The school was huge. That was one of the first things that Kourtney had taken notice of when she finally had a chance to explore. So many staircases, so many corridors. It was a bit overwhelming.

That was why she found herself on the grounds. Here, it wasn't as confusing. The wide-open spaces made her feel a little better, more in control.

She walked slowly along the path, glancing from side to side occasionally. This was all rather exciting...finally being at Hogwarts. She could almost imagine her parents reaction once she was able to tell them about, well, EVERYTHING. The thought made her smile and she realized that she'd have to send off an owl soon. She just hoped that the animal would be inconspicuous. After all, the neighbors would think something was off if a random owl delivered a letter to her parents.

She giggled. Now that would be funny.

August had been down as low as the Kitchens and up as high as Gryffindor Tower in the Castle so far and when he was up there he glanced out the window this morning see the vast grounds that spread in each direction from the base of the large school.

After a quick bite to eat in the Great Hall, thankfully the silverware was clean this time, Auggie made his way outside and found himself on a group of paths through various trees and plants. He wished he was aloud to bring his bike here, this spot would be perfect to go riding. As he imagined himself doing just that he saw a small girl up ahead of him. That is probably why they didn't want bikes, he most likely would havehit that girl since he was able to come up beind her so close and not even notice her when he was just walking.

"Good thing I wasn't riding my bike, or you might not have made it to classes when they start." August grinned, not really aware how morbid what he had meant as a friendly little conversation started, had sounded.

She continued her walk down the path, drawing in a deep breath. It was rather peaceful here, not many people around at all. She had a feeling this would be a place where she would be spending a good bit of her time when she wanted to be alone. Of course, that wasn't the case now. No, she wanted to explore everywhere and hopefully meet new people...interesting people...fellow witches and wizards and...

The voice that sounded behind her startled her from her thoughts, and she whipped around quickly to stare at the boy standing behind her. What had he said? Riding his bike?

Her brow scrunched up in askance. "Am I not that noticeable?" She questioned. Jeez, maybe she better wear a bright orange vest or something over her robes when walking around this place if she was at risk of being run over by older students.

Wait, what? August scruntched his eyebrows together slightly trying to figure out what she was talking about but then he realized that she seemed to have taken offense to what he said about not seeing her there.

"Oh no no no, it's not that. I think it's just the way the shade falls and all these trees and turns in the path that didn't let me see you until I was almost right behind you, that's all." Not to mention she would have caused him to wreck had he been on his bike.

Now that he had succeeded in confusing both the girl and himself, he decided it was time he introduced himself. "Anyways, Im August Goldstein."

Okay, now he was confusing her. Shade and trees and turns in the path. It sounded rather silly, and a laugh bubbled forth. "I think I understand." She replied, now smiling. "Blame nature and whoever constructed this path."

She rested a foot on one of the long stretches of boards that defined the pathway, her green eyes alight with laughter. "Kourtney Lams." She replied. "Nice to meet you August. What house are you in?"

"Yeah I think I will do just that." he agreed jokingly. He looked around the area they had stopped to talk. The path was running through a lightly wooded area with green light filtering the sun and falling on the two students, birds could be heard singing in the branches above.

She was laughin, defiantely a good sign that she didn't think he was crazy. "Well it's nice to meet you too, Kourtney." he said with another small grin. She was definately younger than him, still older than his little sister though. "I'm a Gryffindor, what about yourself?" he said sticking a hand in his pocket.

Ha, so he agreed with her suggestion. Cool beans. "Glad that you can take a bit of advice." She joked back, crossing her arms as she looked up at him. He looked a few years older...maybe thirteen or fourteen. So...that was a thirteen/fourteen year old and a sixteen year old boy that she had met since boarding the train. Yeah...she needed to get out more. Maybe Indy and Brady could come with her.

"Me too!" She chirped, the excitement evident in her tone of voice. "Seems like a pretty cool house from what I've seen. It would be great to win the House Cup. I'm looking forward to the lessons; those will definitely help in gaining points...I think? Do they award points for right answers in class and all that?"

It was certainly a nice day outside, and now that she had reassembled her candy mountain, Tori was planning to head outside and have herself a picnic. She had Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Acid Pops, Chocoballs, Canary Creams, Jelly Slugs, Fizzing Whizbees, Peppermint Toads, Squeaking Sugar Mice, Ton-Tongue Toffees, Licorice Wands, and her favorite: lots and lots of Drooble's Best Blowing Gum.

Plus some invisible gum for sticking wherever. Heheh.

All this candy was packed into Tori's flexible pink purse which bounced against her hip as she wandered along, sucking on a Sugar Quill as she walked. She reached a turn in the path where there was a nice grassy spot under a big tree. Plopping down, Tori pulled out a blanket and spread it out. Perfect: she could see everyone coming down the pathway but they couldn't see her until they were practically upon her.

And by then, she could have easily pelted all the nasty jelly beans at them without their knowing. Hehe.

He followed his nose and then tried to hang out nearby looking all nonchalant.

Corey, hands thrust in pockets, leaned against a tree and tried to look loveable.

And feedable.

Tori was just unpacking all of her glorious candy --- or at least one piece of each --- when she was startled by a slight scuffing sound nearby.

"AGH!" the redhead squeaked as the licorice wand in her hand went flinging at the boy. It landed on his chest and stuck. Tori peered at him, scooting her candy behind her for protection.

"Who are you and what do you want from me?!" It was just like royalty like her to be robbed in the forest by vandals like this boy!

See check that out. It worked. Every time.

Corey grinned and peeked the licorice off his shirt. "Cheers, thanks!" He ate it right away.

Or inhaled it.

"Mmm.... I'm Corey. And more of that would be lovely." Maybe she'd throw a sandwich next. Ham and cheese if she would take a request.

Tori STARED at the boy --- vandal --- ROBBER. She just stared as he inhaled her candy.

"I'm... I'm Princess Victoria M. Bunbury," she informed him, with a hair flip and all. "And why should I share some of my precious candy with YOU, Corey?"

Yeah, give her a good reason, you poor, starving plebeian.

Oh one of those.
Well Corey was amiable enough to play along if he got something out of it.

"Because if you do, I'll roll with that whole thing, Princess."

What did it hurt? If he got food out of it, she could call herself the Queen of Funny hats and Huffleduffers and he'd go ahead and back her up on it.

He made his best puppydog eyes at her. Feed me?

Hmm, an offer. Pursing her lips, Princess Tori considered Corey's suggestion for a full minute. Then she nodded and patted the blanket beside her.

"All right, you may have SOME of my candy. But not all, see, I still have some people to bribe."

She bit into a peppermint toad and chewed it thoughtfully. "Also, you have to be one of my Knights." Yes, the ginger thirteen year-old certainly had an imagination. "Do we have an accord?"

He went ahead and sat down where she'd indicated.

"Fair enough." Corey was agreeable.

"If I have to be a knight, what else do I get? I mean, what happens when the candy is gone?"

This wasn't an indenture for a few clumps of sugar.

Tori reached across Corey for her package of gum and set it protectively between her crossed legs.

"Well, my other knights also happen to be contenders for the Boyfriend Competition," she informed him. "Shall I enter you as well? There IS a grand prize at the end."

Her, of course. Duh.

The pathways..Nessie hadn't been here in like forever. She smelled the fresh air happy to have some time to be outside. It was a lovely day outside and the sun was shining. Just the way she liked it. Her Pygmy puff Puffles was with her as always. He was running by her around wildly as he played in the grass. She had wanted to go to the lake but Meh she was too tired to carry on walking.

She found a comfy spot on the railings to sit on. She then watched Puffles making sure he wasn't causing any trouble to herself or anyone else. Puffles was such a trouble maker..as much she loved her Pygmy puff he was always causing some sort of trouble. She shifted her thoughts of all the homework she had coming when she got back to the common room. It was her first day back and she wanted to just chill.

Simon had been thinking about his private airoplane he had been sad to leave it after using it most of the summer, but he knew that he would next summer be able to use it whenever he wanted and maybe he could have a party on it at some stage but he'd have to see if anyone would want to come because he wasn't sure if anyone would.

Simon suddenly saw someone familiar but he couldn't figure out the name. "Nesa, Nessy, Natalie" Nope they weren't right he thought long and hard then remembered. "Nessie, how have you been?" He smiled he hadn't forgotten speaking to her last term but somehow he hadn't seen her for what seemed like ages. "How are you?"

Deciding that before the weather got too cold, Mia headed out of the castle and onto the pathways towards the grounds to see what the groundskeeper had set up for them this year.

Her face winced a little when she thought about what she and Evelyn had done to the treehouse last term. Well technically Evelyn had set the thing on fire, she had just made it worse by trying to put it out and making the flames bigger instead. They really should have told someone about that.

Walking slowly and breathing in the fresh air, Mia looked up at the trees as she passed them by. Summer was her favourite season but autumn did have some breathtaking colours.

Why in the name of Merlin had he decided to venture out onto the grounds again? He would literally kill himself if he happened upon that stupid little know-it-all, Vashiti, again. Running a hand through his hair, he looked up from the ground to see he had ended up on some type of dirt path. At least he was safe from bodies of water here. Will stuffed his hands in his pockets, his eyes landing back on the ground.

He began to silently wonder to himself what was it about nature that seemed to bore him. Actually a lot of things bored him, but nature more so than some of the rest. Maybe it was the creatures and bugs. They were just pests that dug holes in his lawn, destroyed the flowers in his garden, ate the vegetables the house elves grew----

BUMP.

He looked to see that he had ran into a girl. "Watch where you're going," he snapped irritably, beginning to brush himself off. What was with folks these days?

She hadn't realised that she had not been looking where she was going when all of a sudden there was something rather hard in front of her that she had just managed to walk into. And also managed to bounce off, nearly causing her to lose her footing.

Mia looked up into the face of one irritable looking guy. She had no idea whose fault it was but the apology was automatically coming out of her mouth. "I am so sorry. I was just admiring the colours of the trees and must not have been watching where I was going."

Her gaze travelled over him briefly. Not sure why he was brushing himself off, it wasn't like she was dirty or anything. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

His eyebrows narrowed a little as she sputtered out an immediate apology. Welll...as much as he appreciated that mainly because it wasn't her fault but she was now accepting the blame, he found it rather odd. Nooo, 'You ran into me idiot'. He found it nice to a certain extent.

Hurt him? She was like 4 inches shorter than him and a stick in his opinion. "Of course not," he answered as he continued brushing himself off. Gaaah he hated when other people's clothes touched his. After he finished, he glanced up at the trees for a brief moment. "The trees aren't much to admire in my opinion." Falling leaves were something else he disliked about nature.

And he was still brushing himself off. Mia actually looked herself over to see if there was something on her clothes that she didn't know about. And nope nothing there. Once upon a time before she was able to buy herself new clothes, she didn't particularly care if there was dirt on her clothes but now she made sure that they were always clean.

Apparently he was one of those fanatics about cleanliness and didn't like to be touched by anyone else. So straight away, she knew that he was a Slytherin. They seemed to have those intimacy issues. Mia wondered what happened when they got married? Did that still continue or were only their partners allowed to be close to them? And she was getting off track again.

"Oh really? That's a shame. Because the colours on the trees this time of year are really quite extraordinary." But then she was an artist and colours were her thing. She cocked her head to the side and looked at him for a moment. "My name is Mia by the way." she said and extended her hand towards him.

He looked her up and down. "Nah I'm fine thanks."

He wasn't sure he got that whole thing anyway. And she hadn't proved herself to be someone that would be worth his while.

"When you stop feeding me stuff I like, I won't do it anymore. I'm a mercenary knight, me. You have to pay me."

Gum wasn't edible. He looked over the rest of her wares.