"Alright, I can help you with that" Peyton smiled warmly, hoping he'd watch carefully, but still ask for more help.

Joke? Her face fell into a blank expression. So.. he wasn't asking her out? What? She swayed on the spot and then reached out for the wall to steady herself. "It's fine.." she smiled forcedly and tried not to look too disappointed. He'd made her believe it. And... now.. She couldn't understand. Boys were idiots. Complete. Idiots.

He watched her as she swayed, frowning slightly. "Are you okay? I mean you figured that out, right? Seeing as we are just friends and all that." Oh no. What if she was seriously mad at him? He had just figured that she would be okay with everything. She was so easygoing.

"Yes.." Peyton nodded and then decided she had to lie "Of course I did" she smiled and laughed a little "No... of course... I know.. I was just playing along... I guess I just got a little too into the acting side of it.." she smiled, shrugging a little and giggling a little nervously. He SO didn't know what he'd done to her.

He smiled at her, relieved. "Okay, good. For a second there I thought I upset you. And no talking about this with Brody, right? 'cause she might get mad if he found out I said I dumped her." He was so glad that there were no hard feelings here. That was the good thing about Peyton; she had no interest in him at all.

"Yeah.. no.. you can't upset me that easily" she smiled, wanting Torin and her to be on speaking terms. Even if boys were idiots, she still liked this boy and wanted to talk to him. "Of course. Not a word" she smiled, leaning against the wall casually and watching Torin with a warm smile.

He sighed in relief. "Thank you. This is why I like you so much. You are so nice to me." If it had been Reese he would be dead by now. That girl showed no mercy. But Peyton played along with the joke. "You are a great actress. It was almost like you actually wanted to go out with me." He laughed.

"No problem." So he still liked her? That was good. "I'm not nice to just you.." she smiled, looking down and then laughing at Torin's comment "Yeah, I'm good at acting.. very good" she smiled, not showing her disappointment at all. At least he didn't know she had the hugest crush ever on him.

He smiled. "You need to be an actress. You are way too good. You even did the shocked thing perfectly." If only there were people as good as her in Muggle movies.

He looked at his watch. "I have to go. Got a date with Brody. But I'll see you later tonight for the Astronomy?"

"I wish" she smiled "Thanks" Little did he know that the whole thing was real. Poor, clueless Torin.

"Okay.. have fun.. I'll see you later on.." she nodded. Well, she'd promised him, right? And she wasn't joking.

"It's a date," he said with a wink. He was making a lame joke because of the whole conversation. But then he was a dork.

He started clearing up all his stuff and then headed off with a small wave.

Oh. He had NO idea. "Of course" she smiled, watching him gather up his stuff and go. When he'd left, she waited for a few minutes and then slipped down the wall. Why was she stupid enough to believe him?

Giving the statues around him a worried look, he nodded. "They're waaay taller than me too, which makes them extra scary!" Again, another nod as he glanced around himself. He usually didn't have the trouble with people or things being taller than him before he left the States, but now he was here in stupid, stupid Hoggywarts, everything/everyone seemed to be waaay taller than him. Now it was even these silly stone thingys.

Eeeep! "Don't shout too loud, they may..." Ah. Now, was he going to make an idiot of himself in front of the Hufflepuff Prefect. Most Probably.

Tammy... Nice name. "Is that short for Tamzin?" He thought aloud, and then realised he'd done so. Serious, sometimes he really should of been stereotypically blonde, and then dyed his own hair blonde as well.

Tammy giggled, "If they're taller than you, think how much taller than they are to me... I feel midgettifieeeeed.." She whined, but continued grinning, as she swept her hair behind her ears. Hair was annoying, annoying and long, and annoying.

"...hear me?" Tammy giggled, and it was about as high pitched as a bell chiming. It was scary. But it made her giggle some more.

"Of course it is. Tamzin! is horrible."

"Midgetified?!" Ashton suddenly asked worriedly, his face getting slightly panicked. Eeeeep! Was that possible? Was there some sort of special magic that could make people shorter?! He seriously hoped not. What if someone jumped him and made him like.. Four foot? That would be totally awful. Watching slowly as Tammy pushed her hair behind her ears, he felt himself grin a little bit...

And then it grew bigger as she finished off his sentence. He liiiiked her. She was much nicer than any other Hufflepuff he'd met... Sure he'd only met one or two.. But heeey.

"Saaaay, do you like candy rock?" He asked, "magically" pulling a paper bag out from behind his back. Seriously. It should of looked so good, if he hadn't of caught it on his back pocket and had to tug it a bit.. But heeey. Life goes on.

"I'm small, so I'm a midget. I maded the word up myself. It's fun doing that. It is, really is. You should try itttttttt." She was sort of singing the words out now, giggling as they echoed through the statue place. Kinda creepy. But funny.

"Stop grinning you cheshire cat. You look all goofy, yeh PRUNNNEEEEE." GiggleSNORT! Ashton was a doofy freak, and he was funny. And he was nice, and he was NORMAL.

"Candy rock? Whuts ca- HAHA. Was that meant to look laike impressive? It made you look silly. It got stuck ASHTONNNNNN, IT GOT STUCKKKK." Tammy was giggling again, but this time she sat on the floor. It was comfy.

Ohh. That showed how clever he was. He thought that it was to do with something totally different than short people. But he had bigger things to think about right now. She was scaring him. Majorly. Like woah. Looking at her cautiously as she giggled and sung at the same time, he muttered out, "Yeahh, I think I'll give that a miss..." It wasn't as if he thought it was a weird idea, but if she'd been possessed by one of the statues, that he was CONVINCED weren't statues, then who knew what she could do...

Prune...? What the heck was a prune? "Uhh.. So that I can understand the insult correctly," He began playfully, the grin still on his face, "What in Merlin's hairy right big toe is a prune?" To him it sounded like some.. IDK! Evil dwarf type thing...

Glaring at the paper bag as Tammy pointed out the obvious, Ashton sighed. So he hadn't heard of prunes, and she hadn't heard of candy rock. "I ammmm aware that it got stuck," he whined as he checked around him that none of the candy had leaped out of the bag. Opening the entrance (and exit) of the bag, he tipped it toward her to reveal small, brightly coloured sticks of candy. "It's reeeeeaaalll hard, so you need to suck it before biting into it.. They're allll flavours. Like Berties."

Oh. WELL, that wasnt nice. Tammy was being good. Tammy was being normal, and there was no way anyone else that spoke to her should have any permission not to act like she was. Because she was normal, and they should be normal. Ashton should have been acting weird. "Meh. Doof. It's not weird. You should try it, yeh FLAMIN' MUPPET." She squealed from her seated position on the floor, and frowned.

Was she not easy to understand? Well that was an insult in itself. Instead of explaining straight away, Tammy folded her arms and watched Ashton a sort of glare about her eyes. "As a matter of fact, a PRUNEEEEE is some sort of fruit. Like a big DATE i think. I dunnno, it be a funny word." Stupid boy. Was she expected to be able to explain each word he didn't understand? Ey? Boys were just weird. Infinately weird.

"And for your information, THAT questioning was an insult in itself. I CAN BE UNDERSTOOOOOOOD." And there was gone the seventeen year old and replaced by a mental, psychotic six year old child.

Mentally the seventeen year old mature adult was gone.

"You're a wizard Ashton, we need to work on this MAAAAG-GIICCCKKK ability of yours." Deep frown. Wrinkle inducing frown. "OOOOHH PURRRTTTTYYYY." Tammy cooed, cocking her head to the left and giggling like chimes once more.

"EWWWW. I dunt want a bogey flavour oneeee. OR an earwax flavourrrr. Can I have a ... a... CHOKLIT FLAVOUR ONEEEEE?"

Choklit was yummy.

EEEEEEP! She took it the wrong waaay! He just knew she was going to take it the wrong way! Almost leaping back, but controlling his survival instincts just in time, he shook his head furiously."I don't think it's weird..!" Noticing that he'd put both of his hands up in defence, Ashton hastily put them down by his sides, but kept the one with the candy up. "I was just getting scared by you giggling!!" ARGH! Hole-digger, much. "NOO! You've got a niiiice laugh. It's soo pretty! Like you are, but I was just saying," He was babbling now. Merlin help the poor girl. "That I don't think it was a weird idea, it just came out wrong because you were making me worried that the statues, who probably aren't statues, had possessed you and made you go a bit funny. But you weren't being odd or anything!!" Stopping (eventually) he took a deep breath, and dropped his head down. Epic fail.

ARGGHHHH! And he'd got it all wrong again! Sometimes he wondered if it was worth his time bothering with girl. "I've never heard of a prune before! I don't even know what a date is... Well, I know what a date is, but only the type when a guy takes a girl out, or shizzle like that.. But I've never come across a prune!! I would of understood you if I'd known what it was!" In other words, STOP GLARING AT ME, TAMMY!! He couldn't help it! The only fruit he'd ever eaten was... Apples, oranges, pears, dragon fruit, pomegranate and cherries... And apart from those, he'd only heard of strawberries and blackberries. Second epic fail of the recent five minutes. "You're really very easy to understand, and you're verrryyy nice." He finished almost panicked-ly.

Aaaannnddd.. She was back to "normal". Whatever that was. Dropping his head again like a disgraced dog, he nodded. "I pretty much fail at conjuring tricks. Plus the bag was up the back of my t-shirt." Hopefully that wouldn't put her off of his awesome sweets. She didn't look overly squeamish... Not THAT much.. Smiling lightly at her squeal of joy at the bag, he began to relax again. "The chocolate ones are VERY easy to find," His free hand already diving into the brown paper bag. Pulling out a dark blue one, he held it up to her. "They're the only blue ones in the pack." He proclaimed proudly.

And they were veeerrryyy pretty.

He didn’t think it was weird? That wasn’t what it seemed like. Tammy frowned a bit further and tightened her folded arms. Ashton thought she was weird. He did, he did. Hmpfh. “My giggling is scary?” She commented after her mentioned being scared by her giggling. It wasn’t that bad was it?

She was pretty? Well, he had to say that, she was low enough to bit his kneecaps. And that hurt. It hurt it did. She wasn’t pretty, he was crawling out of his hole now. The hole he had made by being MEAN. “POSESSED? Posessed by stone people? This is me being normal doofy. But this is probably toned down compared to normal right. I can be a lot worse. Face it doofy, that’s now your new name, Face it I am weird. You must deal with it.” Giggle.

Ashton was a babbler. Babblers were funny. Laughing, Tammy nodded. “I getcha. You were just overcome by my weirdness. Because I am entirely weird.” Babble. Babble. BUBBBLES. BUBBBLES. POP.

Tammy giggled as his babbles went on again, and rocked a little side to side. “Guys don’t take girls out. They ask them out silly. You can’t just STEAL a girl and take her out. You gotsta have her permisssiiiiooonnnnn.” Ashton was funny. Scary at times, but funny. “Don’t eat a prune. It’s horrible, and icky. And so are dates. The food type. Not the boy and girl date thingy.” Of course they were probably icky too, but Tammy had stayed away from dates since like the age of 4. Boys had COOTIES. Torin didn’t, Torin wasn’t a boy. Torin was a princess.

“I’m glad you think I’m nice otherwise, I’d have to hit you, and set some firsties on you. I have that power.” She didn’t. But CHYEAH.

“Still, you need to work on that trick. It’s not very impressive.” She laughed, it really wasn’t impressive. Not at all.

“WHY CANT THEY BE LELLLOOWWWWW?” Tammy frowned, blue was nice. But yellow was entirely better. Badgers FTW. “Can I haz a choklit oneee PLLEEEEEEEEEEEASEEEE doofy?”

Dun dun duhhhh. Dun dun dun duhhhhhh.

Xander darted between statues and hid behind a few others. He was trying to figure out when he should jump out from behind them and scare the people he was hiding from. He hadn't had that kind of thrill in a while.

Today was the DAAAAAY.

Torin saw Xander for across the hallway, darting between the statues and acting all sneakylike. He knew that he was up to. And Torin would get him first!

When Xander darted behind a statue, he quickly and silently darted against the wall and started moving slowly in the shadows towards where the statues were.

When he was right near the first one, he peeked behind it and shouted, "BOOO!" as he jumped in the air and tackled Xander to the ground.

Xander had started to move a bit, when there were footsteps behind him. He didn't have time to think, because he was about ready to shout when -

Someone shouted first, and then Xander was on his way to the floor.

"AYEEEEE," Xander said. Except... ALAS! "TORINNNNN!"

Squeesqueesquee.

hehe. Torin was happyyyy.

"XANDERMAN!!" he called out as he gave the boy a squeeze before letting go and getting to his feet. He held out his hand to the boy, so that he could take it and get back up again.

"Where the heck have you been, dude?" He hadn't seen Xander since... before he and Brody broke up.

Xander couldn't help but smile at the manboy who was helping him up from off the ground. It was good to see him again, and to be able to run around and cause mischief. Wheee!

"Well," he said. "I've been in the Hospital Wing. I got sick from some disease that only affects real men, so obviously I would get it." Uhh... liiiies! But that doesn't matter. "Then I was stuck doing make up work, and yeah. I'm FREEEEEEE now!"

He danced around the statues, flailing his arms about. Teeeheeeheeeeeeee!

"... uh huh," he replied slowly, knwoing full well that Xanderman was telling lies. "I'm Superman, so I never get sick." Well, besides the time in January where he was so sick that he couldn't even get out of bed for a few days.

He watched as Xander danced around. "Never leave again, dude. This Term has been real suckish lately."