Gaston had been coped up in his office long enough. He decided maybe some time outside would improve his mood... or at least he hoped it would. He wandered along the paths, not really going anywhere in particular, until he came to a familiar tree. He stopped, and his blue eyes blinked in shock when he saw it. He was sure this was where the treehouse once was, but now it was gone. His heart sank. He always liked the treehouse; it held a special place in his heart.

Deciding this was as good a place as any, Gaston sat beneath the tree and pulled a book out from his jacket pocket. He tried to lose himself in the pages, but his thoughts kept going back to that fight with his father... and other things he probably shouldn't think about right now. He sighed sadly. After all this time, he finally realized that his father's love was just an act, and what if he wasn't the only one? What if his friends, colleagues, students, everyone he thought cared for him was just pretending too?

He drew his wand and absentmindedly cast a spell on a nearby flower. There... disillusioned, just like him.

Skylar decided she needed a walk already to clear her head. She was confused and while she knew she wasn't an idiot, the moment at the feast had just been way too impulsive for her and really she had to question whether she'd even been herself. Perhaps making her way to the quidditch pitch, despite it not being offered again, for a quick fly on her broomstick, would be of assistance in cheering herself up.

Walking idly and kicking at the grass blades sporadically, that was when she noticed something off about the nearby tree. She couldn't be sure, but it seemed as it someone was trying to hide, considering there had been a flower there a moment ago, but now it was gone. "Hello?" Whipping out her wand, she cast, "Homenum Revelio" If there was someone there, she would know in a moment.

If anywhere was a good place to practice a few simple spells, or browse for some new flowers, it was here. On the pathways it was nice and quiet, it was a gorgeous day, and there were plenty of places to choose to sit.
Rayna looked around at the different trees and flowers along the paths. 'Didn't quite have this at home.' It was a nice change. She stopped and knelt down to examine a few wildflowers that she'd not seen before right along the edge of the path.
"These are rather nice." Rayna said to herself and took a deep breath of the fresh air. She took out the Plants and Flowers reference book that her mother insisted she bring with her and glanced through it, trying to identify the specimen.

"Mountain Aven...Dryas octopetala." Rayna read aloud and made a notation in her reference book. "These are pretty little things." She glanced up as she heard a slight rustling in the grass in front of her.
A rather small adder snake must have been sunning himself on some of the rocks nearby, and was slithering away into the tall grass.
"Better pay more attention." Rayna told herself. Wouldn't want to trample, or get bitten by her house mascot.

Daniel was bored, he was very bored. He had been relaxing after all those stressful lessons, why couldn't they just ease them in, well anyway he suddenly saw something that cheered him up, standing there was Rayna, his best friend... well he thought she was anyway. He had no idea if she thought so too.

Daniel decided to have a little bit of fun, tip-toeing over to her, he tapped her on the shoulder whilst shouting. "TAG!" He then turned and legged it off towards the other end of the pathway.

Rayna had just started to identify a second wildflower when a touch to the shoulder made her jump...along with a familiar voice.
'Tag? Oh! TAG!' Rayna threw her reference book into her bag clumsily and took off down the trail after Daniel as fast as her legs could carry her.

"You just wait!" The girl darted along the pathways, jumping over a couple of loose cobblestones in her way.
Rayna had to admit, Daniel was faster than she thought he might be. She finally got within reach, and extended a hand. 'Sooo....close....' "GOT YOU!" Rayna touched most of her palm onto Daniel's back and quickly turned direction, "You're it!" She called back to Daniel, as she sprinted away.

Daniel was laughing as Reyna chased after her, but soon she had tagged him on the shoulder, and now it was his turn to chase after her... he stopped and turned the other way and started to hunt his friend down "Your going to get it soon." Daniel smiled, as he got ready to jump something.

*O_________________________O*

As Daniel jumped his left leg caught the thing and he went down, the problem was he was close to Reyna and he wasn't sure if he was going to take her down with him.

Rayna gave a bark of a laugh, "You can't catch me! I'm much faster than-"
There was a scrape, and a loud *THUD* as Daniel seemed to have snagged himself on something, and must have bit the dirt.
But before Rayna knew it, she felt something catch just behind her left foot. Was it Daniel's hand? And then she was looking towards the ground.

"Uh oh!" The girl hit the ground pretty hard, knees first and then her elbows. "Gah!" Her bag flew over her left shoulder and into the grass, scattering some of her school things onto the ground.
Rayna swung her head around to look at Daniel, who had dragged her down with him. She stood herself up and took a couple paces back towards her friend, brushing her hair out of her face, and rid her clothes of some debris. Her knees looked a little scraped and possibly had a couple cuts.
Rayna extended a hand out for Daniel, "Nice coordination there. You alright?"

Gaston was too lost in his sad thoughts to notice anyone approaching. Hopefully no one would notice him either. He shook his head,trying to block the memory of his father's harsh words, but it was no use. If he'd been smart, he would've brought his enchanted ipod with him to drown out the bad memories. He sighed. Somehow he didn't think his father was the only one who thought so little of him. It seemed the kinder he tried to be, the more despised he became. Sometimes he wondered why he even bothered...

His head jerked up as he heard a voice, and he saw Miss Diggory aiming her wand in his direction. Well, it looked like he wouldn't be able to hide much longer... "Hello, Miss Diggory," he said; he gave her a tight forced smile,
but it did little to hide the sadness in his eyes. "Excellent spellwork!" He was beginning to wish he didn't teach her that spell! "So how are you?"

He nervously tried to flatten his messy dark hair and bow his head to hide the emotion in his eyes in what he knew was probably a futile attempt to look less like a fool with a broken heart.

And it didn't take long for her predictions to be correct, in that there WAS someone there. Her charms professor. Skylar grinned down at him when he complimented her spellwork. "Thanks! But," she hesitated a moment, thinking, then figured it was probably best to just say what was her on mind. Because it was strange to see a Professor hiding under a disillusionment charm, next to the pathway. Unless...

But what would Professor Marchand have to hide from? Or was he playing a game and she just ruined it? He didn't seem upset though, so the fourth year did the only sensible she could think of, which was to sit down next to him. He was friendly enough, and she felt kind of bad for him, for some strange reason. He seemed like he could use a listening ear. "I'm alright, but what about you? If I didn't know better, I'd say you were hiding from something... or someone?" Even though she was his pupil, she didn't mind listening to him. Really.

Daniel couldn't help but laugh at what Rayna was saying. "Yeah, I know right." Daniel let Rayna help him up and then he suddenly looked at his knees which were bleeding a little bit. "Oh well, I'm used to worse." Daniel said truthfully at home he was always hurting himself, anyway back to the really thing.

"We all know that I would have caught you no matter what had happened." Daniel laughed, as he realized that it was his own bag that he had caught his leg on. "I really should have remembered where I put that."

"Yeah," Rayna said, looking at Daniel's knees, which were about as scraped up as her own. " I've gotten worse, too." This was no big deal. A couple little cuts and some gravel in the skin was nothing.

"Really? Well, funny you should say that." Rayna said glancing down at Daniel's hand, which had taken hers when he was helped to his feet. "Hadn't you just tagged me? When you dragged me down into the dirt with you?" Her voice trailed off to a whisper, and then the girl suddenly pushed Daniel away from her before bolting off down the pathways, yet again, leaving her school possessions scattered in the grass. Nobody wanted to take school things, and a reference book to flowers and other plants.
"You're it!" Rayna was really running for it this time.

Daniel looked at Rayna. "Hey, that's cheating!" Daniel couldn't believe what had happened and he nearly went back over his book. "Hey come back!" Daniel chased after his friend, seriously this was fun, though he had no idea what the groundskeeper would say if he saw the mess that was now all over the pathway.

Daniel started to chase Rayna down, he got closer and closer . "Hey guess what!" Daniel smirked as he tapped Rayna's back. "Tag!" He then turned and sprinted off back the other way.

"Cry me a river, Daniel!" Rayna shouted back to the boy as she bounded down the path. "The opportunity presented itself, and I took it!" Really now. Daniel expected fairness when he himself simply tagged Rayna when she wasn't looking to begin with. Pfft!

Her eyes swept over her surroundings, and in the distance she could of course see the Great Lake. Bartholomew must be having a wonderful time in the waters today, it was beautiful outside, and the water was calm and peaceful looking.
Rayna's interest landed to something else, though. The Forbidden Forest. She could see a couple silhouettes just on the outskirts of it. Most likely just students milling about near it.
"Hey." Rayna called to Daniel. Not sure if the boy would even hear her at all. So Rayna ran off after him again, and for the second time, "Hey!" Maybe a little louder would get his attention?

Daniel smiled as he ran off the other way, and now Rayna was trying to get him to stop, he kept running but then suddenly she was shouting him again. He stopped himself and then walked back towards Rayna. "So what's the matter then?" Daniel had seen the forbidden forest, and had thought about running that way but hadn't a spell been put on there to stop them going there.

"Oh, nothing is the matter." Rayna said as she continued to eye the forest. "I was just...wondering..." Her voice trailed off to nothing.
"There's some students already down there." Rayna stated. Couldn't be THAT dangerous if other children were able to mill around the outskirts.

"Wanna go take a look?" She said, like the girl had just had an epiphany of some sort. "We don't have to go in. I just wanna...go look. There must be some neat stuff, even on the edge of the forest."
The mysterious and forbidden forest played a big part in the history of Hogwarts school, too. All Rayna had to do still was gather her strewn belongings....

Daniel looked at his friend as she said about going and taking a look at the forbidden forest. "Okay, let's go and have a look." He started to pick up Rayna's stuff after getting his own stuff.

Rayna wanted to stop Daniel from getting her things for him, "Oh, that's ok. I can get it. But thank you." She crammed some of her things into her bag, then had to reorganize once the first attempt didn't work out so well.

"I don't think I ever asked you." She said with a snap of her bag fastenings, "Where are you from? Where does your family live?" With all the excitement in Diagon Alley, and the first few days of school, Rayna didn't believe she'd asked. How rude of her!

It was a rather pleasant autumn evening, and classes for the day had just ended. As she descended down one of the pathways, she could see the small heads of students departing the greenhouses and creatures area and heading her way for the castle. To those on the cusp of passing by, they might have found it odd that the headmistress was heading in this direction -- especially with it almost being time for supper.

But Regina, as she always did, had a reason for her actions. It just so happened that she had a very good reason to be casually walking about on the grounds this Friday, October 3rd.

Taking in the sight of the warm colours of the leaves, she soon came to a stop where the Black Lake, though some distance away, was clearly visible. To anyone it might have seemed like the woman was just taking in the lovely Scottish scenery before winter came, though it soon became apparent that her visit had a more significant purpose. Her primary focus was on scanning the skies, though every now and then her blue eyes would occasionally glance down at her golden pocket watch.

Any minute now, she thought as she pocketed the watch and returned her gaze back to the setting before her.

Olly was heading back to the castle, the rumble of his stomach telling him it was nearly dinnertime. He glanced behind him as he did so, looking for one of his people. Noelle, or Ellery, or maybe Anthony, or even Remy. What he did see was a bit more unexpected. There was the headmistress walking in the opposite direction. The sight made Olly stop in his tracks. But that made him nearly get run into from behind so he turned and started walking the other direction, toward the headmistress this time. He didn't want it to be obvious that he was following her, because that might be a bit creepy, but he was curious and wanted to know what she was doing. Olly approached the lake, a couple feet to the side, and followed her gaze to the sky.

"Are you looking for something, headmistress?"

It was almost dinner time, and this is why the Tenacius was in a bit of a rush finishing his patrols. He thought he spotted the Slytherin Prefect and was about to crack a joke as he whizzed by when the other boy finished his sentence...

Whoops full stop get off the board!

The pair was still a few feet ahead of him when he pocketed the silvery cruiser, caught his breath and just strolled as normally as any patrolling Prefect would around these parts.

"Headmistress Hawthorne, good evening Ma'am. Hey there Olly." the Gryffindor Ace greeted them with signature cheerful demeanor. "Need help with anything?"

She was absolutely famished. With maybe another half hour or more til dinner the Ravenclaw was in need of something to busy herself while she waited to have that growing hole in her stomach filled. She thought to head down to the dungeons, see what she could find, or even across the grounds for much the same reason but the sight of the Headmistress heading down the the lake won over her interest in the end.

With dinner so soon approaching, she figured the woman would be up in her office getting any last minute things done or, y'now, whatever it was Headmistress' did on their down time. She'd have to ask one day.

For now, Jessa spun on her heels, following Olly who seemed equally as curious about the Headmistress' stroll along the grounds. Much like the Slytherin boy had done, Jessa lifted her gaze to the sky the way the Headmistress' had been before coming to the conclusion that if something was truly meant to happen, it wasn't happening yet.

"Is it an eclipse?" She'd seen the woman have a look at the watch she carried, an indication that whatever it was, it was timed. Eclipses were timed. Just...she wasn't aware there would be one this evening. Merlin it was a good thing she'd decided to follow along out here! It was almost a certainty she'd have missed it if she'd gone back inside the castle.

Oh look, there was Ace too. He must also have heard of the eclipse.

This was going to be an exciting time. The Ilvermorny visitors were about to arrive and Kay did not want to miss out on this. She knew Regina would already be there ready to welcome the contingent and how right she was. Excited, but containing her emotions, she stepped up beside Regina and the group of students gathered there.

"Good evening, students, Regina!'' Kay smiled her friendly smile at them all. Ah, so the Head had not told them what she was doing here? Well then, the students were in for a treat. "I expect you lot will find out soon enough.'' She would leave it up to the other woman to make the revelation... or let them find out fro themselves.''

Kyle walked along, stretching as he went. It had been another long day, and he was eager to get to dinner. He stopped when he saw what appeared to be a small gathering happening. Two prefects, the Headmistress, a Professor, and another student. What in the world was going on? He walked up to them and opened his mouth to speak, but found no words came out. His shy side was rearing it's ugly head again, and he hated himself for it. His father was very socially capable, why couldn't he be? He shook his head, cleared his throat, and managed to squeak out a "Hi." Well, it was better than nothing. If the Headmistress and Professor hadn't been there, he would have been fine. Why couldn't he talk to adults for goodness sake?!

Wanting to utilize to the maximum the last of the year's good weather, Levi had spent the latter part of the afternoon working on homework and studies. Though there were no exams in the immediate future unlike the year before, reaching the NEWT level of his studies had come with the realization that the free time that came with taking less subjects probably ought to be spent revising and reviewing his lessons. Sixth year was not a joke.

He'd dragged Daisy along for the extremely exciting studying and homeworking session because it was important to make his best friend understand that not everything was about Quidditch. It didn't matter that Daisy would probably go on to do the Quidditch thing in a professional way after school thus making everything about Quidditch; she still had to do homework and study with him the same way he was supposed to accompany her to training sessions. And to be fair, both were always very happy to do comply with the rules of their arrangement anyway.

Rules sounded awfully dour, though, so perhaps it was just about time to suggest a different word for it. Levi did not think either of them were boring. He was about to loudly point out as much when he saw a crowd gathering near the lake and after a puzzled look shot at Daisy, the boy tugged them both to join the group.

The Gryffindor arrived just in time to hear Jessa Cambridge ask about an eclipse. "Shooting stars could be a possibility, too, Jessa." Or maybe asteroids were about to start raining down and this would be the end of men kind as they all knew it. Dinosaurs had been obliterated similarly, presumably; there was no reason why they couldn't share the same tragic, though hopefully fast and mostly painless fate. Anyway. "Hello, hello." Mostly to Headmistress Hawthorne and Professor (Muggle Studies) Stewart but also to Oliver, Tenacius and a first year whose name he'd yet to learn (Kyle). They all got polite smiles, regardless.