Chris nodded. "Yes short." He told Lena. "No I'm not. Ok sure I guess your not that short. Maybe it's not true I don't know. But I heard it somewhere. I mean coffee can't be good for you." He said. "I think you are asking the wrong guy. To me almost everybody's short." He said and smiled.

Helena laughed and said, Yeah, fair point. He was rather large. She chuckled again slightly as she took another small sip of her preferred wake-me-up. A few owls fluttered in before the usual morning post, wet with the falling snow from outside, and one in particular landed fairly close to where they were to deliver the morning's Daily Prophet to a Gryffindor student. Helena glanced at it for a moment, and her stomach gave a funny jolt. Then she started to laugh.

Lilly walked into the Great hall after Quiddich practice. she was starved. she had worked hard. after scoring 2 times and getting a bloody nose she was wipped. time for a snack. she had just remembered about her snack from Honeydukes. she pulled our her bag and found the candy. she pulled out a chocolate frog and bit it's head off "mhm" she moaned as she finished it off. yum yum.

Chris chuckled slightly. "But I'm not really that tall. I mean I'm six feet. But really it's not that tall. I guess people are just short." He sad eyeing Lena in a teasing way. He then watched as owls came in and drop of the Daily Prophet to somebody near by. He heard Lena start laugh? Huh? "Alright what's so funny?" He asked.

Helena quickly stifled the laughter; after all, it wasn't so much funny as it was slightly depressing, actually. She was still trying (and failing) to hide the remaining smile, though, so the cease in laughter had much less of an effect as it should have. I'm sorry... It's nothing, really.

Chris raised an eyebrow. Hmmmm that was weird, she randomly starts laughing then it's nothing. Really? "Alright if you say so. And there's no reason to be sorry. I think you've been around me to long now." He told Lena and laughed.

Nothing more was said of the bridesmaid situation. It was over and done with and would be tucked away for a conversation a little closer to summertime. For now, the two had more important matters to discuss, like---Why is Cela vanishing a cup of water?. "Something against water?" Anna asked, one eyebrow raised. "Or are you practicing your skills from Transfiguration class?" Hmm...that was an odd little addition to the conversation.

"Not good enough, Cela?" Anna half-asked, a small flicker of hurt spreading across her face, then vanishing just as quickly as it'd come. She hadn't expected such a line coming from Celandine Toussaint. The rest of that conversation was better left unspoken of, though, so Anna said no more.

Clearing her throat, she said, "Ermmm, Fehu, Right." She flipped open her textbook a bit more, then after a little searching, read a few lines aloud.

"Use Fehu to advance projects and goals to the next stage, to protect property and valuables, to give your career an added boost, and to increase wealth. It is also a good sending rune, a catalyst to speed your energy or desire to it's appropriate destination. Please note, however, that Fehu is of a temporary nature. Like and explosion, it will not last, and must be renewed periodically."

"...and Fehu reversed? Hmm..."

"Considered to be 'negative' magick, the reversed rune can assist you in empowering a 'destructive holocaust' of fire. It can be called upon to help you in battle, where rage is needed for survival. Or to be used against a group of people who are trying to harm an individual."

"I can see where that would work well in a hypothesis..."

Helena forced a chuckle and drained the rest of her coffee. Now, really, she needed to get a hold of herself. What was she thinking? Was she honestly trying to draw attention to her forgetting her own birthday so it would lead into another sob story about when she was little? That was all she was full of lately, it seemed. She hated pity, so what was this all about? Coming back to Earth, she set her cup down and said, Now, I don't know about that. Too long is a long time...

Chris looked at Lena. Oh no here we go again she had that same look in her face right after the flood when there was something wrong and she didn't tell him. "Lena what's up? You don't look alright. Oh and I'm not taking nothing as an anwser." He told her. "Ok maybe not that long but you get the idea.

Helena sighed, hating that he was the one person who could see through her nearly all the time. It's.... She was going to tell him; she knew that, but she lingered over the forbidden word for a moment before saying, I just didn't realize it was my birthday, that's all. She laughed slightly, though she felt better telling him. She couldn't lie to Chris for very long if at all.

"I don't really need to practice the vanishing spell, I can vanish moving objects." Celandine waved her hand dismissively and frowned at the spot where the water had been. "Yes I have a problem with water! There isn't anything better than water when you are thirsty but I'm ALWAYS thirsty and I ALWAYS want water and I can't have it unless I... I... DRINK IT WITH A CRAZY STRAW!"

Maybe she'd kind of lost the flow of the metaphor somewhere.

"I'm sorry I didn't really mean it like that, it's just that I wouldn't really fit anywhere else." Celandine told Anna contritely.

She cleared her throat too and tried to act like she hadn't had a psychotic little outburst in the middle of the Gryffindor table.

"Okay, so apart from that stuff, the basic rune meanings are..." Cela pulled the textbook closer and read, "Possessions won or earned, earned income, luck. Abundance, financial strength in the present or near future. Sign of hope and plenty, success and happiness. Social success. Energy, foresight, fertility, creation/destruction (becoming). Fehu Reversed or Merkstave: Loss of personal property, esteem, or something that you put in effort to keep. It indicates some sort of failure. Greed, burnout, atrophy, discord. Cowardice, stupidity, dullness, poverty, slavery, bondage."

Blink.

"So like, if we mark our wands, I don't think it necessarily will effect ourselves, more our spells. So like regular old Fehu would make healing charms better and defensive charms, probably if you conjure anything it will be bigger and stronger and maybe your casting will be faster? And with Fehu Merkstave... that one is harder but destructive hexes relating to earth and fire, um... restraining spells and spells to slow down your opponent might be more effective too? I'm not so great at that sort of thing so maybe I should take Merkstave?"

"Okay, yeah...erm, you sure you're alright, Cela? I mean, really, it's just water, you know," Anna said, trailing off on the last few notes. Then it hit her. Water = flood. Of course Cela was a bit thrown off by the sight of water. Anna imagined most of the students would be. A glass of simple drinking water, though? "Crazy straw, right... Well, if you're really that thirsty, then you...what's a crazy straw? What are you on about, Cells?"

When Cela clarified what she'd meant about three of the Hogwarts houses, Anna waved her hand in the air to dismiss the thought. She knew Cela was a nice girl who had lots of friends from all over the school, so she had no doubt her friend had meant well.

She listened while Cela read a bit more about Fehu. "Oh, I agree. Marking our wands, with the whole wand paint deal as you said, would work just fine. I'm really interested to see how this is going to effect our spells! It'll be cool to see what happens," she said, closing her textbook and putting it away. "You taking Merkstave sounds good. Sooo, we mark our wands, duel, and then document what we've discovered, yes? I think that sounds like a plan. I'm game when you are."

"It's NOT just water." The crazy was back, "It's just THERE all the time and I... it... he..."

Flail and sulk.

She ignored the crazy straw question and took a deep breath, "Nothing, nothing ignore me."

Fehu. Fehu. Fehu. They were talking about Fehu and not... water.

"I'll go up to my dorm and get the wand paint and the stuff about the blessings and meet you in the arena? Yes?" Celandine didn't wait for an answer, she got up and practically fled upstairs.

Stupid water.

Chris looked at Lena. Did she just say she forgot her own birthday? Hmmmm ok then..."One question. How in the world do you forget your own birthday. To me it just doesn't make any sence. Could it have been from the water when your common room was flooded. Make it made you forget something like your birthday." He suggested to her.

Helena latched on to the only chance she had at getting through this without anyone feeling sorry for her. Yeah, she said, shaking her head a little bit and chuckling very convincingly. Maybe that's it. No big deal, though, Helena shrugged slightly and picked up her toast again.

Water? It? He?

Celadine Toussaint was one confusing little lady, yes she was. Eyebrows wrinkled in confusion, Anna nodded slowly when Cela suggested to just ignore all that crazy talk. "Right, yeah," Anna said. Maybe Cela would be up to discussing what was worrying her a little later, but from what Anna could gather, that part of the conversation had hit a dead end for now.

"Oka---," Anna started to say, but she stopped short when Cela darted from the table and dashed out the door. "My, people come and go so quickly around here..." Shrugging, Anna gathered her belongings and followed duit out the door.

To the arena it was!

Chris raised an eyebrow. "Come on? No big deal? You forgot your own birthday. I kind of think that's a big deal." He told Lena. "But hey if you don't want to think of it that way. It's fine with me. But anyways when was your brithday?" He asked.

Helena disregarded most of this and took another bite of toast while she let him rant, hoping the chewing was covering up her grimace. When she couldn't escape the question, though, she swallowed the last bite of toast and said, Well, today.

Feeling like she needed to make a new friend Lilly walked into the Great Hall with a huge smile on her face. (talking to stan lanevski and 10DesmondsDaughter14) "hello there! my name is Lilly! i want to make new friends and you are my first 2 candidates. how are you?" she said a little enthusiastically. ok so a little bold but who cares. she was going to make new friends and that was that.

occ. ok a little weird i know

Okay, so things just went from 'much more friendly than usual' to 'really weird', but Helena made herself smile sincerely and said, Hi, I'm Helena. It's nice to meet you. I'm very well thank you. She looked kind of uncertainly at Chris, still smiling.

Chris just stared at Lena. "Your not joking are you?" He asked sort of in disbelieve but before he could say or do anything else he saw a first year come up to the two of them.

Huh? Ok so this girl was straight forward with what she wanted. "Hmm hi I'm Chris it's nice to meet you. And I'm fine thanks. How about you?" He asked. He then looked at Lena a little confused.

Helena looked away from him, not liking the stare. What was she supposed to say now? No, I'm not, she mumbled, still looking purposefully away from him with no sign of ever looking back in his direction. It would be too embarrassing.

Via made her way to the Gryffindor table. She wasn't really in the mood to eat however she was starving and she needed food to keep her going. She plopped herself on the line of students and didn't bother to speak up. Her eyes flickered at the pile of food on the table and just picked a muffin to munch on. She sighed and then took a bite of it. Her mind was too preoccupied of something.

Chris Potter walked into the Great Hall after a good night's rest and sat down infront of a troubled looking friend. "Hey Via," he said placing some bacon on his plate and pouring himself some orange juice. "You looked troubled, what's wrong?" he asked as he offered her some orange juice too.

Her brown eyes turned towards the familiar voice who was talking to her. She shook her head and smiled wryly. She took another bite of her food and looked at him again when he asked what's wrong. She glanced around and said, "Nothing, Chris." Her voice was all soft as always. Trying to divert the topic, she tried to ask about him. "How's Lizzie?"