OOOOH YES. There were chocolates and pumpkin pasties that she had in her hand. Arianna looked at them carefully, before picking up a pasty. "Thank you sooo much," she said. "Sugar is my weakness." She opened up her bag to reveal her stash of sugar quills. "Would you like one of these? There's a bunch of different flavors. Butterbeer, cherry, strawberry, and regular."

And when she looked inside her bag she found a MUG OF HOT CHOCOLATE! Oh heck yes heck yesssss. She carefully pulled out two dainty mugs that were wrapped very carefully and precisely. She levitated them for a minute and then turned to look at Emma.

"Would you like some? It's chilly out!"

Yum. Food nomz. OOH. Sugar Quills! Even better. "I would love one! Any flavor is fine.." Emma beamed, eying the assortment of sugary goodness that they had. It was like a dessert buffet! "It's no problem at all. I have such an extreme sugar stash, so I'm move than happy to share the whole lot with you."

Oooh. Hot cocoa. Yes pleassseee.

"Ooh. Yes please. Chocolate and sugar are also my weakness as well." She was really liking this girl. With so many similarities they were going to be good friends. She could just tell. "So, what have you thought about classes so far?"

Arianna looked down at what she had the most of in her hand. It seemed she had plenty of the regular flavor, so she just handed her that one. She set a cherry one aside for herself and then carefully wrapped them back up, placed them in a tin, and set the tin back into a pocket of her bag.

Then, she looked over at the hot chocolate she had, and carefully poured them into the floating mugs. Once she put the cap back on, she picked hers out of the air, took a swig, and then released it to levitate again. "There's still enough for another round when you're done with that mug," she said, smiling.

UGH, classes. How dreadfully boring. Arianna waved her hand in the general direction of everything she had so carefully laid out, and sighed. "Oh, rather boring. I don't pay attention in class really. I just read the books and still manage to get the best grade possible. Unless something really interesting comes along, THEN I will pay attention."

Bay smiled at Lux… "Im not mad…. just disappointed." he told her while still having that pain in his chest.

he gave a small laugh when everyone suggested a game of hide-and-go-seek.. "errrr.. no… i think I'm fine.. maybe just like a quite walk along the lake?" where no one talks and he would have time to think… should he write his mother about this??? or maybe even his father?

Bay was giving smiles left right and centre… "i don't mean to cry Louis… i don't know whats happening to me… i can't be having a midlife crisis… I'm only 15!" he said a little loud.. frustrated on how he was acting.

he linked his arm in Tessa's for support.. "you guys are the best…" he just hoped he would get over this soon and their friendships will be back to normal.

Lux still couldn't help feel bad for upsetting Bay even though it was a relief he wasn't mad at her. Poor guy, she really had no idea what was wrong with him for him to have acted the way he did. "It's okay, Bay. Maybe you are just really stressed with school?" He had OWLs this year on top of his homework and classes, that could be why he was acting so emotional over her kissing Louis.

A game sounded great, but if Bay wanted to have a walk, that would be fine instead. He probably would feel better when he had a nice walk. Grinning when he said that they were all the best. "We love you, Bay." And they wanted him to be okay, because he was worrying them all. "I think a walk sounds like a good idea!"

Sander quietly stood with Tessa as Bay and Lux talked with each other. When Bay declared that he'd rather take a quiet walk along the lake rather than play hide-n-seek, Sander was all for that. At the rate he was feeling right now, he could do with less hiding and seeking and more of a little stroll with his friends.

Placing a friendly arm around Bay's shoulder, Sander nodded in agreement. "I think a nice stroll around the lake would be nice." he told Bay. Then he smiled at Tessa and squeezed her hand with his. He would always treasure the walks they shared here in Hogwarts.

Easy? "I thought you didn't want me going easy on you?" she teased with a little grin. He'd said that, yeah? And she was going easy on him technically. She could definitely punch harder than she was right now, so she was holding back and little and therefore going "easy" on him relatively speaking. But she could hold back more if he'd wanted so it wouldn't hurt at all.

But there was only one more punch in this agreement left, so why bother being nice and easy now?

So without really registering his answer if he gave one, Penelope punched him once again between his shoulder blades.

Welp. That was true. Tag didn't want Penelope going too easy on him, but too hard either. "You're right. But, I need to keep my body intact." Think of Alec! What would Alec do if he knew Tag had a broken back? It didn't make that much of a difference anymore now, did it? She could give him a real strong hit for her last one.

Merciless! She just punched him there. Just punched him there only a minute or so ago. And slightly hard. Not too hard though but he already had a small sting from the first impact of her last punch. And now this one. Two punches in the same place only minutes apart. Tag jokingly shook his head at Penelope, but not in a disapproving way or anything. "I suppose our secret spy meeting is done here?" Tag said in a low voice, covering his mouth a bit, pretending as if he didn't want to be caught.

Brrrrrrrrrrr. It's cold out here. There must be some Lions in the atmosphere.

There were, actually. At least there was one.

Schuyler crunched through the snow in her boots, her scarf wrapped up around her neck and chin and a knit beanie pulled down over her ears. It was cold, but as long as you dressed appropriately it really wasn't that bad. There wasn't any wind, and that was the culprit that whipped through you and chilled your bones to the core.

She trekked on a little further and figured Olly would be along soon enough. They could be each others personal heat pumps if it did get too chilly.

Why on Earth had they decided to meet out here? It was COLD. FREEZING. Despite all the clothes she'd worn, Olly was STILL feeling cold. Especially in her face. Her nose felt as if it was about to fall off. She wrinkled it slightly to get it to warm up again...which only caused her to sneeze.

Briliant. At least this time she'd brought tissues. She dabbed at her nose with one of them to get it to stop running for at least a couple of seconds.

Yes, better. Definitely better. Actually, A LOT better. Because right then her eyes fell on Schuyler. Olly attempted to quicken her pace slightly but her hip said NOPE with an audible crack. Okay, normal pace it was then. Hopefully they'd get this aging thing fixed soon. It was a real nuisance.

Olly finally spoke up once she thought she was close enough for the other girl to hear her. "I was counting on you to bring oversize clothes again." Like last year. That would definitely keep out the cold. Sort of. Okay, she wasn't really thinking about the cold right now.

Winter probably a bad time for thieves, Schuyler thought. Not only because of the footprints but because of the crunching sound of your footfalls.

And she'd heard her girlfriend's steps before she'd heard her voice. Also the sneeze, that too. Oversized clothes? Schuyler grinned and shook her head. "We'll have to wait for spring for that. I don't want a soggy sweater." She took a step forward and leaned in for a kiss, but when she got pretty near to the other girl's lips she stopped. Hold up. Her head backed up a bit. "Are you sick?" She asked, quirking an eyebrow.

Or was her nose just runny because of the cold? If Olly was sick then kisses unfortunately weren't going to happen. Getting infected was not at the top of her to do list, especially while fighting this horrible old person transformation that everyone was battling.

A soggy sweater? Okay, Schuyler probably had a point there. But still. Olly would have liked that right now. They could have cuddled up underneath it and kept each other warm. Or well, more of an excuse to go back inside then. She smiled back at the other girl, her lips curling into a grin when she noticed her girlfriend lean in...

..................only to stop in the last possible second.

Olly frowned at her openly and fought the urge to just grab Schuyler's face and kiss her anyway. No, but talking was happening. She should listen.

What she heard made her frown even more, though. Only for a brief second. Seeing as she had to look convincing for what she had to say. "Nooo..." Olly dragged out the word a little, putting on her most innocent face. Nope, she wasn't sick. Not at all. Nope. Okay, maybe a little but shh. If she infected Schuyler they could just stay in bed all day and be sick together.

Sounded like a good plan, yeah?

Olly was clearly not happy about the almost kiss. But Schuyler even liked Olly's frowny face, so all the Gryffindor did was smirk at her.

No? She wasn't sick, hmm? Schuyler's eyebrows elevated slightly. "Is that so?" Well, in that case.. Schuyler leaned back in once again, her hands lifting gently to Olly's face. Except, in the next moment, her mittened fingers had grasped the floppy sides of Olly's hat and she tugged it down over the other girl's eyes. "Liar," she grinned and shook her head.

Typically Olly's expressions of sheer innocence actually yielded the opposite results of what she intended. In other words, they pretty much confirmed that she was guilty of something.

"It's okay," Schuyler said, smiling and leaning down to pack a snowball with her mittens. "I have some Pepperup potion that I can give you at a very reasonable price." Mhmm. Quite reasonable, she believed. She took a bite out of the snowball and it melted on her tongue as she stood back up. Then she stretched her hand out with the snowball. "You can have some of my fresh snowcone, if you want." Since she was deprived a kiss.

And there, the punching was done, which was good because her hand was starting to feel a little sore now. Nothing too bad though. It'd probably go away in an hour or two.

Thank Merlin she'd only done five too, 'cause they were also a little tiring. Trying to do five more probably would've felt excessive.

"Yep, I guess it is," Penelope replied with a grin, lowering her voice a little too just to play along. "And you're all intact, yeah?" He looked like he was still in one piece. Not breaking them was part of their agreement after all. "Did it live up to your expectations?" Because she was curious. She wasn't sure what he might've expected, or what anyone would expect when requesting to be punched really.

All done now. Yep. Rather quick, yes? Though Tag did get what he wanted so he was not complaining here.

Good. Tag liked it when people went along with him. No matter how ridiculous it could get. Hey, at least the people he hung out with weren't boring. That must've been the reason why.

"It sure is, dear Penelope. " He said smiling, and clapping her gently on the back. Was it weird that he called her 'dear Penelope'? Nah. It shouldn't be too weird. Body, intact? Yes. Tag knew Alec and Lottie would be pleased to hear it. Though, just to not have them worried he'd tell never of them what he and Penelope had just done. It wasn't like gossip or anything to worry over, anyway. "Yes. Still all one piece. Hogwarts' very own leprechaun is still all here." He continued, nodding his head at her. "Expectations? Yes. Yes it did. Thank you for punching me. Five times." Wow. That was a really weird sentence, wasn't it?

Sophie followed Caleb's lead and pulled herself back to the shore, as well. "We also know we can trust one another," she said with a sly grin. "I knew I could trust you, but...I bet you had your doubts about me." She'd proved that wrong, though! See, he really was her BFF.

"Okay, well, I'm so over this assignment. I just want to go back to the common room and lie around like a flobberworm," she added. AMBITION. She had it. Even if it was ambition to go back and take a nap like some loser of a creature.

"I'll see you there," she said. She gathered her things and started the walk back.

Olly nodded. Encouragingly. Yes, it was so. Now kisses please. And no she did not care one bit if Schuyler got sick too. Selfish? Maybe. But...the prospect of kisses had definitely overruled a bad conscience. Her lips curled into a smirk, proud of herself to have fooled her girlfriend. And there she'd thought it couldn't be done.

..................right, apparently it COULDN'T be done.

"You're very deceitful. Shame on you." Yes. Because she'd made Olly believe she was in for kisses but instead she'd gone blind. Not literally. But even if she opened her eyes all she could see was black right now. The Hufflepuff remained unmoving for another few seconds before pushing her hat upwards again. OOH LOOK SNOW! AND (more importantly) SCHUYLER!

Though she narrowed her eyes at the Gryffindor, especially when she offered her the snowcone. "Yes to Pepperup Potion. No to the snowcone." Olly HIGHLY doubted that eating snow would be a good idea right now, seeing as she was sick already. "Oh and what would that 'reasonable price' be?" She took a small step closer to Schuyler again and cocked her head to the side with a smirk. HMMM?????

Deceitful, aha. Maybe this was Olly's way of trying to guilt trip her into kisses. And an amused smile found its way onto her face while she watched Olly stand there for a moment, apparently not too bothered with staying blind for a second or two more. Oh, dash it all. Schuyler shook her head, and when the other girl lifted the hat back up again, she moved forward and kissed her. Well, her resolve had been broken remarkably fast. Stop being cute, Olly.

Actually don't..

"No to the snowcone?" She'd bet she wouldn't have said no had it been flavored. Schuyler eyed the bitten snowball for a moment and wished there were a bottle of red raspberry flavoring around that she could summon. Just like the shaved ice they sold at the beach, with flavor after flavor listed in plastic lettering on the vendor's cart. Red raspberry..

If only. "I need to eat something more substantial than snow when we go back inside." Although she did take another bite of her flavorless snowcone before dropping it to the ground. She was inquiring about the reasonable price now, was she? Schuyler mirrored her girlfriend's smirk. "Well," she hooked her two index fingers through the beltloops of Olly's jeans and tugged her a smidgen closer. Her eyes drifted from her hands up to the other girl's gaze. "The thing about this reasonable price is that if you can't guess the price yourself, the cost doubles." Just part of the deal. Schuyler was a pretty good saleswoman, yes.

She was back at the Black Lake. Now that she was an elderly, Beverly seemed to be soothed by relaxing sounds or images - like waves or ripples or the sound of water. That was one of the reasons she was here. Except, there were chunks of ice in the lake and it made it look like an obstacle course rather than a relaxing place. With growing irritation, she sighed and at sat at the base of a tree.

Her second reason for being here was to practice a favorite Charm. It was sort of fitting with the climate and all. Beverly drew her wand out. She should practice this on the water, it was half frozen after all.

Getting back up, placing a hand on the trunk for leverage, Beverly longed for a cane. It would make life easier. When she stood a few inches from the water the third year pointed her wand at the shore. "Glaci--ACHOO!"

BAH! Curse everything!

Beverly wiped her nose with a handkerchief. Her head-cold seemed to be getting worse. Sniff, sniff. She pointed her wand at the water again - since the wand movement for the Freezing Charm was a simple point - and repeated the incantation.

"Glacius!" There was a spluttering sound at the end of her wand. It was as if the water was being hit by puffs of ice. It didn't last long. A small patch of water froze in thin ice. Her magic was failing with this aging stuff.

THAT WAS IT. TOTALLY IT.

She was going to write a letter. A strongly worded letter. To someone. Something had to be done about this. BAH!

Determined, Beverly tucked her wand away and walked back into the castle. People were going to hear her. She didn't want to be old anymore. If it was the water system around here causing it, her dad was going to sue. And her grandmother and her brother and her great grandfather and uncle and her aunt and her cousin and HER.

Kace decided to go down to the black lake and work on his favorite charm. He saw on the notice board that the teacher was giving people a second chance. He would take it. He didn't do so well on the previous homework. He just didn't understand what the teacher was asking. But now doing practical stuff, this is what Kace could do.

As he reached the bottom of the lake, he wondered what he could levitate with. He liked the Wingardium Leviosa charm. It helped when you were lazy at school and helped pick stuff up that is too heavy to carry. He looked around and found a big rock he could try out. He smirked and went over, being the daring boy he was.

He got the wand out of his robe and pointed it at the rock. He cleared his head of all thoughts and just relaxed. He had done this spell a hundred times. He did the incantation, "Wingardium Leviosa!" and did the swish and flick movement and then he noticed the rock was levitating ever so slowly. He did it!

Once the rock was levitated, he moved it over a couple of feet to the right and then plopped it down. There that was easy. Then he turned around and noticed he saw an animal that needed help. He went wide eyed and went over and moved the rock again,

"WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!!!" and then with the swish and flick, he noticed the animal seemed to be better. The rock was off of it and it was breathing. He went over and it looked fine. He wiped off sweat with relief. It ran away and never returned.

YES!!!

Olly's lips curled into a broad smirk when Schuyler leaned in for a kiss after all. There, she'd won! Go her! The smug look didn't leave her face even when her girlfriend leaned back again to offer her the 'snowcone'. That had almost been too easy. "You might get sick now too though." Hehe. To be honest, Olly REALLY wouldn't mind that at all. That was probably very selfish, yes, but whatever.

"No to the snowcone." She repeated with a decisive shake of her head. It was just snow. And it would taste exactly like that. Snow. Or water rather. Rain water. Olly really wasn't the type to pretend that it tasted like something else either. She'd not even made 'cakes' out of sand on the playground when she was a child. Really, why would she eat snow?

Yes. Food sounded like a good idea. Actually, Olly had a sudden craving for broccoli. Even though it looked like a little tree. She nodded in agreement but decided that prices for Pepperup Potions were a more interesting thing to talk about for now.

And it turned out it clearly was the better choice. She stumbled forward willingly, a rather smug look on her face. Somehow seemed eager. "Oh really?" That sounded like an odd rule. Olly grinned and took another step forward, her hands coming to rest on Schuyler's shoulders. "Well-" She leaned in to kiss the other girl right below her ear. "-I'm sure I can-"

Nope, actually she couldn't. Because right then she felt her nose start to tingle again. Holding up the index finger of her right hand for the universal sign for one second, Olly turned away from Schuyler to sneeze. Yes, perfect timing.

Olly looked awfully pleased with herself. And when she reminded Schuyler that it was likely that she too would get sick now, the brunette just sighed and played with the ends of the other girl's hair. "See? I'm even sacrificing my health for you." She suppressed a smile. Really, with how often she was with Olly, Schuyler was probably already infected.

And that smug look on her girlfriend's face didn't seem to be going anywhere. Then again, Schuyler's expression probably wasn't very different. In fact she was essentially melting into the kiss she felt on the skin just under her earlobe when all of a sudden it stopped. What, where had Olly's lips gone? Oh. She was requesting a moment with a look on her face that was explicitly showing that another sneeze was imminent.

Then came the ACHOOOO. Yeah, way to kill the moment, COLD.

"Bless you." She pulled a tissue from her coat pocket and offered it to Olly. "How romantic," she said with an amused smile.

Sacrificing her health for her. Of course Olly would do the same in a heartbeat. Plus, being sick together REALLY didn't sound that bad. For Schuyler's sake the Hufflepuff put on a serious look though. "Must be true love then." If she sacrificed her heal-

..............uhm. Okay. Rewind.

Olly never did get to finish her thought. What she'd just said was for dramatic effect. That was obvious yeah? She was just kidding about that true love thing. Nonetheless Olly spent a couple of seconds just staring at Schuyler. This wasn't about them. It was just a saying. Nothing more. Moving on from that. Maybe her girlfriend would just laugh and reply with something equally as exaggerated and dramatic. Yes that would be the ideal scenario.

Also distraction sounded like a good plan. Though, it didn't quite work out as planned. Stupid cold. Stupid runny nose. The tissue was a nice touch though. Olly took it with a nod for Schuyler and blew her nose. "You know me..." Her voice was still a bit muffled from the tissue, though she did look up to offer the other girl a small grin. Yes, always the romantic type.

'Must be true love then.'

Schuyler's brain knew this was just meant as an off-the-cuff sort of response, of course she knew. But that didn't mean that her ears hadn't latched onto one particular word in that sentence or that her stomach hadn't experienced a faint somersault feeling because of it. Her eyes remained steady on Olly's and the words hung in the air quite differently than she believed her girlfriend had anticipated. "Must be.." She said rather ambiguously. Though where Olly's words had been laced with humor, Schuyler's seemed to have none. Really, if you had asked her what she had just said in return, the Gryffindor wouldn't be completely confident in knowing herself. Her mind had been otherwise occupied focusing on the depth of her feelings and the ironic veracity she found in her girlfriend's comeback.

Once Olly had sneezed and taken the tissue, Schuyler lifted her hand and moved her hair behind her ear as well as she could with mittens impeding her fine motor skills. She supposed there wouldn't be any more mention of the big L word then, in seriousness or in jest, but she waited for Olly to say something else anyway. Probably artfully change the subject again. Or sneeze. Didn't sneezing come in threes? Overall, that was two going on three..

Silence.

Uncomfortable silence.

Uncomfortable silence that made Olly want to run far far away. Only of course she didn't. Because they always stayed. Though, Schuyler's answer didn't exactly help her stay cool either. "Yeah..." She narrowed her eyes slightly, trying to figure out what the Gryffindor's answer meant. Or implied. Did it even imply anything? Probably not. No. It was just a normal reply.

Only it kind of wasn't. Olly just couldn't ignore the awkward moment that had passed between them before Schuyler had opened her mouth again.

But she was going to. Yes. Or try to anyway. Using the tissue for way longer than necessary, Olly considered her next move. Buying some time. Only she couldn't use the excuse of blowing her nose for a lot longer so eventually she straightened up again and turned back around to face Schuyler. "Okay, where were we before my nose interrupted?" Yes, that was the best thing she'd come up with as a way of changing the subject.