Before Ashton was able to reply, though, he was attacked by something which now clang tightly to his back. Or was it someone? There was definitely somebody talking after all. And that voice sounded quite familiar to Nancy. Was it, "Shana?!" But what the heck was she doing clinging to Ashton's back like that. Her eyes darted back and forth in confusion between Ashton and Shana on his back. What was the deal between the two of them? They couldn't be going out, could they? That would just be...well, weird.

Lyra had been looking around for some time now, watching the other students talking with each other and having fun. She was wrong about one thing when it came to camping, it wasn't as much fun when her friends weren't here. Lyra looked around yet again to spot someone familiar but didn't see anyone. Sighing a bit, she lay down on her sleeping bag, watching the sky above her and started to hum a song quietly.

"Well, yeah, sure, it's obvious and all that, but why are you doing it?" He could hear his own tone, it was... Getting into that slightly wheedle-like tone that he occasionally used on his younger cousin. Shifting her slightly so that she was in a far more comfortable position for him, Ashton shuffled his feet so that he could carry her with ease. She wasn't going to let go any time soon, that was obvious, annnnndd.... Here came those jokes as well. If it wasn't Reese, it was Nancy. Gosh, couldn't he talk to anyone without him flirting with them...

Well, he actually couldn't, but that was beyond the point.
Almost bursting out loud at Nancy's expression. He nodded. "Yees. That's Shana. She's taken a liking to me, which is perfectly obvious." He said with another grin spreading over his face. She honestly couldn't of thought that he would of gone for someone such as the girl who was attached to his back, could she? Shana would of been a lot more trouble than say... Going out with Evolette.

Shana shrugged,she didn't acctually know why she was sitting on his back.Weell why ask If you already knew ? she shrugged.And I dunno just decided to sit up here I guess. she shrugged.Yess Nancy ? Heeey. she shrugged.Pfft.Taking a liking to you ? Thats a joke. she rolled her eyes.Your more like the annoying big brother I've never had. yes she had a big brother buut he wasn't annoying.She shrugged and smiled at Nancy.

Unable to help it, Rachel burst out laughing at his dry explanation. "Ooh, she's one talented cat then, huh?" she replied with another giggle, stroking the black and white fur fondly as she talked. She watched silently as Reid reached for the cat and patted him and noticed two things: 1. He HAD to be the most adorable male she had ever seen, sensitive, sweet, caring and simply perfect and 2) He was much closer to her than before, fact that she hadn't noticed right up until now.

She expected to feel awkward, nervous, self conscious or at least a tiny bit scared by to her surprise, she felt completely at ease. Hmmm... Looking up from his hand on his cat situated on her lap, Rachel giggled at the expression on his face, slightly bemused by it but nevertheless amused. "What? Why are you smiling like that?" she asked as he pulled himself back. She was now REALLY aware of how close they were and dared herself to move just a tad closer.

The space between her and him at their hips was no bigger than five, six centimeters. EEK! She tuned back in to the conversation as he began to speak yet again, wrenching her brain away from those tiny millimeters that separated them. Almost immediately, her face blushed scarlet and she grinned like an idiot as he spoke his next words.

Beautiful... She couldn't remember the last time someone had called her that, and meant it. "You're not that bad yourself, superstar," she replied meekly, looking up and meeting his gaze with one of her own. "Oh, that's great!" she exclaimed as he told her about his next movie. "I'm sure you'll do great - smart one like yourself, you can't go wrong," she nodded enthusiastically, not really noticing what she was saying.

And then it hit her. "Where is the filming going to be? Hollywood, right?" she asked, her voice still excited but the gleam had left her eye. She had been hoping to spend some time with him this summer. . . RACHEL! You selfish girl - he just got a job that he really wanted and you're complaining over the fact that he won't be around for the summer?! Seriously!

Kiri was in deep in concentration, trying to keep the Levitation charm active. The marshmallow had been hovering in the flame for a little while now, so she made it come back and gave it a scrutinising look. Its smell was incredibly seductive, too. She stretched out the hand not holding her wand and touched it. Ouch. It was very hot, but also sort of crispy to the touch. That qualified for Kiri. She wrapped a piece of her robes around her hand and let the marshmallow drop into it. Carefully, she took a bite... and nearly fainted in delight. It was so tasty! She shoved the rest of it into her mouth hastily. That was a mistake. The heat made her eyes water. When she swallowed, the marshmallow burned its way down her throat.

She was gasping for air as Emiliano joined her. He was carrying a box of his own with what appeared to be chocolate and a bottle of pumpkin juice. "Hot," Kiri breathed, and took the bottle out of his hand. A few hasty swigs later, and the fire in her stomach had been extinguished. "Erm... sorry about that," she said with a sheepish smile as she handed the pumpkin juice back to Emiliano. "I, er, think I got a little overexcited. I'll never have another marshmallow that's not toasted, I think. What do you have there?"

She inspected the box and watched Emiliano do his own little Levitation trick. She grinned. "Why no, Mr Saenz," Kiri replied, adopting his posh tone of voice, "I don't believe I have." A little while later, the first of the things he'd called... s'mores zoomed back out of the fire. He presented them proudly. A marshmallow with molten chocolate, sandwiched by crackers? Kiri took one curiously, mindful of the heat this time. It smelled, if that was possible, even better than the marshmallows alone. She nibbled on the one Emiliano had handed her. "They're... amazing," she told him, laughing. "Who invented them? I can see why you're in love with that person!"

She turned. "Hey Vanessa, come and try some!"

"What?" Reid asked curiously when Rachel started to laugh. Her laughing was a good thing but it would be better for him if he knew what she was laughing about. "Well the director seemed to see something in her. Personally I think there may be some kind of magic about her. I haven't met one person yet who doesn't fall in love with her."

"Wouldn't you like to know? I guess because I'm really happy at the moment and I feel like I can let my guard down. I don't have to pretend to be someone I'm not and I can say things and have to worry about the answers. I've never had to do that before. I always knew that the answer I got would be one that I'd like, or what they thought I wanted anyway." Reid replied with a slight shrug, while nonchalantly moving into a more comfortable position. He flopped onto his back on the ground, displaying a graceful nonchalance and reached across, hesitantly taking one of Rachel's hands into his own.

"Superstar huh? Well every superstar has to have someone of equal beauty beside them." he said his face turning into somewhat of a frown as he heard the pride followed by the disappointment in her voice. "Yea it's in Hollywood but only for the first month. After that filming is in London before we head to Paris for the last leg. It'll take up pretty much all of summer vacation." At the last Reid became sad too. He was happy to be working but he wouldn't get to see Rachel all that much. "Maybe if you wanted to you could come and visit some time," Reid suggested hesitantly, slightly scared of being turned down flat. "Wait do you have a cell phone?" he asked, suddenly bright once more. If she did they would still be able to keep in contact easily, still be able to see each other in one medium due to video calling.

Nancy resumed to blink at the two standing in front of her before bending down once again to smooth her sleeping bag out properly. Without getting up the 15 year old glanced back up, her lips curling up into a broad smirk at Ashton's statement. Yeah, right. Shana seemed to be utterly in love with him. Totally. She could hardly refrain from rolling her eyes at him as she slowly straightened up again so she was able to glance around his shoulder at Shana. "Right, sorry, I'm a bit slow today. Of course it is...perfectly obvious." Nancy replied quoting him at the end, her smirk growing even more intense as she quickly winked at Shana.

Tossing a strand of dark-blonde hair back Nancy giggled at Shana's slightly annoyed answer and with yet another wink for the younger Slytherin girl she stated, "Right. Who would take a liking to Ashton here?" Okay, it was quite obvious from the tone in her voice that she was not being serious at it could hardly be denied that Ashton certainly was extremely good-looking so there really had to be quite a few girl who fancied him. Still, a little teasing couldn't hurt, could it?

Shana giggled and pulled Ashtons hair,she smirked at Nancy and smiled.HaHa.I dunno mabye someone that mental. she giggled,of corse she was joking to mess with his head but better not say to much though,You know just incase he through her off his back.That might hurt.Then she might cry and that would be embarresing.Then he could laugh at her and nu-huh Shana didn't like that.

"And that, my awesome cousin, is why you are the best prefect ever!" she giggled. Ahhh it was fun making him blush! "Aw is ickle Chris embarassed?" she teased.

"Yea, I think for my party this year I'm going to have it outside at my beach." she told him. "Don't worry, I'll make sure it's free of merpeople." she added knowing he was probably still a little jumpy around water. But then again, what Hogwarts student wasn't?

Daniel looked up in the sky after arranging his sleeping bag. He was in deep thoughts when he smelled something sweet and seemingly extraordinary. He sniffed again and again and recognized that it was something sweet burning. Like marshmallows. He then stood up and looked at the direction of the camp fire. And there he saw The Professors, well some of them, and some other students toasting marshmallows.

He walked slowly and a bit reminiscent and approached the bonfire looking around. Merriment seems to be taking the air around and as he look around students from different houses and in different years flocked together as if a grand gathering is happening.

Maybe it is the fact that the school was spared from total immersion from the lake water or the stoppage of the uprising of the merpeople. He can never tell what was in the minds of the students at the moment especially now that finals is almost close at hand.

Daniel was silent in thought and walking slowly towards the bonfire when he realized that he is almost at the brink of being burned. He snapped out of his hallucination or thinking thought that he have and sat near the Professor giving away what seems to be dark chocolate and discussing about s'mores.

He spoke softly but clearly, "Ernn, Professor. I may sound stupid but, what is s'mores?" it was definitely new to his ears. It must have been a muggle custom that Daniel never bothered to understand. As he sat the looking at Professor Dumont, he remembered the last fishing trip he had with his father, there his father mentioned something that really bothered Daniel. And there he knew that that could be the last fishing trip they will have.

He forced a smile and looked at the glow of the fire.

Satine's face lite up when she heard one of her favorite voices in the whole world....her first real friend...her adopted big brother...she was just extactic....she may not have made many friends this term, well only like four really...but this was the greatest thing ever.

She yelled as loud as she could and then swung around and gave him a huge bear hug!

"O my gosh, I haven't seen you in ages...you have no idea how happy you just made me." she said with tears in her eyes....she had come to all of these events and had only made a few friends but none that would come up to her and here was her big brother doing just that.

"How are things going?" she said with the biggest, but not creepy =0], smile on her face. "O I just love your pygmy puff! I sent one to my cousin during the break...he was the only one in Florida that had one."

"Hey Jule!" she said realizing that Jule had already spotted Gemma. Satne placed Gemma into her bag and sealed it for a minute to calm her nerves. "Where is everyone? You're the only person I know that I've run into." She said with a frown scanning the crowd.

"Dunno. Don't really care at the moment either," she said. "But you have missed some crazy things going on," she added as well. Jule just kept looking at the sky and saw 3 stars aligned together. Though she could never remember the name is that consolation. Maybe she should pay more attention in Astronomy.

"Everyone's been distant from each other. I haven't even spoken to Vicky in a while...or Divad." she let out a sigh and sat up. She began looking for something to tie her hair up. Jule finally found a rubber band in her bag and used it. Her new, long, brown locks fell as she laid back down on her sleeping bag.

Satine was shocked by Jule's nonchalant attitude about the whereabouts of the others and could tell that she had def missed something over the last few weeks. She realized that she hadn't really talked to anyone since term break...where had she been? that worried her but then she remembered that she had been dealing with the flooding and her classes and she had honestly avoided all the couple issues...she felt guilty thinking about that.

As she unrolled her sleeping bag and started laying it down on the ground, she heard Jules mention the distance thing, "REally? What happened? I mean honestly ya'll all seemed inseparable...I kind of distanced myself since I was the only one not in a couple....plus I had classes and homework and I always ended up stuck in the middle of the flooding fiascos" she said all of this like she was trying to convince herself.

"At least you didn't get bitten by a grindylow. You have the easy life right now. All you have to do is go to class and do homework. Everyone else, well couple problems. Except me, wait...you weren't there when I changed, were you?" she asked her. Satine probably thought Jule meant attitude wise, well that too, but she meant the new look. Satine probably always had her purple hair, but sadly Jule no longer had her black hair. Or blue eyes for that matter.

"Tisk tisk, Miss Satine Farris. But I've been hoping you'd show up somwhere." she smiled at her.

Satine was more than a little bit confused...and was even more taken back by the tone of Jule's voice.

"Well, I guess I just knew that dating wasn't the greatest idea at our age," she said with a smile and sweet voice, then she continued, "And, I did have my share of issues...I mean I nearly drowned in Professor Bunburry's office and I got attacked by a merlady thingy and I fought off the grindylows. I mean it's not like I didn't do anything but classes this term." she was a little aggitated that everyone just thought she went to classes...she had been the brave firstie that stayed at the assembly when the Professor changed and helped with the Headmaster after he'd been attacked...she had done tons this semester...she thought to herself.

And then a tsk, tsk...what was going on..."What do you mean you changed? Into what? " she wasn't sure she liked the way this conversation was going, but she kept her eyes locked on Jules.

"There's a time and place for everything," she sighed and sat up. "Not as in transform into something else, being part metamorphagus, like you, our appearance changes, does it not?" she asked and crossed her legs. When Jule told Linda, she seemed like the only one who had understood. Maybe Satine can too, since she is a Metamorphagus.

"This is me before and this is me now. Brown hair, gray eyes, but I sadly still have my pale skin. Or paler now, I dunno." she told her and handed her the old picture of herself.

Kel's smile broke into a grin when he saw how happy Satine was. No one was ever that happy to see him. It was kinda surprising, actually, but Kel didn't mind at all.

He laughed lightly when she hugged him, returned the hug, and when he pulled back and saw the tears in her eyes, his eyes widened. Hopefully those were happy tears, considering she just told him how happy he made her. "Things are going pretty good, actually." he said cheerfully. "And you? Like you said, it's been ages!"

He smiled again when she mentioned his pygmy puff, who squeaked in acknowledgement. "This is Neige." he told her, trying to look down at the fluff ball who was still nestled where his shoulder connected to his neck, and looking quite comical in the act. "Jenn gave...him?...to me for my birthday."

Laura was sitting there, completely bored due to the fact that there was no one around that she knew. For some reason the twelve year old felt depressed, which wasn't good. Maybe it was just something to do with the fact that she felt lonely, she hadn't seen any of her friends for ages. Laying back on her sleeping bag, she stared at the stars and sighed.

Great. So now she had a bruise and a greatly decreased amount of brain cells. Livvy was going to fail her OWLs. She might as well just hand over her wand and drop dead or something. And it's allllllll because of Cam and his annoying continuous poking. He changed more twerp-like. He used to be sooooooo adorable. He still is, but now he's just evil. And crazy. Believing that Hobo Extinction will somehow lead to an Apocalypse. If that's not crazy, that what defines crazy? Because Cameron Karsten, the maniacal second year Slytherin, is pretty much crazy itself.

Livvy glanced around for maybe someone else that she can latch onto. No offense to Cam. But she didn't think she could take anymore bruises or anymore discussions about Apocalypses... cannibalistic professors... talking plants... Santa Clause in the disguise of Nurse Avalon.... it was too much.

She was desperate. Becca? Rachel? Plymouth? Copernicus? Cela? Where was everyone? Livvy spotted Garret along with two girls she didn't know. Well wasn't he a ladies' man? She spotted William sitting with Elizabeth and Robert. She'd go over there in a bit.

When it seemed like no one that was off her top favorite list of people was here.... there she was. RACHEL RIDER! And OMG OMG OMG! Was that a guy she was talking to? She was laughing... and he was too... does that mean... they're interested? Huh. Time to be introduced to this guy then!

Livvy grabbed Cam's hand at the last minute, since she didn't want him to feel lonely or anything and like she was ditching him, which was actually the whole point in the people search. But she skipped over.... no... crept over to Rachel and lover boy, sneakily, all the while practically dragging Cam over. Then once she was close enough to them, she whispered to Cam. "On the count of three... we run towards big prefect girl and big lover boy... and we yell out 'boo' or something. Mmkay? One... two.................. THREE!"

And at the count of three, Livvy leaped from their hiding spot, dropping the boy's hand and yelled out, "BOOOOOOOOOO!" right in their faces.

Thomas was alone, he didn't see any of his friends over here until he saw another lonely girl which was kind of close to him. Her face reminded him someone familiar. Suddenly, he noticed that it Laura the girl which he hadn't seen for nearly the whole year. Thomas walked up to her and said, "Hey Laura long time no see."

Satine felt sooo stupid for thinking that Jules had turned into something else...she took the picture and looked at the old Jule and the new. "Wow, do you know what caused your change? I mean I know it was the meta....but was something happening that pushed it to change you out of control of you? Can you change whenever you want now?" she had sooo many questions but didn't want to push it. "I happen to like your new eyes...I think they are mysterious and match you more."

Satine was so excited to see that Kel was as excited to see her.

"It's great to hear that everything is going great....I feel like it's been forever and a day since I saw you! Things have been okay, I guess. I'm really happy that the flooding fiasco is over. I was tired of always getting stuck in nasty water." she said with a small shiver remembering what the water felt and smelled like.

"Hello, Neige." she said holding her hand out so the Pygmy could smell her before she pet it. "Are you and Jenn still doing good?" she asked with a smile. She just loved Jenn and Kel as a couple and had been the one that saw it before either of them did...wow she wished she could've atleast met someone that in the future...not now...she was only twelve....

She focused back on Kel, "I am so ready for break so I can see my family and my aunt and just have some time off....I think we're going on a cruise in America somewhere...do you have any plans for the break."

Jule put a finager on her lips in a pensive way.

"Hmm, I dunno. I haven't tried it. But that is a good question though. Maybe something did make it push further." she said and stretched back onto and ground.

"Thanks. I like them more now." she smiled and and put her arms behand her back.

"Oh, yeah," Kel agreed, nodding his head. "That was kinda freaky...I'm glad it's over." Although he'd never - thankfully - actually been a part of it, in the water and stuff while it was flooding, but the thought that maybe his friends were there was honestly scary. At least nothing had happened to them.

When Neige squeaked again, Kel chuckled. "I think he likes you." he said brightly. When Satine asked about him and Jenn, Kel frowned, but quickly replaced it with a small smile. "Um...yeah, I guess. We decided to stay friends...let Jenn be with other people." He pointedly didn't say his own name...so far, he didn't know of anyone else he wanted to be with. "But we're okay with it, I think." he added. "We're still great friends. and that's the way it should be, for now. They were still really young and stuff.

"Cruise?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow. "What's that?" he felt his neck and face heat up as he asked that - should he know what it was? Fail. "Personally, I really don't want to leave. I do have plans to go to Jenn's this summer...but that's if my mother lets me go, which I'm not sure she will. She doesn't even know I'm in Ravenclaw, I'm sure she assumes I'm a Slytherin. And if she finds out, I'm sure I'll be in for some trouble." Lets just hope I'm allowed to come back to Hogwarts, he added silently.

Laura turned hearing someone call her name. Seeing a boy she vaguely recognized, Laura tried to place his face, and a small frown appeared on her face. Then she recognised him. "Oh, hi Thomas," she greeted. "Yeah, I haven't seen you around for ages. How are you?"

Lauras voice came out strangled and sullen, and she seemed to realise this, for she smiled. But Lauras smile was forced; it wasn't her usual mischievious smile. Depresion was bad, she decided.