Watching her movements closely and worriedly, George shook his head "That boy who was picking on you?" he hugged her and then sighed "Alice, I think he likes you" George looked into her eyes "It must be why he was being so rude, cause he was denying his feelings" For a young boy, George had a good grip on reality. He might be young and cute, but he could say what he was.

Stepping out of the portrait hole leading the merged Gryffindor and Slytherin Common Room, Anna took off on a random stroll down the seventh floor corridor. The hallways weren't as busy today, although that could be because everyone was off doing what she probably should be doing---schoolwork. She'd tried to sit down and concentrate on her work, but she'd gotten distracted and then finally given up for the time being. Upon reaching a tapestry, she stopped to study it for no particular reason. She laughed lightly at the scene depicted---Barnabas teaching a group of trolls the art of ballet. Whoever thought of such silliness? The tapestry was still interesting, nonetheless.

"You know, when I was a child and up to something particularly ill advised," Copernicus appeared behind Anna Bella and studied the tapestry over her shoulder. "She would often say 'Well, my Teapot, you have about as much of a chance as Barnabas and his trolls.' I'm not sure I ever fully appreciated how ridiculous she thought me."

Cela...


Was not following Copernicus.


She simply did not DO creepy things like that. She spotted Anna and opened her divination book, walking towards him them her.

Quite deliberately she walked into Anna. "Oh! Anna! I didn't see you there! How are you?"

Anna had allowed herself to get lost in thought through staring at the tapestry. She'd been daydreaming about Barnabas and what he must have been saying to those trolls when she heard a voice speaking to her. She blinked, then stared wide-eyed at Barnabus for a moment before realizing that she now had company on the corridor. She stood, or rather whirled around, and found Cope standing there staring at the tapestry, as well. "...as much of a chance as Barnabus and his trolls," she said, laughing as the meaning behind what he was saying registered. "I like that...Barnabus and his trolls. So how ya been, Co---ohhhh---pe?"

The reasoning behind her rather odd way of saying Cope's name was, of course, that someone had walked right into her, causing her to stumble but not quite fall. Fritzera. That had to be Fritzera. Only he would be capable of doing such a thing... "Oh! Ohhh... Hey, Cela," Anna greeted, sort of surprised that it had been her and not Jack. Then again, Cope was around, which usually meant that Cela was around, so she guessed the sudden appearance wasn't all that unusual after all. "I'm doing well, Cela. How about you?"

"The trolls... were probably hopeless. And he stayed at it, trying to teach them to dance. It's almost noble in its way to stick with a task you know you can't succeed at simply because its a cause you believe in," Copernicus rocked on his heels and studied the tapestry.

And peeked at Cela with a little grin. Prettiest. Girl. Ever.

"Hey, Celandine. Goodhello to you."

"I'm great!" Celandine nodded, "Just been working on my Divination homework. What about you? Done prodding Gryffindors for the day? Have you heard from Cale lately?"

She bounced a bit, partly out of habit and partly to make Anna think that everything was fine and dandy in Celaworld.

Sigh.

"Goodhello." Celandine agreed, shooting the tiniest of looks at Copernicus. She thought about what he said and cocked her head.

"Noble? Nobility and stupidity are often intertwined. He was either stubborn or stupid or ignorant." Cela suggested, a hint of her debating tone trickling into her words.

Anna continued to stare at the tapestry, nodding as Cope spoke his words of wisdom about the nobility of the scene. Leave it to Cope to have something like that to say about the nonsense depicted in front of them. "Oh, you mean...like me...when it comes to Divination," she said, joking around about her failed efforts to stay ahead of the game when it came to the art of telling the future. She giggled and sort of gave him a friendly one-armed hug. "I'm only kidding. I---..." She started to say something else to him, but then he said something to Cela, so of course all of his attention was then directed to her.

...speaking of Divination. "Divination, huh? That's what I was up in the Common Room starting on. I'm rubbish, though. That's just all there is to it. I'll figure it out sooner or later, though," she said, brushing the subject off in favor of a less difficult one. "Yup, he's been home getting ready for the holidays. I'm going home to see him, you know...and I can't wait. We're going to try and put the final touches on the wedding arrangements." She giggled at Cela's thoughts regarding the tapestry. Ahhh, Cope and Cela. In so many ways, they were so made for one another.

"I suppose there are lots of things that fall into the noble yet stupid category," Copernicus turned from the tapestry, giving Anna a wink before focusing his attention on Celandine. A little smile tugged the corner of his mouth. "Maybe caring about someone when there's little hope of return is noble but stupid. What do you think, Anna? Does that sound stupid?"

Ugh, how was Anna getting married? MARRIED? She was a year older than Cope and he had trouble planning his day to day life, let alone his entire future.

"It's the only subject that Nico and I have in common as a favourite and being good at it." Celandine mentioned. The difference was, with Nico it was the theoretical based knowledge and with Cela it was much more instinctual and interpretive.

"That depends." Cela lifted her chin, "If you like someone and are to busy worrying about other things to notice that they like you too, you might miss it anyway. Sometimes I think people like to aim for goals that are unattainable. And, the noble part only comes in to play if you care about the person for them and not for yourself, otherwise its more selfish than noble." Cela suggested, flicking a glance at the tapestry. "I think that any goal should be an informed one. How can you truly want something unless you know it well enough to see that it is worth wanting?"

Cela took a piece of candy out of her pocket and slowly began to unwrap it.

Anna nodded then glanced back up at Barnabas and his trolls. She actually wondered how far he got with training them...if he ever even got far at all. She thought about heading over to the library tomorrow or something and checking out a book or two on the man. It'd be an interesting read if nothing else. It was only when she heard Cope say her name that she realized he'd been talking to her...or at least said something to her. She looked over at him with a confused expression at first, but then what he'd said suddenly registered. "Oh, erm...I...hmm. I don't know, Cope. I've always been somewhat of a romantic, so I've always kind of thought that true love, if it's meant to be, will always win in the end. What if the person you're caring about is truly your soulmate...only they don't realize until a little while later. It could happen...," she suggested.

"Nico...so what's he been busy getting into these days? Besides his potions business, I mean," she said. She'd have to owl Nico sooner or later, as it'd been awhile since she'd talked to him or heard from him. She nodded as Cela shared her thoughts about Cope's whole nobility and stupidity thought. "You know, though...my mum once told me 'When one door closes, another opens.' It's a simple old saying, right? The tricky part comes in the end, though. 'We often look so long and so regretfully at the closed door, that we don't see the one that's been opened for us'."

Cope just blinked at them both. Girls are CRAZY people. He didn't really feel safe with them out roaming the halls like they weren't insane and in desperate need of medication and lock-up. He glanced from one to the other, rubbing his arms and looking shifty.

"Merlin, Cel." Owie owie ouch. They'd gone from fun banter to pointed critique a bit faster than he'd expected. "I am selfish or are you unattainable?"

"He's just getting things ready I guess. Not long until March." Cela shrugged, preferring not to think about that whole thing too much. She'd never be his favourite again after that.

Cela looked at Copernicus with a mixture of surprise and alarm. "Neither." She said finally giving pause before adding, "But... I think you kind of subconsciously like feeling guilty all the time and... maybe you don't know yourself when you are happy or feel like you have a right to be." Cel was pretty sure by now that Copernicus felt like he had some great big pennance to pay that had nothing to do with Plymouth at all. She figured it was more about his mother.

She looked down at the little piece of chocolate she'd just unwrapped, back up at Cope and down at the chocolate again. Hesitatingly she broke it in two, placed one piece on her tongue and offered the other piece to Copernicus.

More than anything, Cela didn't really think Cope was selfish enough.

Anna returned the blink Cope had given her, for all the sudden, she felt sort of right smack in the middle of a conversation she might not need to be a part of. Ohhh, but it was really interesting to hear! She tried to distract herself with Barnabus and his trolls again (really, she did), but when drama presents itself right in front of your very eyes, it's sort of hard to turn it down and look the other way. Suddenly feeling as if she were at a Quidditch match and watching two different teams battle for the snitch, Anna glanced back and forth...back and forth...back and forth. When Cope asked Cela about being unattainable, she stopped all the back and forthness and fixed her eyes on Cela.

Cela had answered her question about Nico, but continuing that conversation sort of seemed rather random right now, so Anna just nodded and settled for a nice, "Hmm...I see." She listened as Cela spoke rather deeply about how she saw Cope as a person who sort of liked feeling guilty. Feeling like some sort of "Couples Therapist," Anna shifted her attention over to Cope, watching for his reaction. "You know, I think this sort of goes along with my mum said about the whole open and closed doors thing. We do sometimes often look so long and so regretfully at the closed doors that we can neglect the ones that have been opened for us," she said, chiming in and adding her two knuts.

Copernicus took the chocolate, but he folded the fingers of his other hand over Cela's. "I know you're right, Cel. I don't deserve anything, especially not things I haven't worked for to earn. Unfortunately, you can't earn someone's heart." And he had hers. He knew he did, and it was wonderful and terrifying.

Anna was talking about windows? He let all but the tops of Cela's fingers slide from his before looking at the itty bitty Greingoth. "It doesn't help if you're too scared to go through that other door, Anna Bella."

Celandine shot an awkward look at Anna. It was not a go-away look, it was a use-your-head-girl-powers-and-make-this-make-sense look.

She looked down at Cope's hand and a faint furrow appeared between her eyes. "You do deserve things though. You do." Why should happiness be something that needed to be earned anyway? Who made that rule?

Cel nommed on her piece of chocolate and continued staring at his fingers.

Anna sort of rocked back and forth on her heels, trying to appear absentminded, while Cope and Cela talked. One one hand, she sort of felt like she was in the middle of someone's private conversation. On the other hand, though, she felt as if...maybe...Cope and Cela sort of needed a little nudge in the right direction. What on Earth were they waiting for anyway? Had Cope even taken Cela out on a little date yet? ...had Plymouth? "Too scared? Nonsense, Cope! If we don't take risks, then we never what rewards are waiting for us on the other side," she replied.

...but then Anna caught that look Cela was giving her. She blinked, unsure what to do, then started babbling about pretty much anything. "Speaking of deserving things, you know what you two need? A nice quiet evening...at Madame Puddifoot's!" she said, looking at Cela with an 'I didn't know what else to say' look. "I tell you what...we'll make it sort of a group thing. You two, me, and...erm, well, I'll find someone. Come on! It'll be fun!"

"I'm risking enough," Copernicus informed Anna solemnly, although he had eyes only for Cela. He did that trick where he pulled her in by her hand, tucking her under his arm. So there it was, Anna Bella Greingoth. See how it is?

"Puddifoot's? That little tea place in Hogsmeade?" It was a silly little place; he'd been there last year. But surely there was a method behind Anna's madness. "Can't we drink tea here at the castle?"

Cela brightened a little at the idea. The only time she'd been in Puddifoots was when she'd gone in there and Will was all dressed up in the nicest suit ever and Jaimine's rope was all tuggy and stuff.

"A group thing?" That was safe, right?

Cela fit quite naturally under Cope's arm and she did her best not to look up at Copernicus with too hopeful an expression. "They have pie too." She ventured in an I-don't-really-care-but-I-totally-do voice.

Anna just sort of eyed Cope when he said he was risking enough. She wasn't quite sure how to reply to that, so she just nodded a few times instead. "You can drink tea here in the castle...but you can't dream Madame Puddifoot's tea. Besides, they don't just serve tea. The cheesecake's really good, too," she said. As soon as she said that, her mind drifted back to how she'd kissed both Plym and Steven at Madame Puddifoot's here recently. That'd be sort of odd if she could convince Dominic, the Hufflepuff she needed to kiss, to tag along with she, Cope, and Cela. She could kill two birds with one stone then.

"Yup...a group thing," she said to Cela. "I'll bring...Denton or someone like that. You know, just as friends. She could tell that Cela was warming up to the idea. Now if she could just get Cope to agree, they'd be all set. Well, Cope and Denton, that is. "So what you do say? This weekend?" she asked both.

"What?" Copernicus blinked at Anna and then down at Cela. It was clear from that little glimmer in her eyes that she was waiting on a response from him. Go to the tea shop? With Anna and Denton? It didn't make much sense to him, but he had known for a long time that what Cela wanted, she got.

"Sounds like... fun? Sure. Tea and pie." He grinned shyly at Cela.

"Oooh. I like Dom-in-ick. He's totally my friend you know." Though, if you asked her, Cela'd probably claim anyone as her friend.

It would be safe right? Allowed? Since it would just be a bunch of friends spending time together. Having tea and cheesecake...

Cela looked to Copernicus to see what he'd say about it.

"Tea and pie!" Celandine repeated with almost too much enthusiasm.

Then she looked at Anna, panic starting to set in. What am I supposed to do now?

A tiny hint of a grin spread across Anna's face, and she simply watched Cope, waiting for him to cave in, as she knew he would. She couldn't imagine him saying no to a little date with Cela in Hogsmeade. A plan was already forming in Anna's mind. She and Dom (hopefully Dom) would accompany Cope and Cela (just to make sure they didn't back out or get nervous or something like that), then they'd sort...kind of...bail on them to leave them be. She was sure they'd understand.

...and then, Cope caved in. "Tea and pie...or cheesecake or whatever else you want...it is, then!" she happily exclaimed. She nodded when Cela mentioned being friends with Dom. "Yeah, me, too, so I'm sure he'll come along just as friends. I don't imagine he'll have a problem with that," she added." Her eyes flickered from Cela to Cope then back again, and she picked up on the little expression her friend gave her. She winked, letting Cela know that it'd all be okay. She had to find, Lyra, though! They had a date to plan!

"That's good," Copernicus agreed again, trying to walk and nearly taking Cela's head off with his shoulder. Whoops! He pressed his jaw against her temple and then rolled across his cheek to drop a quick kiss on her forehead before letting her go.

"So I should ask Denton to join us? Anyone else? Oh, do you think Plym would want to come? I don't want to leave him out if you think he'd like to come."

Dominic was innocently making his way down the seventh floor corridor towards his new temporary home in the Ravenclaw Tower, as he passed by an interesting tapestry which caught his eye. The tapestry was of course of Barnabas attempting to train trolls for the ballet. Definitely one of the more humorous things to be found at Hogwarts.

But that wasn't really what caused the sixteen year old to stop dead in his tracks. It was the sound of very familiar voices; Anna Greingoth, Copernicus Kettleburn, and Cel-an-dine Toussaint. Talking about him, no less.

Frowning, he turned around slowly to face the trio standing there gibbering. "Ask Denton what? Join who? Where?" Dominic asked, raising a brow in suspicion.