ooc: My bad... *hits self*


Nadia did this clapping and pointing at the name Ganymede gave, "Yeah, that. I knew the translation shouldn't be too different."

A little later, Nadia nodded to Zekke's suggestion, her mouth once more stuffed with croissants. She was giving herself away big time, yeah, but at this time being it didn't look like a bad idea. Besides, with Zekke and his refined manners and Jaren and all his don't-want-to-be-sighted attitude - plus Gany being quite calm for being her, she pondered she would be the weird bug in the group whether she planned it or not. Better just follow the flown. But back to the issue at hand.

She was standing to follow the lead as Ganymede had stood but Zekke had just started. And then the mistake she became quite obvious. Nadia here was thinking of watching famous La Gioconda at Louvre to realize the mistake she had made - It just embarrassed her greatly to find out she had mixed the places in her head and was refering to a place in Italy, not even France!

Why, this seemed to happen once every conjunction of stars; she would completely and utterly mess up beyond repair.

Nadia "eer-ed", rubbed her head and... remained silent for the rest of the conversation so not to embarrass herself further. It was embarrassing enough as it was... and she was fearing some other stupid thing coming from her mouth... So she just listened, silently, as Zekke rambled on. Galieo, Da Vinci, Michelangelo... At least the change of subject had her a little more comfortable with herself.

Finally nodding at Ganymede and as the place grew silent, and as the sun seemed to point out noon (ooc: I'm guessing), Nadia breathed a sigh. "So we are going?" Cleaning her mouth with an napkin for any remanings of chocolate in her face, she stood and moved to follow her friends. She wouln't want to waste any minute she was in there. After all, she only had a couple of days.

"If you're all ready, let's go." Zekke nodded and stood up and straightened his clothes a bit before heading out the door. The waitress had already been paid, so he didn't bother to stop by the counter.

The sun was shining brightly and he donned a pair of sunglasses and walked slightly ahead of everyone so he could show the way. The town was built in a sort of semicircular and horseshoe fashion, so it was rather easy to give a tour. He pointed out the various shops along the way and then stopped in front of a nondescript building built of enchanted stone.

There was nothing particularly aesthetically pleasing about it, but it was strong and had been built to last. It marked the middle of town and so it was fitting that the floo station and post office was here along with a bank.

"The post office and floo station are in here," he veered off the main road to walk on the sidewalk that led to the left side of the building where the floo station was.

When they arrived at the floo station, he turned to face his housemates. "The location is 'de Barticot Estate' and you should appear in fireplace in the living room of my house. The fireplace hearth is marble and there's a large clock above the mantle. There isn't any other destination that really sounds like that, so you should be fine. Now the question is... who should go first..."

He looked at everyone. Despite what he just said, he was afraid his guests would get lost and if they did, he wanted to be able to retrieve them as soon as possible. At the same time, he didn't want them flooing into his home and then get confused not knowing what to expect and not knowing if they were there or not.

The floomaster of that particular fireplace seemed impatient to keep everything running smoothly and on-time, but didn't dare say a word. He just grumped and picked up a copy of the latest news bulletin and buried his nose in it.

"Floo powder on the mantle," He groused out, voice muffled from behind the newspaper.

:: Ganymede stepped forward, "I'll go!" She said full of excitement. She grabbed her bag a bit tighter and picked up some Floo Powder. She stepped into the fireplace, muttered "De Barticot Estate" and threw the powder on the fire bed. In an eruption of green flame she felt the strange sensation of spinning. She finally fell face first into a livingroom. (I'll let Zekke do the description in his post) "Honey! I'm Home!" Ganymede shouted with a snort. She brushed herself off and fixed her hair into a long black ponytail. ::

ooc: CoS is on! g2g!

Well, this would be a test for Nadia's pronunciation. With some negativity on her aptitude to it, Nadia took a handful of floo-powder and thew it forwards. Truth was, since FlooPowdering wasn't common in her country, she very rarely used this way of transportation and it worried her that she would mess up. And with this enourmous effort not to stammer, she said the words, "de Barticot Estate"

And she stepped forwards. And as the barrier to Platform 9 and 3/4, a whole new scenery appeared before her. She checked out. Marble fireplace - she cracked her neck around -, check. Large clock and mantle... now where's that - oh there, check.

Back-haired girl screaming in stranger's house... check. Though the hair had her fooled for a second. Breathing a sigh of relief, Nadia stepped forwards to live space for the next one to enter.

At least, if she got it wrong, it was her and Ganymede and not Nadia alone...

Jaren, having remained silent through the rest of the conversation, stepped forward next after Nadia and Ganymede had both gone. He was familiar with this proceedure, having stayed with Zekke for several days (if not weeks).

A nagging thought surfaced in his brain for not the first time since he'd set foot here in France this summer. Since he was here, and if the plans to tour the country were to go ahead, there was a possibility...a faint possibility, but present all the same...

Thinking no more of that for the moment he pinched a bit of Floo Powder, tossed it into the fireplace and watched it burst into emerald flame before stepping in and saying in a low but clear voice, "de Barticot estate".

Within a matter of seconds he was standing in the fireplace of Zekke's residence, Nadia and Ganymede already there. He stepped out and waited for Zekke to arrive.

Zekke's ears had never been so attuned to people's voices at they were during the time where each of his housemates' stated their destination. After Jaren had flooed, he relaxed a bit. So far so good. It sounded like everyone managed to get through just fine.

Now it was his turn.

He took a pinch of floo powder and tossed it into the fireplace and watched as it glowed as green as his eyes. He stepped in and stated, "de Barticot Estate."

With a loud "whoooomph," he found himself landing at the hearth of his living room's fireplace. He blinked his head to clear it of stars and grinned when he saw that everyone had indeed made it safe and sound.

"Wonderful." He shook off his clothes a bit and sneezed. He was too used to his home's hypoallergenic floo powder. Ah well. He headed to the center of the room and turned to face his friends.

"So... Nadia... Ganymede... welcome to my home." He bowed formally and stuck his hands into his pockets and grinned. The de Barticot Estate home comprised of two main floors, an attic, a basement, and numerous other secret rooms and passages. The living room was somewhat octagonal in shape with the corners cropped rather than joining at 90 degree angles. In fact, the whole home was somewhat octagonal in shape...

ooc: You know, I'm going to just post a drawing of the house layout in a bit.

"The living room, kitchen and dining area, parlour, and library room are on the first floor, which is the floor we are on. The bedrooms and study rooms are on the second floor. There's an attic, but it's been ages since I've been up there. There's a balcony that surrounds the perimeter of the living room at the second floor and there's also a book collection along the walls of the balcony."

He pointed as he named off the rooms. "Let's put your things away in one of the guest rooms and then you can freshen up or something, get something to eat from the kitchen, and then we can leave if you'd like."

"The stairs are this way." He headed to the front of the living room and veered right to a set of stairs that curved up to the balcony. There was another set of stairs to the left of the same fashion.

"If you girls don't mind, you can have the rooms to the right." He waited for them to follow, his eyes bright with anticipation and ideas for their trip.

A reference image of Zekke's family estate home:

http://www.pyroglyphica.com/random/Zestate.jpg

It's only showing the second floor, but it can be assumed the the downstairs level has a somewhat similar layout.

The study wings on the right and left can be accessed by either of the bedrooms that it adjoins.

The living room area height spans the height of the entire estate and has a domed vaulted ceiling. So the living room area is this huge empty space, more or less, at least vertically. In other words, the center of the estate is emptiness and all the rooms and whatnot surround that octagonal space.

The indoor balcony surrounds the inner circumference of the second floor and the walls of the balcony are filled with books and it is on the second floor and it is what divides the first from the second floor and can be reached by taking the stairs. The balcony is like an octagonal-shaped hallway that curves around. From the balcony-hallway, one can access the second floor rooms - the bedrooms, studies, bathrooms, etc.

ooc: *panics* Steph, you cannot possibly put so much effort in this! *freaks out*

A look at the surroundings was already giving out the size of it all. The living room was as big as a small park! Exceeded Nadia's house double-chamber living room by far. She could see seven exists, two marble quite prominent staircases. All old traditional style, and beautifully carved. Must say, Nadia was marvelled. And mind, on building structure Nadia held no interest to be gapping at it so bad.

Pardon the little attention she was giving everyone else as they arrived. Her attention was exclusively fixed on the wall at her right. Rather at the door in said wall, which served as window, went directly outside, at the city of Paris.

She was already walking on her own to reach the balcony, to have a better view. Dear it was amazing... Meanwhile she could hear Zekke's explaining. "Uh, guest room, yeah... things, of course - I'm coming," she said having troubles taking her eyes from the view. She felt she could have grabbed her broom and jumped from there into the open air...

But it was time for daydreaming to stop.

"Let's go then!" Nadia turned to Zekke with a grin and moved quite a little more enthusiasm than maybe it would be safe to have as she picked her stuff and started following him. No sooner she had attempted climbing the stairs two at the time, only to save energy, she slipped, consecuently, and started making her way back down in a human ball, all her luggage flying and rolling down the stairs to land over her head.

It was now that she regretted taking those two big trunks with her. She had had all the intention of responding Zekke's room question, but... yeah. And so it was from the floor she decided to give her answer, from under the pile of luggage; "the right rooms will be okay."

Picking herself up seemed to be much more of a task than before, by the way she was holding her head and covering her ears, indicating a growing headache.

And, to make matters worse, her chocolate croissants had been flattened down on her robes!

"I may need a bath."

Zekke could only watch in mute horror as Nadia tumbled down the stairs. Thankfully though, the stairs were few and even more thankfully, the stairs were carpeted and lightly cushioned.

"Dieu! Are you all right?" He hurried to snag her luggages before they could do anymore damage to her or anyone else.

He wished he could use his wand to dispell the stunned sensation her head surely must have been feeling and he was sorely tempted to shake it out. But no...

"The bathroom that's closest to your bedroom is that way," He traced a pathway with his finger from the stairs to the inner balcony and along the hallway/balcony to the room in the corner.

"But perhaps... you should lay down for a minute before you wash up?" Again, he wished he had his wand and quelled the urge to Scourgify. His green eyes narrowed slightly in concern.

"Wait right here, I'll be back in a moment." With that said, he carefully walked up the stairs with Nadia's luggage and deposited them in the closest bedroom before running along the balcony to the bathroom.

A few moments later, he returned with a small vial, a cool washcloth, and another larger washcloth in hand. "For your head," he said by means of explanation and offered the items to her. "The other washcloth is for your robes."

He gave a crooked grin as he ran a hand through his hair in a somewhat nervous fashion. "I used to fall on the stairs all the time when I was younger and I still sometimes do. Father had to have the stairs specially charmed to have cushioning so I wouldn't keep bruising myself from falling. The angling of the stairs distorts your sense of perception a bit, it seems. I should have mentioned that earlier; I apologize."

:: At first, seeing Nadia tumbling down the stairs caused a great panic in Ganymede's head. Her hair turned white and very spiky short from fear and then flashed blue from major concern. Her eyes shone a bright blue of worry. After seeing she was just fine, Ganymede hair grew very long, purple, and relaxed. "If the stairs are cushioned... can we slide down the banister?" She asked, gazing at the large banisters. "I can't believe I just asked that! Never mind, Your parents probably wouldn't appreciate that." She said rolling her eyes at herself.

She peaked into the room she was to stay in. It was just lovely! At her own home, she shared a room with Hebe when she was younger. Just 3 years ago she had finally gotten her own room. It was alot less nicer than this.

"This is just splendid! Zekke you ROCK!" she exclaimed. She placed her purple bag down onto the bed and walked back out to join her friends. "So, I'm feeling a bit more energetic after than floo trip. Shall we go somewhere?" She asked with a grin. "I don't care where we go, lets just go have fun!" She added with a corny thumbs up. ::

Jaren had almost instinctively darted over to the bottom of the stairs when Nadia tripped, then reasoned that Zekke was closer than he was and stood his ground. In any case, Nadia would be fine, and he spoke from personal experience.

Ganymede seemed as energetic as always, and Jaren merely made a "Hn" noise at her suggestion they go someplace in the city, his thoughts elsewhere.

Mainly focused on the rather horrid combination of caws and hawk screeches coming from his room. The mystery of the noise was solved when Edgar the raven came pelting out of the door, swooped down and with a casual loop landed on Jaren's shoulder to laugh mockingly at Ying the hawk, who flew out and settled herself down on the balcony ledge and glared at the raven, ruffling her feathers.

"I suppose it's too much to ask that you two get along," Jaren muttered at Edgar, who only looked cheeky.

Zekke chuckled in spite of his concern for Nadia and laughed at the question about the banister. "If I don't see, I won't tell. But that also means if you conk yourself in the head, that's your fault and I won't know about it."

He himself had slid down the banister quite a few times in the past - in fact, he had slid down the banister on his way to pick up the girls earlier that morning. He had forgotten something and had to run back to the house and the easiest way down by far was sliding down.

"I'm glad you like my home. Maybe we should get something to eat before we leave?" He glanced at Nadia to see how she was doing and raised an eyebrow with a quirked lip.

"The kitchen -" his thoughts were interrupted by Ying and Edgar, two avians whom he had gotten used to seeing around the Estate of late.

A moment later, he heard the familiar trilling hoot of another bird and he called out, "Virg!"

The snow-white owl with speckled feathers of obsidian black came flying in from... somewhere, Zekke wasn't sure where, and landed on the end of the banister.

"Yes, so I see they're here. Would you like to say hello?" He directed his voice to the owl, who trilled again and flapped her wings a bit in greeting.

ooc: I swear it was beyong my control! I'm an evil, evil one...

Nadia shook her head at the suggestion of staying still. She stood without another thought and moved to face Zekke, to nod, and make her way to said bathroom. Every now and then her hand would move to the side of her head again. "I'm fine, I'm no muggle," she commented.

She hadn't heard the part about actually waiting for him and when Zekke was back (man, she didn't notice the part about him leaving!) she looked up, taking the vial from him and taking it in one sip without thinking. She couldn't even remember what the potion was supposed to do but oh well.

She nodded once more at Zekke's explanation, laughing, or attempting to, a bit and started to climb up with Ganymede, chuckling too at her slidding comment. Entering the room, now, Nadia gazed about coughing from taking the potion or medicine or whatever it was. What a peculiar taste, actually... And the rolling had made wonders with the just-ingested croissants in her stomach. Nevermind that now, she could have agreed out loud with Ganymede but instead just contented herself with going directly to the bathroom and taking said bath. The sooner she was over with it the better.

"Be back in a minute," she commented to the group as they greeted Jaren's pet raven and Ying, and closing the door behind her.

ooc: *glares* Won't you post so I don't have to double-post? *pout*


Nadia stepped into the thub, taking the choice of a quick shower. Would save her quite some time. She had let the water running while looking for bath products - the bathroom was quite large. Then finally entered the shower and let herself relax a little. But. Never got to even apply said bath products on her for, you may say, she was too slow to find it in the first place and just got to wash the soap off before the water went out of its own.

Of course.

She had forgotten they had timed showers here in Europe. She was then standing freezing in the spot, in quick search for a towel.

Minutes later she would come back, good as new, wearing yet some other and new unmatching outfit (pleated skirt over back knee-lenght tights and rather loose shirt) and a huge towel-turban on her head as she waited it dry he -need to say?- overly-long hair.

:: Ganymede waited and made funny faces at the two birds. She had left her own cat back home. These birds didn't look too cuddley. She wondered if these were the same kinds that Tobias was. She decided not to ask though. She wondered if her cat Rascal would ever have to be that brave to help stop a dark wizard.

When Ganymede saw Nadia with her hair in a towel like that she couldn't help but burst out in laughter. "Nice hat Nadia, Better than the orange one!!" She said teasingly. ::

Ying ruffled her feathers indignantly before turning around and flying back into Jaren's room. Edgar on the other hand gave a triumphant mocking laugh before hopping off Jaren's shoulder and doing a few flashy yet lazy loops in the air. Aside from the fact that he looked distinctly more beraggled he could easily be mistaken for Jaren's former raven Tobias.

Jaren looked away from Edgar to Nadia, who had re-entered with a towel-turban over her head.

Nadia turned to Ganymede in a "hu" expression, then struck a pso as if presenting the "new hat" and grinned. "Really like it? I never considered it but now you say it, it might just bocome my new image." She grinned and said all too naturely. And with her taste in clothes, it was doubtful if it meant it like a joke or not.

"So," she started looking around and clapping her hands, "Shall we go?"

Then did a double take. "Oh - of course, the moment I take this off -" She pulled on the towel and took it off rather forcefully. Now they could go. She smiled. "I vote for muggle tranportation."

Zekke smothered a laugh that threatened to erupt as he watched Nadia and Ganymede. Their antics never ceased to amuse him and now that they weren't in school, the urge to respond to them were much stronger.

The urge to laugh until his sides hurt warred with his more serious and no-nonsense side and it showed in the flickering pulse in his jaw and the ever-so-slight quirk in his lips.

He coughed a bit, grinned, and inclined his head. "Welcome back, Nadia. Ready when you all are."

He grinned and dug into his pocket and pulled out a snuffbox of floo powder and held it up.

"We can take the floo to Petit and then take Muggle transportation from there. Sound all right to everyone? Got everything that you need?"

Instinctively, his hand went to his cargo pocket and felt the wand that was nestled inside. Despite not being able to use the wand over the summer, he still felt better having it on his person.

Wand, check... wallet, check... floo powder, check... emergency contact, check... sunglasses, check... camera... !

"Wait a moment, I'll be right back!" With that said, he ran up the left staircase and disappeared into his bedroom, the second door down the hall, and re-emerged carrying a camera controlled the urge to slide down the banister to the first floor as he ran back down the stairs.

"Ready." He grinned and patted the camera after shouldering the carrying strap.

When Zekke was back, Nadia nodded and started following him and the group to floo themselves, though the light in her expression went out a bit as she watched the birds still hovering around them.

"Ah, Zekke," she started. "I need to ask you a favor - if posible. Do you think I could borrow your owl? Later of course, not now."

She considered it was not that good a timing but, oh well, she better said at some point or another and before she forgot. "When we come back," she added, as if needed some other explanation for the sudden request.

Camera? He's taking a camera?!

"Let's be going then," Jaren said indifferently, without a hint of what he was thinking. "Where to first?"

Nadia shrugged. "Guess it's to Petit Paris then," she commented as they moved to the fireplace, and reached for some floo-powder first. "That's the pronunciation, right?"

She turned to the fireplace, frowned as if in concentration, then threw it at the roaring fire, jumping inside at the same time she said, "Petit Paris!" She was gone in a puff of smoke, and indeed with the ashes getting into her throat chocking her and the ones over her glasses, she stepped of the fire that way and now knowing where in the name she had landed. Actually, she had to step out very slowly if only not to trip on her own feet since she couldn't see a thing.

"No problem; I was just thinking that perhaps you should owl your family before too long," he spoke to the retreating backside of Nadia as she ducked into the fireplace and went up in a puff of smoke.

"After you all," Zekke gestured to the fireplace and perked his ears up so he could hear everyone's voices when they spoke. The living room fireplace was probably the most reliable one in the entire house when it came to flooing, though admittedly, it puffed out more smoke than the rest, too.

He sneezed when the smoke from Nadia's floo excursion startled settling. There was a fascinating blend of color and opacity in the swirling green-tinged smoke and Zekke uncapped the lens on the camera and knelt down and snapped a few pictures.

Realizing he probably looked ridiculous, he straightened up and recapped the lense with a sheepish grin. "Sorry, I like taking pictures of... moments... moments in time and in nature." He was going to explain more, but he wasn't sure if he could. He'd have to wait to develop the pictures to explain.

"The camera won't be aimed at anyone unless they want to be photographed," he added.

Despite liking the magic of photography, he himself was very private about being photographed. In fact, the picture that had been taken of the group in the Main Cars had been one of the few taken of him in at least a year. He was private about such things and he hoped his housemates would realize that he would apply that same principle to them, too.

In her own predicament as she was, reaching blindly for a support before she could clean her glasses, Nadia had this shippish smile about what Zekke had said about the owl she requested. Of course, only... it wasn't exactly family she wanted to owl. She had planned to owl this person since the start of the summer and even told Gany and Jaren in the Hogwarts Express to prove it. But, with her mother's little unneccessary fit and her own dilemma, she had been prohibited to write any owls. Nadia suspected her mother didn't want her precious birds cross the ocean and risk their health if helped...

All in all, it had taken her three days of persuation before she could send the owl to Jaren, and equally long to let him stay those weeks at that. And now, well, it has gone most of the summer holidays and she still couldn't find a space for her to send the forsaken owl and send the mirror... Hence, her request.

But whether she should let her peers into her problems seemed like a matter of need over chatting. If they asked maybe, but Nadia really didn't see the use in it, she considered, contemplating all this from there, reaching to lean on the fireplace side and as the coughing subsided. She could hear someone shouting her to get out of the way in the background.

And the unevitable happened. Nadia fell down, blind and tripping on her own feet into the floor of the floo-end on her side. Ah, if only she wasn't a witch, that had to be painful for a muggle...

Jaren relaxed slightly at Zekke's words, but still somewhat skeptical about the camera. To him, photos seemed to serve very few purposes--one, to inform, the other to blackmail. And no matter what purpose the photo was initally taken for, it was all to easy for that photo to be used for blackmail. It might lead people into thinking odd things of him, that for one, he might consider the people around him in a picture to be close friends, or something of that sort.

When the smoke left from Nadia's departure had mostly cleared he took his turn, throwing in the Floo powder and uttering the words "Petit Paris" with a virtually flawless accent as he stepped into the emerald flames.

He landed in the fireplace of his destination with a "whumph" noise and billowing clouds of smoke and ash. Noting to himself that the fireplace ought to be swept out, he held his breath (no sense in breathing in smoke and choaking on it) and stepped out of the fireplace to make way for whomever was coming after him next--and onto something soft and moving. Quickly realizing what it probably was he pulled back and squatted, helping the unfortunate person up then leading her aside and out of the way.

Rubbing her head as she picked herself up, also mentally whinning on why she always ended like this, Nadia felt someone's arms on her and instinctively thought of jumping out of the way - the person might be robbing her... might I also point out the person in question was, a.) Nadia, b.) she still coundn't see too well. Therefore, she tried push the person away from her, misballanced, sent both the person in question and her to the floor.
(ooc: I know, I should get tired but...)

Within the forceing, one lence clean enough with the cloth-brushing, Nadia spotted who was under her, and only thing that came in Nadia's head was, "Don't startle me like that!"

She had stood from the floor next, brushing her robes and in time to see Ganymede arrive the scene, and put her muggle dark glasses.

(ooc: Aw, pity. I was hoping to make a human-mountain of bodies in the floor )

Taking into account that this was wizarding area, Nadia took out and pointed her own wand at her face and send a wind spell to her face - with the result of sending her hair flying as well and getting a rather -winded- hair-style and expression. But point was, she could see again.


(ooc:*cough* And why I'm not seeing you in the school RPG *pokes, especially Zekke*)