Plymouth was just about to step away with Daphne on his arm... he.... had plans...

... and now he had a crying kid. Figured. Just figured.


Plymouth took a deep breath and smiled at Willie Crocker. "Willie? Do you LIKE Miss Daphne? Cause, I sure do. And do you know what you're crying does? It makes her sad. Let's not make her sad, okay? We like to see her SMILE, don't we?"


Really. REALLY. Plymouth really, really did like to see Daphne smile. Particularly when it was for him. It was... more gratifying... than other smiles.


"So.... I'll give you a hug? A galleon? Coat?" What would make Willie Crocker dry it up so Plymouth could court Miss Daphne onward?

When she mentioned the word crying, that's when he really cried. His lip quivered more than it had and the tears streamed down his cheeks. His throat felt like it was going to close up, and so hiccup noises came forth. Snot rolled down from his nose and Willie didn't even bother rubbing it away with his sleeve. This all looked odd, especially with the way he was squatting.

"Du--Du--DUN APOLOOGITHE!" He sobbed, looking like a very old man who had lost all his money and was now doomed into this position for life! Or something like that. "Ye--Ye--YWAAAHAHAA"

His whole body shook, seeing at it was really tiny. How could she tell him he had some problems with his speech?! He knew he had problems, but he never really liked to admit it! There was a reason to not acknowledge it. Too many people made fun of him out of and here both of them were making fun of him!

"NU. I DUUUN LIKE 'ER! Let 'er bee THAD! I dun CAREEEE!" Willie whined, the snot now close to his mouth. "And dun ye be touchin' me ye big ol' buggah, or I'll bitechu I THWEAR I WILL!"

Well, that's that.

Daphne squeezed Plymouth's arm before clearing her throat. "You stop that right now, Willie Crocker," she ordered stamping her foot. "You will be doing no such thing to Plymouth. You are a boy not some wild crup so behave like one."

Plymouth didn't have the first CLUE what.... the kid was saying. He picked out a few words, like 'and' and 'will' but other than that...? Errrr... He was threatening Plymouth now, too? Plymouth's JAW did that tight clenched thing.


"Can... well it's okay to leave him out here, right? I mean, we found him out here, so? "


SO PLEASEEE let Plymouth take Daphne away... from the scene. He would NEVER produce Daphne smiles and/or giggles - here. Plymouth's jaw tightened once more as he looked back to the little... creature... kid thing. Crocker.

"It's alright," replied Daphne, bumping her hip against Plymouth. "He can take care of himself. He's...a...tough little guy." And scary, and crazy too. "He'll be fine in no time and...go run around some more. Where are we going now?"

"Willie!" Garret came around the corner from the Mess Tent, dreading this moment as he had heard his brother's raised voice from quite a distance. He strode towards the younger Crocker, ranting about homework, their mum, toilet seats and ... chocolate starfish?

"Y'shouldn't've told mum, you bloody-" he was cut off mid-rant by the sight of Daphne and Plymouth standing just a few feet away from them.

Daphne and Plymouth standing arm in arm.

Daphne clutching onto Plymouth's obviously more defined arm as if it were the end of the world and he was the only thing holding her grounded to salvation.

The scowl that graced Garret Crocker's face was spectacular as he yanked his little brother by the collar and marched off with the little boy in tow with not even a hello to the girl who was supposed to be one of his close friends, and the boy he had rather liked. Up until now. There was something smarmy about that Ravenclaw git, and he was going to get to the bottom of it.

Gahhhh...... they were just going down so fast. Was there anything faster than this freaking thing? Surely, there was a limit to how fast these things go, right? If they went any faster, you either got your skin ripped off of ya or you go so fast, that you fall off.

"I'm gonna kill yoouuuuuu!!!" Livvy yelled out at Garret. EEE!!! She wanted off! Yet... she didn't. It was fun, actually. Scary... but fun. She could see everything! The Quidditch Pitch... the lake... the forest.. it was so beautiful. So wicked awesome.

Okay. Maybe the G-Man will live.

Livvy laughed delightedly, as she held onto Garret's arms. If she was flying out, he'll hafta fly out with her. Hmph. That's how it goes.

And down they went. Down......... DOWWWWWNNNNNN.... until they were at the bottom. Livvy's eyes were wide, dancing with joy, and her hair was all messed up. Wooowww.... she rubbed her head and tried standing up, all the while holding Garret's hand and pulling him up too. "That was fun," Livvy said, grinning at him.

Livvy's death threat seemed to shake Garret out of his silence and he managed another "WOOHOOOO!!!" He would have loved to hold his arms up in the air and wave them about as he yelled like a maniac, but she had a tight hold on them and... oddly enough... he didn't mind.

They slowed to a stop and before he could properly catch his breath or balance, the Ravenclaw beater had already drawn him up to stand beside her. He struggled for balance momentarily and would have toppled over if it wasn't for the fact that she seemed to have quite a tight hold on him.

"Let's do it again!" he exclaimed, grinning in return at the girl by his side, completely forgetting the fact that the ride down had nearly scared his hair silver.

Whoo! Man that was a thriller.

It was amazing how fun that had been. Although it was big and scary, it was just the appearance. Okayy... so maybe the chutes weren't too bad and that she had been quick to judge how the ride would be. Livvy smiled as she looked over at Garret who struggled to balance himself. He looked so funny. The fifth year giggled as she held onto his arm to make sure he didn't collapse onto the ground.

"Okay!" Livvy exclaimed. "Let's go!" With that, she began laughing as she grabbed the boy's hand and this time.. she was the one dragging him along towards the castle.

She stopped and looked around. She'd rather not have to go allllll the way up those stairs again. Hmm..... was there a ladder? Livvy glanced around, searching for any ladder or some sort of 'thing' that could get them up there.

Ooh.

Ah-ha!

Livvy smiled at Garret and said, "Come on, then." And she began to head towards the ladder.

"On second thought," Garret stammered out, tugging Livvy's hand slightly so that she would stop heading towards the precarious looking ladder, "Let's just wait for Cela and Barry." He smiled sheepishly, "My breakfast feels unsettled... and well..." he looked down, covering his eyes with his hair in his embarrassment, "I think I'm a bit off balance to climb that ladder right now."

Livvy studied the boy as he pulled her back, stammering as he looked for words to say. She cocked her head and waited for him. No more chutes? Well... that was odd. After all it was his idea. Strange boy, but oh well.

She grinned slightly and elbowed him gently in the side. "Are you scared?" Giggle. "Well if you think you're gonna get sick if we go down again, then next time it is. We can go back and look for Cela and Barry. I'd say we definitely lost them."

Livvy laughed as Garret looked down, trying to hide the embarrassment on his face and avoid her eyes. With her free hand, she brushed the boy's hair away from his eyes and smiled gently, letting her hand fall back down to her side. "You okay, G-Man?"

Celandine had decided to take the chutes standing up, so she'd taken her shoes off, tied the laces together and had thrown them around her neck.

Taking a run up she jumped on the chute and slid down on her feet, recklessly ignoring the danger of falling off or damaging herself.

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" She hollered and threw herself off the end, taking a few running steps before she got her footing.

Garret was blushing, not only from the fact that he had admitted a weakness when it came to daring to Livvy, but also because she was now... pushing his hair out of his face. He had never been very well groomed, but the only person who ever touched his hair was his mother. And well.

He pulled back, smiling shyly at her before averting his eyes to see the sight that was coming down the chutes quite spectacularly.

"SEEEE-LAH!" He ran towards her, catching her in a flying hug (he was trying to cover up his embarrassment, really) as she landed at the bottom, "Don't do that! Nico would KILL me!:

Livvy's eyes danced as she saw the boy's cheeks go red. Awww... how cute. He was getting embarrassed. She should probably stop teasing the boy. But. Ooh. He truly did have pretty hair. It was fun to touch. But noooo... Livvy.... hands to yourself.

She too stepped back and turned to look in the direction that he was looking.

And.

"CEEEELLLLAAAA! You're heerrreee!" Livvy said, grinning as she skipped towards the girl. "Huh. Where's Bar-Bear?" Did Bar-Bear get looosstt? Oh noes!

Laughing, Celandine grabbed hold of Garret while she got her footing. "But it was soooo much fun and since when have you tattled on Nico to me!" She wagged her fingers at him.

"Soooo fun, but then you probably know that!" Garret was the most daring, amazing, bravest, most reckless person she knew.

"Of course I am! He probably... got stuck babysitting that eleven year old or something!" Teeeeeheeeee. Cela used Garret to balance while she put her shoes back on. "So, we should eat some candy."

Obviously.

Garret kept his hold on Cela, maybe because he was still a bit shy around Livvy and well, holding Cela was easier than holding Livvy because... Livvy was a girl. And well. She was pretty.

"She prolly remembered she's too young for Hogsmeade visits," Garret joined in, laughing as he starting nearly dragging Cela off towards the gates, "too bad he's going to miss out on the epic Honeydukes raaaaaid!"

"Probably!" Celandine agreed, flicking her wand at her shoes to sort her laces out. She stumbled a little as Garret dragged her far easier than he used to manage, his height and weight starting to make a difference. Cela had to move her feet faster to keep from faceplanting. She was laughing though.

"A RAID?!" Like whuuut? "Is..." She patted herself down, "Three galleons going to be enough?"

That stopped him short.

Literally.

Garret stopped quite suddenly, forgetting that he was dragging Cela along and had to right them both before he could turn his pockets inside out to check how much money he had on him.

He counted out the odd assortment of coins, putting aside a galleon for his anti-cheating quills, "Right, I've got two galleons, sixteen sickles and... 4 knuts!" He grinned, "Enough for TOOOOONNES of sweets AND a round of butterbeers for all of us."

"Then, when we get back..." Cela looked in the direction of the whomping willow, a gleam in her eyes. She'd be fueled and ready to go. It was her turn to attempt dragging Garret along, though she wasn't doing so well.

It kind of made her realised that when she'd dragged Plym or Cope around...

... well, they'd let her.

"Come on metal-mouth! Race you!" Cela was pretty sure she was still faster.

"You're forgetting Liv and I already beatchoo!" He grinned over Cela's head at Olivia Zhang. She was soooooooo cute! He bit the inside of his cheek before hastily looking back into Cela's face to distract himself from the mystery of feminine beauty.

Not that Cela wasn't cute, he was sure. Just... she was CELA!

"But now it's an individual race." He still had a hold on Cela's arm, but was already poised to dash off, "To the front gates!" He released her quickly and sped off towards the front gates, howling with laughter the whole way.

EEeeeeeeeep!

Garret was tricksy! Cela stumbled when he let her go and shot a grin at Livvy as she chased after Garret, forgetting for the first time in a while about being self-conscious about what effect running had on her growing self.

Garret Crocker always made her forget about things like that, he didn't draw attention to such things by staring at her or trying to touch her all the time.

(Not that she minded certain people doing the touching thing)

Everything was just easier with Garret!

"The front gates!" She hurtled after him, right on his heels.

Barry shot out of shoots and on to the floor. Oh the whole lot were way ahead of him. But it wasn`t his fault a whole group of first years had started asking him questions. No doubt it was the work of the girl. They were running far ahead of him. Perhaps he could beat Livvy maybe. He started running.

Wait. Wha? A raid?

These people were going to fast for poor Livsters. They were hyper fourth years that wanted candy. But she wanted candy too. So add in a hyper fifth year and you're done! WHOO!!

"WAAAIIIIITTTTTT FFFFOOOOORRRR MMMMMMEEEEEE!!!!!" Livvy yelled out as she began running after the two fourth years. She heard someone come out from the shoots and Livvy looked back. "BAARRRYYY! Race to the front gates!" she said, laughing as she ran after the other two. For fourth years..... they were pretty fast.

Iris hit the ground with a dull thud. Again. She stood up and moved out of the way, and waited for Aaron and Fallon to get down here before heading off to Herbology. she looked up at the sky and watched the stars for a while, picking out different stars and naming them in her head.

Aaron flew off the end of the slide like ususal and laughed a little. Still awesome. He then looked at Iris smiling and excited. "C'mon! Let's go!"