Alex watched his best friend with a curious look. What was going on in his head? As soon as it was there, it was gone though and Chandler just totally made the gumball machine sound so... So... Utterly boring! Alex chewed on the gumball in his mouth, determined not to think lower of the machine because his twin did. "Well, I like it." he protested. "Aaand they're fun." he nodded. Duuuh.

Lost track of time? He raised one eyebrow at Chandler, not really believing his story. "Is that all man?" he asked hesitately, but decided not to pressure the issue further if his twin didn't want to talk about it. Perhaps he had just lost track of time, but that was more of an Alex thing to do.

Tara couldn't stop smileing when she talked about Hogwarts."I want to get into Hufflepuff!Were you nervouse when you were getting sorted? Is Hogwarts fun?" Tara could not stop talking. She tryed so hard not to talk any more, but she couldn't stop talking.Tara was so happy to meet Chris. She seemed like a nice person to be with.Tara had started to tap her foot on the ground. When she did this it ment she was excited."Do you want to go back to Hogwarts at all?" Tara asked Chris.

When Fina FINALLY got what he had been talking about, Jeremy mock-huffed and pointedly turned to Seren with a roll of his eyes. "She's horrible. See how long it took her to say something remotely positive about us meeting here?" At this he poked Fina lightly before quickly taking a step away from her, just in case she wouldn't take that poke too well. Which she probably wouldn't. She should consider herself lucky, though, that he hadn't thrown one of those gumballs at her.

At her next comment he simply gave her a funny look, briefly considering if she had got his joke or not. "Right. Gobstones." Err. Hopefully Gobstones wasn't the only thing she needed her marbles for. Well either way he was going to be far far away if she ever were to lose her marbles. Hopefully.

"Maybe this term'll be calmer than the last few." Jeremy said with a grin for Seren, however, quickly corrected himself, "Though, no, Hogwarts really doesn't do calm I think." And yes, he was sorta quoting himself from what he had said to Maya ( ) at the feast. His expertise? "You mean, apart from lifting gumball machines? I teach Muggle Studies." He joked with a grin before quickly adding to keep up the conversation, "Is this your first time teaching?" Now, back to the lost gumballs for a moment, though...

Hang on, why was he the one supposed to look for the gumballs Fina had lost?! "Why don't you go have a look? I'm not too keen on having a gumball poke me in the eye really." But she surely looked like she was. Yes. Heh.

"Can't say I doubt that." Fyo leaned down to peck her on the cheek. Had he always been this tall? He remembered some sort of point in time when he hadn't been this taller than Brody.

"You won't know until you try," he grinned, the grin widening a second later as she did try the gumballs. "Glad to know you like them, m'lady." He swept into a mischievous semi-bow.

Yes. Her smiles seemed to bring out his fun side.

As girlish as it may sound, Nolan had been on a diet these past couple of months. Honeymooning in Italy had been fantastic, but Nolan quickly discovered that carbs did not agree with him. Not at all. SO, he'd been eating healthier and had quickly lost them...erm...extra weight he'd put on, and now it was time to reward himself. With candy!

As he entered the crowded shop, he began scanning the shelves for chocolate frogs, but instead his eyes fell upon something else. Actually someONE else. Multiple someones. Grinning he made his way through the sea of students and approached the group, which included two of his ex-colleagues.

"Fina!" he exclaimed with a smile, approaching his former housemate. "And...Jeremy, isn't it?" he added. He had met the Muggle Studies professor maybe once at Hogwarts, during the opening feast maybe? He couldn't even remember. He'd been very aloof that term, thinking more of Ginger than his students. BAD NOLAN. Being a neglectful professor! "Long time no see! How are you lot doing?" he asked in interest. Finally, ADULTS to talk to! Not that he minded catching up with the students too, but...adults were more relate able. Obviously.

He assumed the other woman they were with was a professor too...possibly. "Hello...Nolan Reynolds," he said, introducing himself and holding out a hand for her to shake. Maybe this was one of those new professors Treyen had mentioned. Hmmm.

Chris couldn't help but be happy as she obseved the jittery first year in front of her. "Easy there killer," she said, laughing. "Hufflepuff's a good house. The sorting is simple, no need to worry about it. You seem like a Hufflepuff to me. Hogwarts is a ton of fun if you really let yourself get into it. Don't be afraid to talk to people and just... mingle. Especially in your commonroom. And yeah, I'm totally excited to go back. Who wouldn't be?"

Calmer? Huh no Hogwarts would never be calm. Even Seren knew this from the time she was a student there. And especially now what with a ship appearing on the lake- Seren had starred at the headline in the Daily Prophet for some time before purchasing the paper. Very curious business indeed.

Seren grinned... Jeremy had a sense of humour, she liked this. "Oh muggle studies is so fascinating! I will certainly have to pick your brain occasionally." she said, "I don't get out in the muggle world very often." She looked out the window to the street breifly, watching as children scurried down the street in each direction. She could hardly wait for term to start. But alas she wouldn't have to wait much longer.

Turning back to Jeremy she smiled shyly. "Yes it is...", Seren trailed off. The thought of teaching was a little teensy weensy bit daunting.



Seren watched curiously as yet another man approached them... he seemed to know Fina and Jeremy. Perhaps he was also on staff, thought Seren excitedly.
"Nice to meet you Nolan, I'm Seren Bentley", she said politely shaking his hand.

Well duh; if Miss Seren was in her sisters' hosue than she should know the feeling of hiding behind a book. "Close knit group of friends? That sounds like more than me." Because Merlin knew that the only close knit thing Fina ever had during her Hogwarts years was her sweaters. Some Hufflepuff she was, eh? She always wondered why the sorting hat had chosen to sort her differently from her sisters and mother. "Though its odd because I knew almost everyone." Yup. Knew them, just didn't associate with them.

Fina eyed Seren for a moment to see if she was kidding or not about the bumping in to her. After a moment, she realized she'd been speaking figuratively, not literally. "Of course, but it will probably be in the castle. Or by the lake. I don't do dirt." Or creatures or anything that involved hands on stuff. Thinking proactively by the lake though, she could do.

Like numbers. "Yes," Fina mused. "I do enjoy numbers." They weren't THAT bad once you got used to them; as she'd been doing them most of her life, then she was well used to them by now. "The mysteries associated with them are rather fascinating." To her anyway; but Seren would probably find them unusually boring.



Josephina turned toward Jeremy and frowned; what was he insinuating?! That she was some pessimistic old woman? And then he POKED her?! Her eyes bulged slightly as she tried to swallow her pride. "Yea well he's mean. He likes rubbing it in when you turn thirty." Nevermind that she got enough reminders from her parents about her age; why couldn't you be more like Leanne? Are you dating? You're getting so old ..? Blah blah blah... "Besides, speaking of dirt and hands-on, weren't you supposed to help me with flying, Mister Former Chaser?"

Fina shook her head amusingly when he stated how Hogwarts didn't do calm; fair enough. Except in her first term teaching, things were relatively calm. And in the three years she'd taught there, no one died. "Oh don't overreact, Jeremy! You make it seem like there's fights breaking out left and right." Fina rolled her eyes and looked toward Seren seriously. "Honestly, it's not like anyone has died recently."

Huh? Why would the gumball poke him in the eye? "You're such a baby. Gumballs don't have fingers. But fine..." With that, Fina squatted down by the machine and placed her hand over the opening. Using her other hand, she carefully raised the flap-thingy. Nothing. Huh? Giving the machine a small shake ... two little gumballs rolled out into her palm. "Got them! And look, I even got one for a friend." Popping the red one in her mouth, she offered the second to Jeremy first. "For helping lift the machine up?"



Hearing her name, Fina twirled around on the spot to see a familiar face. Well he did look slightly different ... perhaps more relaxed? She didn't really know, but whatever it was ... a tan or something... he seemed well.

"Nolan!" She exclaimed, reaching out to offer him a hug. "I've been good... still working at Hogwarts." She nodded; not much different there really, except since he left, she also took on the post of Gobstone Club Advisor. "But what about YOU?! What have you been up to? You look fabulous, by the way."

Hmm... Fina looked toward Seren as she was conversing about the topic of muggles. "You should come visit my home then. My father is a muggle so I have learned a lot about the muggle world growing up." Her home wasn't much; just a small comfortable home, set in Italy.

"Really?You think I would be in Hufflepuff?"Tara said with a grin shining on her face. Tara liked this girl."My mom said that Hogwarts will be a great experience for me!"Tara looked as though she just rode a roller coaster as she spoke.Tara couldn't wait to get to Hogwarts.Tara knew that this last question was not to answer, but still wanted to tell her I don't know."I really am over excited!Wait till I get into classes!What's your favorite class?" Tara was in such a great mood! ( as always )

"Personally, I loved ancient runes. I guess it's pretty nerdy of me, but hey, I can live with that," Chris said. She carefully slid a coin into the gumball machine nearest to her, and popped resulting blue candy into her mouth, biting down hard at first to soften its hardened blue shell. "Want one?" she asked Tara, who was practically jumping up and down with excitement once again.

Anakin watched her face, blinking at her first response to his teasings. Placing a hand over his heart in mock woundedness, he fake sniffled to play up the act a little, "Ms. Greenwell, you wound me." Sniffle sniffle. Chuckling slightly as she gave up her side of the facade, Ani gave a small wink. "Not as fun as you. That was probably the highlight of my summer actually, one on one quidditch." It was pretty fun. And he wasn't at all surprised she was so good at the game. "Please don't tell me you studied the whole time." Because than he'd have to make her do more fun things during the school year.

After he got his OWN studying in that is. He didn't want to like, bomb the owl's or something. That'd be dreadful.

...Seeing her expression, Anakin couldn't help but laugh at himself. It was a rather silly question. "I'm quite considering completely abandoning all house pride and just cheering for you. At least I'll be on the winning side then." And if any hufflepuffs happened to hear him...he'd probably be dead right now. O___o Them puffs could be scary.

Anakin couldn't help but flail and give a small pout, "It's all I could come up with." Fail on his part. F-.

Oh. Right. Seriousness. Forcing the pout away, Anakin glanced around, before quickly looking back. He wasn't really able to look away from peoplee during conversations. Which could be awkward at times, though it didn't really feel like that with Vash. "How about that kid that was attacked before. He'd believe us." Anyone else would probably place them in a looney bin. Which might be where they needed to be.

Tara stopped jumping for a moment then said,"What?Oh, sure!" Tara gave Chris the money."I want to take charms!I want to cast levitation spells and other things.I can't wait!"Tara was jumping up and down. Tara stopped to get the piece of gum."Thank you, Chris!"Tara had remembered manners are polite.Chris was smiling in a friendly way.

Chris watched as Tara happily chewed her gum. "Don't mention it. If you're this excited just thinking about going to Hogwarts, I can't imagine what you're going to be like when we get there," she said happily.

Tara looked at Chris to examine his expression."Well, isn't that one reason it's so fun, to think about how fun it will be?" Tara asked a little puzzled. "Chris, how is hogwarts like?Do you think I will be able to find friends quickly?" Tara just realized what she had said.Tara had to ask the question sooner or later. Tara looked at Chris waiting for an answer.

Brody smiled as he kissed her cheek. He was such a gentleman, it was lovely. She enjoyed just wandering around with him. It was so much fun. She looked up at him, looking really happy. "Thats good." That he believed she was epic, because well she was. "You're pretty epic too." And she would always think that. She thought he was wonderful.

"There veery yummmy." She beamed, chewing on the gumball a little. She liked them. She liked them a lot. "Aren't you going to eat yours?" She motioned to the gumball in his hand. Was he?

Chris looked down at her feet for a moment, thinking. "You have to put yourself out there to make friends most of the time. Most people won't just come to you when you're alone. Don't be afraid to talk to anybody. But I think you'll be able to make friends. You're nice and happy. Everybody loves that," she said. She tucked some long brown hair back behind her ear as she waited for Tara's response, still chomping contentedly on her gum.

Macy was in a fairly good mood, despite the fact that she'd had to drag Vienna around most of the day. She had gotten a new backpack from mum as well as a new wand, since it seemed like everybody had been waiting for her to break that one all year. And Auntie Simone was supposed to be there to pick Vienna up as soon as she picked up her robes from mum. Pulling a very tired five year old over to the gumball machines, the soon-to-be-fifth-year pulled out a handful of coins. "You want any Vivi?" she asked. The girl shook her head.

Pulling the child close, Macy crouched down and inserted the coins. Much to the two cousins' amusement, the gum rolled down through the chute and came out the bottom. She popped it into her mouth and sat on the floor. "Where's Alfred?" she asked Vienna.

The tired child sat down next to her elder cousin on the floor and gave a shrug. "He's at home. Mummy said she'd bring him since I forgot," Vienna answered. Alfred was her stuffed sheep, though he was not quite so stuffed anymore since being dragged around everywhere. Her mummy was meeting them for lunch, at which time Alfred would be returned and fed his usual meal of imaginary cornflakes, apple juice, and carrots of the baby food variety.

So the two girls sat on the floor, one chewing her gum and one dreaming of sheep, almost as if waiting for someone...

Selena skipped over to the machine and looked at it. Puzzling over it she stopped and smirked. Buaahhaa. She totally knew how to use this stupid contraption. Or actually. It wasn't stupid, it was epic. It just needed to give her a green gumball or she'd be mad. Like... really mad. Because green was an epic color. Sel rubbed her hands together and grinned at the machine.

She pulled out two knuts and put it into the slot. Selena watched as the gumball traveled down, completely disappointed that it was red. Not green. Frowning, she tried again. Yellow?! And again. Pink?! And again. Blue?! "AWWWH. I want a green one you blasted machine!!!" Selena exclaimed, shoving another two knuts in and turning it. Oh look. It was green.

"People, if there's a color you want, scream at the machine! It gives you the color you want when you yell at it," Selena announced nodding before popping the green gumball in her mouth and staring at the four other gumballs in her palm. She supposed she could throw it into the fountain or something.

Macy and Vienna looked up from their thoughts as a girl with obviously high levels of energy started yelling at the machine. And then at everybody else. WOAH. It actually worked.

"NO WAAAI. That's so cool!" Macy said, standing up. Vienna stayed on the floor. "Lemme try." The girl pulled out another two knuts and stuck them in the slot. "Gimme a PIIIINK one gumball machiiine!" she yelled. Sure enough, when she twisted the knob a fat pink gumball rolled out.

WOOOOOOAH.

"Dude," Vienna said plainly. The gumball thing was cool, but her cousin was a freak. And so was this girl. LE SIGH. Ohh well. Mummy would be there soon with Alfred and it would be time for lunch and her nap. Sooo sleeepy...

Agreeing with Vienna's comment, Macy stared at the gumball in her hand before popping it into her mouth. "You," she stated obviously, "are awesomee. I'm Macy." *GRIN*

Selena beamed at the girl. See, it totally worked. "HEY! Tiny girl like me, don't diss the epic magic of screaming at a machine," she said with a smirk and a twinkle in her violet eyes. She looked at the girl who introduced herself and smiled. "I know," Selena said, beaming. Yeah, she was awesomeeeeeeee. "Hiyaaa Macy, I'm Selena," she said, sticking out her hand for the girl to shake. She looked nice. Not weird and evil.

Macy grinned right back, pulling Vienna to her side. "She's tired and cranky is all. She secretly admires your awesomeness," she assured the girl. To which Vienna stuck her tongue out and sat back on the floor. *SHRUG* Her loss. "Helloooooo Selena," Macy returned, shaking her hand. WOOOO. Introductions!!

"So you off to Hogwarts then?" she asked. Of course she was off to Hogwarts, why else would she be here?! OH WELL. It was only polite to ask. Not that Mace had a huge record of being polite or anything, buuuuuut. Y'know. Stuff... Yeeeeah she really didn't know where she was going with this little internal discussion. Whatever.

Selena frowned. "Little thingy, eat sugar, it makes everything better, I promise," Selena said, nodding. It was quite obvious though, sugar was the reason everyone was still alive. As a matter of fact, Sel was fairly certain that if you were to give a zombie a candy it would turn alive and stop being the undead... so it would be the un-undead. Yup. Made loads of sense.

She nodded. "Yup, returning for my fifth year, I didn't go last term, IT was mean and made me move," Sel said, nodding. Yeah, her head was starting to hurt from all the nodding she did. "What about you?" Selena asked, poking the girl. Just because she could. Plus the girl didn't seem like she would mind. "Do you want a gumball?" Sel added, because she had four that she didn't like. Stupid icky colors.

Mikhail heard angry shouting noises, this wasn't normal for his shop most children were excited to be any where near candy. He rushed out from the storage room and headed towards the gumballs . "hey now, what's with all the shouting" he asked the general crowd for he didn't know who was doing the shouting.

Sel turned from the girl to see a biiiig tall guy, he didn't look happy. "What shouting?" Sel asked innocently, glancing at the machine before smiling back at the guy. Who her? Never. She bit down on her gumball to make sure she didn't say anything. Plus, he looked like he would step on her if she was shouting... which she was fairly certain she hadn't. She would blame the little one who was intimidated by her awesomeness. Yup.

Sugar was good for everything. And on a normal basis, Vienna was allowed no sugar due to the fact that she went INSANE. But maybe just to wake her up...

"Aha," Right. IT. "Cool. That makes us both fifth years then," Macy answered. [/obvious] Granted, she wasn't fifteen yet but she would be! Soon.... In a few weeks. "So I guess you've already been sorted, er..." WAIT. How did that work exactly? She would have been sorted before sooo... Right. She hoped Selena was in Slytherin. Though she probobly was, since only they were cool enough to yell at inanimate objects.

"I'm sure sleepy would gladly take your discarded candy," Macy answered. Though before she cool take it off her hands, they were interrupted by Mr. Storeman. And rightly so.

"Yeah, what yelling?" she answered along side Selena. SEE LOOK. She had to be a snake, they were already getting in trouble together. Mhmm, she looked promising.