Melek wandered around the grounds yet again but this time she had wandered into the courtyard. Mel was starting to think that she was getting the hand of the outside part and started to think about heading inside soon and getting some lunch. Her stomach growled and she held it for a second before finding a place to sit down to rest. Her legs were tired and sore from all the exploring she had been doing lately. Melek laid down on all the bench and blocked out the voice of her mother who would be surely lecturing her right now if she would have been allowed to come. Mel closed her eyes and smiled, resting for the moment and just feeling the earth moving slowly around the sun. Her eyes opened again and she smiled, looking up at the clouds. Melek started to try to find shapes in them and started to debate about whether one was a duck or a mouse since a cloud looked like a combination of the two animals. She came to the conclusion that it was a duse... half duck half mouse... That thought made her chuckle and she smiled for the time being.

Bri was still trying to learn the layout of the castle when she arrived at the courtyard. The first year went to the fountain, for some reason the brunette really loved fountains. She sat down on the edge of the fountain, letting her fingers skimmed the water. Bri smiled, as much as she loved exploring her new school, she was glad for a the few minutes, she got just relaxing and enjoy the nice weather outside.

After a few minutes she heard a chuckle. Bri jumped, she thought she was the only one in the courtyard. She looked around and she noticed a girl, who looked to be a few years older then the brunette, laying on one of the benches. Bri wanted to work on her shyness, so she got up from where she was sitting and walk over near the girl.

"Hello." Bri said softly, trying not startle the other student, "I'm Bri. Nice to meet you." The eleven year old said happily.

Quidditch.

It was the only thing that was on his mind lately. One of the first things he did was sign up for tryout. The summer league had training at its best been brutle. But it had made him a better quidditch player. So he was taking the training from over the summer and applying that to his try-outs.

Even if it meant that he was up at the crack of dawn, to go out for a run.

So there he was walking through the courtyard, to go out to the grounds for the run. He looked down BOTH of his shoes were untied. That would have been bad. He found a near by bench, and threw his feet up one at a time and tied his shoes.

Well since he was standing here he may as well stench. No cramps for this guy.

Early. It was very... early.

Why was he up so early? ... Alec... had no idea. All he knew was that he had woken up a lot earlier than he was meant to and, no matter how hard he tried, going back to sleep wasn't happening. Tossing and turning hadn't helped and neither had that mug of hot chocolate he had made himself earlier on.

So... he was here. Outside. His eyelids were still heavy and yawns were escaping his mouth but, aside from that, the boy was pretty much awake. A stroll in the grounds wasn't a bad idea and that's exactly what Alec was doing. Strolling. Yawning. And strolling some more. ... Was he meant to be looking out for something? He hoped not. It was too early to be--

BRO. Did he want company? ... He was going to get it anyways. Stepping off into the Courtyard, the Hufflepuff headed over towards the Slytherin, eyeing the boy curiously as he went. Maybe he was far too sleepy to really figure out what it was the boy was doing or... he was perpetually confused. The boy rubbed his eyes before looking over at the fellow seventh year. There was only one thing to do, wasn't there?

"You lumbering up to knock someone out, mate?" he asked, sitting down on the bench. ... Please don't knock someone out, Romalotti.

Push-ups, sit ups, squats.

Asher done those and stretched every part of his body. Even his fingers and toes. He would need to see what kind of a gym the room of requirement could make for him later. So he could do some other training up there. He done a few more stretches and sprints down the length of the courtyard.

He didn't realize that he had company. He turned around when he heard "Summers, bro." He laughed why would he ever knock someone out? He'd never do that. Well.... nevermind there was that one time..... He'd rather forget that though. "Nope, training for Quidditch tryouts."

Anyway, why was Alec up so early? Patrolling? Couldn't sleep? He had no idea. He offered a fistbump yeah, it was a late one but still it didn't seem right standing there talking to him without one. They have been fistbumping since birth their first year.

"What's up?" He asked. If there was something Alec wanted to talk about, Asher was here. Quidditch training could wait for a while. Bros before quidditch. Or something like that.

The castle was so stifling. Even though Ascanius was glad to be back, which was a weird feeling on its own, getting out of the castle from time to time did wonders for his head. The castle was a breeding ground for drama and the sixth year was not always keen on being in the thick of it, yeah? So some alone time was good for his thoughts.

Plopping down in the Courtyard he tipped his head back and just relaxed. Casual relaxing.

Grace was lost. She'd come outside, wanting to have a look around, and had gotten lost. She really had no idea where she was. She frowned, coming up into the courtyard. Well at least she had found the courtyard. That meant she had to be somewhere near finding her common room right? Oh. This school really needed a map. She frowned, standing in the middle of the courtyard. She had come out this way right? She was sure she had. Oooh. There was a person. Frowning a little, she wandered over to him, hoping that he wouldn't mind her bothering him.

"Excuse me?"

Melek glanced at the little girl and smiled then glanced back at the sky. "Hello, Bri. Its a pleasure meeting you... I am Melek or you can call me Mel... either way." Mel shrugged and lazily smile, "Have you ever seen a duse?" She eyed the girl out of the corner of her eye and wondered if the girl would ask her what a duse is or try to pretend like she knew what it was. Melek thought it would be funny to see if the young girl would try to fake know what it was. Mel glanced back up at the duse!cloud and smiled, "I think duses would be my new favorite animal. They are funny looking but I wonder what sound they would say." Melek mused about the thought of a duse and chuckled silently at her thoughts.

Small people. How did they always find him? 'Cause since he had come back to school they had been following him 'round or at least hat was how it had seemed.

Trying not to look agitated, he threw on a smile and looked up, "Yeah, gorgeous?" Why was she bothering him? He didn't have all day. It was relaxing time.

Waaaiiit. Had he just called her gorgeous? She'd never been called gorgeous before? She giggled a little, smiling at him. "My names Grace..." Maybe he had made a mistake? She'd sure she'd seen him around the common room. Around the common room that she had forgotten how to get too. She bit her lip, feeling a little bad that she had disturbed him. But he didn't look too bothered. And she'd had a older guy call her gorgeous. She liked that.

"I can't find my way back to my common room...." She murmured, feeling a little silly. She glanced down at her green robes, and shrugged.

Ah, she was a giggler. He made a mental note of that and moved on to observe some more about the younger girl. Obviously she was in a Slytherin, which accounted for the robes and she couldn't have been much more then a first or second year. Baby face syndrome. AND she was apparently lost. S'weird that people were asking HIM for directions. After two terms, it seemed, he finally fit in with his surroundings.

Maybe that was why he was excited to come back. Shrug.

"Common Room's in the dungeon, beautiful." He tried not to point out where was the best path, but then decided it'd just be easier to tell her, "You gotta just take the staircases all the way down until you can't go any further. We're in the Dungeons, yeah."

Not so hard.

Oh yeah and, "M' Ascanius."

Summers, bro. Alec liked that. He also liked the fact that the Slytherin wasn't planning on knocking someone out. "I... tha--" He broke off to let out a wide yawn. Blink blink. "I... sorry!" You know... in case Asher thought that Alec thought he was boring. "And yeah, that's really great to hear. But... mate? Didn't the sign ups go up recently?" Meaning that he had plenty of time to train, yeah? And... you know... not at the crack of dawn.

Fistbumps! A small grin spread across the boy's face as he fistbumped Asher back. This was normal greeting between the two. Alec was sure that it was down to Asher that he had started fistbumping people in the first place. Probably. And he felt cool everytime he did it so... thank you, Romalotti.

What's up? "I... woke up and couldn't fall asleep again so I decided to take a walk," he said, shrugging his shoulders. This explained all the yawning, yeah? "Do you usually get up this early?" It wasn't even a school day... not really. This was a day to relax. But if this was normal for Asher, the Slytherin was going to get a lot more 'surprise' visits from this Hufflepuff. Nodnod.

Beverly tried not to stare. Nope, she wasn't staring, but...

...Therewasaguydoingpushups.

A tad flustered, she glanced down at her blank parchment. She was supposed to be practicing on sketching. Just because she was away from home didn't mean she had to stop normal activities. But...

...The view was very nice. Yep.

It was for sketching purposes, too. Y'know, getting familiar with anatomy and stuff.

Bev wasn't paying attention to what she was doing. Nor that her quill had fallen off her lap and the breeze rolled it away.

One of the many ways Silver relaxed, was through yoga and different kinds of exercises. Turning her music on she blocked out everyone in her surroundings and began to work out.

Occasionally singing along to the music, she stretched, jogged, lunged, etc.

Healthy lifestyle at its greatest!

Grace bit her lip as she stared at the boy. He was a Slytherin. She could tell that from his robes. That was good. It would be a bit stupid if she had asked some random other person. But at least he was in her house. She had picked good apparently. It wasn't as if she actually knew him. But at least she was in her house, so he would hopefully know where their common room was. If he didn't. Well that was probably be bad for both of them.

"I know that..." She murmured, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. She had at least kind of remembered where her common room was. She just couldn't remember how to get there. She smiled at him though. At least the guy was going to help her. "Ooh....okay." She just had to find the staircase. She assumed she would find that when she went inside though.

"It's....nice to meet you?"

Asher grinned. He always enjoyed being in the company of summers. Even this early in the morning. He yawned back after Alec. You know they were contagious. Hopefully they wouldn't pass it back to each other. The seventh year shook his friends apologies off. "You fine. It's early" Too early but things had to be done.

Asher nodded. "Yeah like yesterday." Actually he had been up every morning like this since he had gotten here for this term. At first it was mostly because he couldn't sleep. So he would come on out here and start training. I just became a daily routine for him now.

He grinned after the fist bump. In Italy at the school he was at last term he didn't have anyone to fist bump. Which was sad. He missed them.

Oh Summers couldn't sleep? Yeah he feels you man. "Yeah, tell me about it. It's like zero sleep." Did he usually get up this early? Yes and umm no. "I have been, it works out good, I can get training over with not have to worry with it the rest of the day." Wanna join, Summers? Huh, huh? It would be fun. Yep yep.

This girl said everything with a twinge of uncertainty and as fun as that was, Ascanius really didn't have the time and or energy to half-answer questions. This was his relaxing time, which he had very little of inbetween classes and band practice and, well, other things that sucked up his time. SO if she could be a tad more direct, he would have appreciated that. Then again, she was round about five or something so he couldn't get his expectations too high.

"Pleasure is all mine m'sure, beautiful," he said with a certain level of ease. Charming was second nature to him, yeah? As well as his good looks and bone structure. Talents he was just born with.

Alec let out a small chuckle when Asher yawned back at him. "Contagious?" The yawn. Should he be sorry for passing it onto the boy in the first place? ... Maybe. "Yeah, it is. Too early, I'd say." He was glad that Asher understood. Really. He was very chill and laid back, this Slytherin.

They went up yesterday. Yeah. "You know you have enough time to train for it, right?" This was saying a lot coming from Alec, the boy who liked to train day and night before a game. "And... a little later in the day. You could catch up on sleep!" You know, before it was taken away by early morning classes. ... Those weren't a lot of fun.

Fistbumping over and... this was starting to feel a bit more normal. Or normal for them. "I've...probably said this a lot but I've missed you, you know." Really. ... Maybe he had said this a lot already.

"You couldn't sleep either?" he asked, tilting his head to the side. What were the chances? ... Whoa. Asher... got up this early. At THIS time. "I... guess that's an advantage," he said slowly, "And you don't have to worry about people interrupting you." ... Which he had done. Heh. And yeah, jogging would be good, Romalotti.

Bri smiled at Mel. The brunette tilted her head 'Duse? Maybe it is magical creature.' She thought to herself. Bri almost decided to pretend that she had a least heard of them, but she never been good at lying. "I have never seen one. I haven't even heard of it. What is it?" The 1st year asked curiously.

"It would be a cross between a duck and a mouse if they ever had babies... I would imagine it would look like that..." She pointed up toward the sky that had the duse!cloud. "I think it would be interesting to have a duse... but what would they eat and what would they do? Hmmm..." Melek trailed off and started to ponder the questions that she had just asked out loud. She looked up at the sky and the clouds and thought about it though it would never happen since it is illogical to say the least.

Marigold skipped out of the castle and into the Courtyard. She had brought a quill and parchment, as she was planning on sending a letter to her family, but she decided to just relax for a little. There was a slight breeze, but otherwise it was warm enough to take of her shoes and lie back. Her parchment fluttered a bit, and Marigold shot up.

"No!" she muttered, watching the paper fly up. Grumbling, she got up and made a half hearted chase.

She had just wanted to lie down!

The parchment fluttered over to a girl and Marigold called over to her. "Can you catch that?"

Okaay. So she knew where to get to her common room now. She should just go right? But she kind of wanted to make friends. and he was a slytherin. Though he looked like he really didn't want her to be here. She smiled at him though. Was she smiling too much? But smiles were nice. So that didn't bother her too much. Aaah. Actually. Wait a moment. She did have another question.

"Do you play quidditch?" Because she was really interested in playing for her house team. But she wanted to know about the Captain first. She wanted to know what he was like, and what the team was like. She had to do her research first you know. Big important stuff that was.

That was a complicated question. Technically speaking, yeah, he had been on the team for two terms now. Now if he still played Quidditch, well, that was yet to be decided. West had given him an out because of the heights thing...but he wasn't sure if he was going to take it or not. It was not a black and white thing.

Not that the first year cared about any of that. Leaning back, he shrugged, "I did for two terms. Why, are you interested in playing or something?" 'Cause West was the Captain officially this term and he needed new players since people graduated. Although looking at small and firstie he wasn't sure if this was the type of recruit West was looking for.

Grace hoped that he did play quidditch because she was interested in it. Although her brother always teased her that she was too small. She couldn't help that she was really little. It was her mom's fault. but her mom had played quidditch. So she probably would be able to as well. Or so she hoped anyway. She wanted to be a beater, but she probably wouldn't be able to do that. Not right now anyway. She was only a tiny person.

"Yeah I am." She nodded, a big smile coming onto her face. "I love quidditch. I played with my dad, and brother at home all the time." Though they both told her that she was too small for the sport. "What position did you play? Beater is my favourite. But my brother says Im too small." It was so unfair that he was practically the same height as her, when he was two years younger.