Having left the Three Broomsticks in a storm, Garret found himself out on the slightly chilly street with his hands tucked in his jacket pockets and suddenly... friendless. He scowled at the students walking around, not really at them, but that was what it looked like.

This first Hogsmeade visit was not going like he had expected. Far from it, actually. He found himself walking towards the colourful sweet shop, looking for solace in familiar flavours.

Lyra walked slowly towards the street after their wild yet sweet shopping spree in Honeydukes. She turned back to where Robert was, thinking for a moment as to where a nice place would be. "Definitely back to school," she said as she pulled out a licorice wand and began to nibble on that for a while. It had been too long since she'd had one. "You want outside or inside? I'm happy with either one. Where is your favorite...besides the library?"

Robert walked with Lyra slowly down the streets, his hand still in hers. His eyes passed the bench he had sat at with Mariska not even an hour prior and disgust filled him. As Lyra spoke though he looked at her and smirked as she started eating one of the wands. "Well...it's kind of a nice day out, except for the wind. We can sit outside." He looked thoughtful for a moment and shrugged, "I'd say the Quidditch pitch but I doubt Vindictus would appreciate that much. Then there's the observatory but that's better at night." He glanced at Lyra and grinned, "I know...come on." He pulled her hand slightly as he sped his steps up and headed back to the school and the lake where there was a patch of trees overlooking the lake.

OH! He said the Quidditch pitch and there was NO WAY she was getting on Vindictus' bad side when she just seemed to gather his good side this time around. But just as she was about to say something about the whole flying professor being upset at the disturbance of his pitch, Robert was pulling her back towards the school. Ah ha ha! Now he was showing that he had a plan just as she would do. Her giggles followed along with herself as she was being pulled along by him.

Robes billowing behind them as they walked, Daphne continued to trudge alongside Celandine Toussaint. There were some ribbons that needed to be bought and some stationary to be claimed. Spotting Gladrags Wizardwear in the distance, Daphne wrinkled her nose in distaste one last time before pulling her Ravenclaw friend and herself through the door.

She had never been to Hogsmead before so she was rather excited to be going, and plus she was in serious need of chocolate. Xander had some OWL potion homework to finish so she had to come alone, and she hadn't seen any of her friends on the walk there. Her laced up Timberland boots made a nice crunch of the leaves as she walked. She was trying to get her IPod to work, but all the magic in the air was making it go crazy. She would have to work on some sort of an invention to fix that.

She pulled up the hood of her silver hoodie around her. She was like her father in not liking to wear her wizarding robes all the time. She like muggle clothing. She looked around at all the other students none of the faces were familiar to her and she didn't feel like speaking to any of them.

She walked down the main street looking for the chocolate shop hoping she brought enough money for the ton of chocolate she was planning to buy.

Finally finished with his homework Xander made his way down the path leading from the school to hogsmeade. He zipped up his black quicksilver hooded as he walked. pushed his hands into the pockets of his hoodie as he walked into town humming the chorus to 'You be the Hero' As he reached middle of main street he spotted paris ahead of him and picked up his pace to catch up with her. " HEY!" he said with a grin and he came up beside her.

She looked up at the sound of his voice and a smile spread over her face. The one person other than her sister that could have lifted her mood. She jumped into his arms and threw her arms around his neck. She kissed him quickly on the lips. "I've missed you." She said holding on to him. "I hate this place," She told him trying to keep the tears out of her voice.

" Aww." He looked at her as he draped his arm around her shoulders. " Come on and tell Dr. Xander what happened." he said supportively as they walekd up the street.

She grabbed his hand and walked hand and hand with him down the street. "It's just these people here are so mean and rude. Its like they are pod people or something." She told him. It felt good to unload with Xander. He was her rock right now and she needed that. "Then I was waiting for the Headmaster for like 3 hours and then he just totally ignored me like I was a pieced of furniture or something." she hated being ignored above everything.

" He might have just ben busy or distracted by something you know how grownups can be sometimes." he nodded in understand. " There does seem to be a different breed of people here than at Arcane, thats for sure." he admitted.

Having once watched her Nanny-Butler Davis practice Tae Kwan Do with a friend in their garden, Daphne wondered how it felt to be dealt a back-kick to the mouth of one's stomach.

Now she knew.

"Ohh, Celandine," whined Daphne covering her eyes with one hand, even as she linked her free arm with Cel's. She didn't know what to feel pained about first. The fact that Cel was probably thinking of her as some kind of trollop or that Nicholai Toussaint, the man she had declared her soulmate for life had done a good deal of kissing around Hogwarts.

Actually, the latter was really painful.

"Not me," remarked the girl bitterly, dragging her feet along, forgetting all about looking proper. "Maybe you can just put a want ad on your common room's bulletin board," joked Daphne in a dull tone, not truly finding the comedy in what she said. "Stationary next?"

Cela looked at Daphne in concern, wondering why Daphne was whining and now walking... sorta... Garret-like.

"Well. Me either really. Only the one." Cela paused before adding in a tone that wasn't over-excited about it, more just resigned to the fact, "So far." Cela slumped and she too began dragging her feet... only, since she was still wearing her glisseo shoes; it was more like lazy skating than foot scuffing.

She paused at Daphne's suggestion, considering it for a moment, "He did say he went through a 'Ravenclaw phase' so maybe..." Cela's tone was slightly doubtful, "Or I could just yell his name really loud and see how many girls get all angsty and start blushing." Celandine mused.

"Stationary!" Cela agreed, brightening and dragging Daphne towards the quill shop.

Aggie pulled her scarf up a bit more and hunkered down in her oversized sweater as she walked down the street of Hogsmeade. A brisk wind wiped up and scattered some leaves along the walkway. Aggie loved fall. It was all the colors combined with the chilly temperatures. It was as she passed a tree with a few remaining leaves clinging to it that she came up with a very good thought.

A plant! Yes, Tobi’s fish bowl needed a plant to complete it. Right now, the fish was swimming around and around in the fish bowl on her bed-side table. She wasn’t ready to give to Tobi yet because it hadn’t felt complete. A plant, Aggie deduced. Would make it perfect….Something pretty.

“But where would I get one? What would I get?” she said aloud. The obvious answer would be to find Cale and ask him what to put in it. But finding Cale was another story.

Tobi seemed to be spending a lot more time in the Common Room than in past terms. In the past he was often known to be wandering the grounds with Cale, Sho, Eddy, or Tino, he couldn't even FIND Eddy or Tino lately. But in their absence he had come to know and like Celandine, Paris, Zeke and Hannah. They were all younger than him, but when you're a 7th year, what do you want?

He'd also had the misfortune of running across the Thatch twins, Oscar and Briar, grumpy pair they were. He was glad only the sister was in Gryffindor. He didn't think he'd be able to take the pair of them on a regular basis. And at least he didn't have to share a dormitory with her. Merlin help them if Briar made friends with Daphne. Together that would be just too much.

Most of Tobi's time in the Common Room was spent in the pursuit of academia, or as Nick had suggested helping others with their academic pursuits. As a result he'd become very familiar with the study tables. There was a seat over at one of them that was starting to take on the shape of his bum.

It was definitely time to get out.

Tobi wandered along the main street of Hogsmeade reveling in the crisp October weather. He liked the fall better than any other time. Cold never really bothered him and the warm inviting colours always put him in a cheerful sort of mood.

Up ahead of him he noticed another thing that tended to put him in a cheerful mood. (if you ignore the maze incident) Aggie was wandering the street, apparently lost in thought and talking to herself, her purple shoes kicking up dust.

He'd sent Evelyn an owl not a week ago about ordering those boots for her. he was still waiting on a reply, but if anyone knew where to find purple boots, it was Evie. Evie could find anything.

"Oi! Aggie!" Tobi called, running to catch up with her. "You know, talking to yourself isn't a good sign, even among wizards."

Aggie stopped in the middle of the street. The wind picked up blowing her auburn hair around as she turned around to see Tobi striding towards her. His black eyes weren’t completely gone, but they were much better looking. “Talking to myself?” Aggie said reaching up to tuck her hair behind her ears. It didn’t help at all. “I’m not talking to myself.” She hadn’t realized she had vocalized her thoughts.

“I thought you’d be up in the Common Room studying and tutoring others.” Hi lack of presence lately had led Aggie to believe one of two things either he was still mad at her about the maze and the Birdie Ball incident, or he was striving really hard to get great NEWT scores. In case it were the former, Aggie had been giving him room to cool down and if it were the latter, Aggie had been giving him room and silently rooting for him. If he thought he could get better NEWT scores by studying madly like a loony person, good for him. Aggie on the other hand, was bound and determined for her last year at Hogwarts be fun.

Tobi shook his head, causing all his blond hair to fly up in a whirl. "I was starting to go a little loony in there." He fell into step beside her, his hands in his pockets. "I'm not a great academic mind, and I certainly don't find it fun. But all my sisters did really well on their examinations, I'd like not to be the family dunce."

"Besides, I'm not tutoring per say, I'm just kind of around at the the study tables a lot, so people tend to ask me questions. I try to encourage them because, well because Nick told me too. Trust me, there are some downsides to it."

Like that one first year who seems to have developed a bit of a fixation with me...

Aggie looked at Tobi out of the corner of her eye. “And,” she said trying not to smile. “You always do what ghosts tell you to do then I take it?” she pulled her scarf up to hide her smile as she watched some leaves blow across the street. Maybe a ficus, she thought, returning to the plant idea. But I don’t think they’ll live under water….ha, Ficus…fun word.

” Trust me, there are some downsides to it."”

Aggie had tuned him out a little. “Hmmm? Like what?” she inquired.

"Actually I do." Tobi explained, "if you ever met my Great Grandmamma, you'd understand."

Great Grandmamma Avalon had been a ghost for 17 years and she could probably scare the britches right off the Bloody Baron. She certainly scared Tobi a heck of a lot.

“Hmmm? Like what?”

Tobi had to search to remember what Aggie was talking about. Oh yeah! the downside to helping people.

Tobi's ears reddened, "Oh, well you just kind of develop a fan following sometimes. It's.. kind of uncomfortable. It's sort of nice at first, but she uh, can be hard to shake and you want to let her down easy, but.. it doesn't always work and..." he could feel his blush had spread from his ears across his face to the very tip of his nose. "Well yeah."

“Oh, right.” She said feeling a slight blush creep into her cheeks. She always forgot about Tobi’s grandmother. “Ghosty Granny.”

She glanced up at the sky as Tobi babbled about someone following him around. She stopped in her tracks, an uncomfortable feeling welling somewhere in her gut. “Tobi Avalon.” She stated putting her hands on hips. “Are you telling me you have a – a – fangirl?” Aggie wasn’t sure if she should smack him upside his head (although how she would reach it was another story) or if she should start laughing.

Tobi jumped a foot into the air at the offending word.

"Shhh!" he hissed. "A little louder Aggie, I don't think they heard you in Acerbus City!"

He dropped his voice and continued. "And it's not funny. It's quite serious. She's an odd little thing but harmless enough. I don't want to hurt her feelings. But.. but, it's quite tiresome how I can only lose her if I hide in the boys loo for half an hour, and then there is a chance Myrtle will see me and tell her where I am. So she might be waiting for me when I come out of hiding."

He couldn't figure it out. How the strange little girl had come to have a fixation on him, he'd never know, but he knew that it was making life difficult for him. Just that morning she had appeared at his elbow as he was taking a large sip of orange juice and he'd nearly choked.

Stalking during meal time is not acceptable.

Tobi’s reaction tipped Aggie over the edge. That intense feeling was replaced with laughter. So it was a firstie or a secondy, something like that. Aggie didn’t know why that should matter but it did.

“Hahahaha,” She laughed, which turned into a giggle, which turned into a chortle, which was stopped by her stuffing her scarf into her mouth as Tobi gave her the death glare. She continued to laugh for a minute longer and then with a few deep breaths was able to gather herself together.

“I’m sorry,” she said trying to put on a fo-serious look. “You’re right. It’s terribly serious. Terribly.” She clasped her hands together in front of her. “Whatever are you going to do about it?”

"I don't really know," Tobi confided in her, resuming his pace down the street.

He'd learned form Aggie that uttering the words, 'confirmed bachelor' was the quickest way to get antlers growing out of his head. But how else was he going to explain to the little witch that a) six years was a lot of difference, and b) he just didn't feel that way about her?

"How would YOU want someone to tell you they weren't interested?" Tobi asked. It seemed like a rational question. How do girls deal best with this sort of stuff?

Aggie tucked her hands into the pockets of her oversized sweater as she somehow managed to keep pace with Tobi’s ridiculously long strides. It took her a moment to answer. “Tell them you’re flattered for all the attention, you enjoy their company, but you’re not interested. The truth usually works the best.” Aggie looked over at the dejected Tobi. “And if she takes it really hard, give her a few days, then Mr. Cook,” she nudged him with her elbow. “Bake her something. Cookies are always good.”

Aggie stopped talking and the two walked in silence for a while. She was enjoying this, although she wouldn't tell Tobi that. She'd missed talking to him in the week or so since the Birdie Ball incident and this talking felt different from a lot of their past conversations. He was honestly looking for her help. She only wished she could do more then give advice.

Melanie started walking down the road, smiling to herself. She had decided that she needed a day off from work at the castle as well as some new quills...
Humming the first year kicked a rock across the road, her eyes wandering aimlessly after the it. She wished she had asked Cadence or Ana to come. then she probably wouldn't be so bored, but Mel tended to let this kind of thing go unplanned. Melanie sighed contently and started over toward the quill shop.