, it just seemed different, and felt weird. At least he hadn't missed seeing her because of that. He'd at least recognized her every time he'd spotted her. That would be really bad if he didn't recognize his own girlfriend! Ok, he'd almost missed her in Diagon Alley the first time he'd seen her...

Oh. He didn't know about the sidekick thing. It might be for the first year students only. He was a fifth year after all when he came here. "Well, my friend told me something about having someone who'll guide you through Hogwarts because you're new. That only applies for Slytherins like you. In, Ravenclaw, we don't have that kind of thing."

"Definitely keeping that in mind." Erin answered as Isaac described her the girl's appearance. He must be really in love with her. With those eyes glistening while he was talking about her, that was a fairytale. Now, that was what she was talking about to Bee earlier at the house table. Fairytales do exist.

Suddenly, she felt her hands getting really cold. She rubbed them together. "I'm getting really cold now. So," Erin looked at Isaac's covered hands with mittens but hesitated to ask him if she could borrow. He needed them too. "...I think I should go now. It's really nice meeting you Isaac."