A soft chuckle escaped his lips by the mere thought of how different he was and felt around Helena. He was mature, not overly hyper and the best part - he felt on top of the world.

Sighing deeply, he closed his eyes too after firming his grip around her petite shoulders. Helena definitely brings out the best in him. No doubt about it.

"Hmm...." He mumbled when she whispered his name, weakly. He was too absorb in his own thoughts to understand the uncomfortableness she might be going through. "I'm all ears." He murmured and hugged her close to him. Never wanting to let go.

Mina wandered down to the grounds in deep thought. She hadn't had the chance to visit the pumpkin patch the previous year as much as she liked and she did want to see it again. Rumor has it, it was quite the fun place to just hang out.

Looking up she stopped short. It was here last year, wasn't it? she thought as she looked at what was before her. A playground? Blinking, she tilted her head in thought. That was definitely not what she was expecting, but she did love to play in the sand. Plus, there were MONKEY BARS and SWINGS! Oh how she did love those as well.

Seeing an open swing, she ran over and took it. Nothing better than swinging on a beautiful day. Smiling to herself, she kicked off the ground and began swinging slowly at first, before picking up speed. Letting her mind wander again, she looked up at the sky.

Helena's eyes, so recently turned green for the wrong reasons, were light purple once more and glassy, but not filled with tears. That time was long gone. She felt Blake's arms tightening around her as he hugged close to himself and she knew she wasn't going to do it. Maybe she was mistaking any affection at all for the feeling that it was supposed to be, but that was just it.

It felt right.

And his words.... if Chris were there, Blake would probably have a blood nose by now. Chris. Now he was all Lena could think about: his eyes, his hair, his semi-annoying baseball caps - it was everything. And even though she'd technically done nothing wrong, she still felt like the biggest low-life on earth.

Blake, please.... she whispered, not even trying to get away from him with any more force than a piece of paper. That was it. She'd gone and done it. She'd fallen for him again - while she was dating someone. Just great.

Ayra giggled at Sabel's comment about kittens."So true, especially if its a kneazle kitten."She wondered where Perseus was hoping to find him while they explored the castle.

At first Arya was a little thrown by Allison's sudden burst of happiness, but that passed as she was just happy her friend was feeling better.thinking back to what Emily said she was ready to see more of the castle now that all of her friends where here. "Yea, I'm ready to see more of the castle. Where do ya'll wanna go next? Maybe we can find Perseus while were exploring."

Yup he was a Slytherin. Shocking huh?
Lavi was happy that Lucy thought that some of the Slytherin's were nice too. He nodded his head a few times and wondered which students she was talking about.

He giggled as the girl gently grabbed the lollypop but he eyes showed all signs of grasping it out of his hands. Lavi would have probably snapped it out of her hands if the roles were turned around and she had been offering candy. " Where are you from?..Where you born here in England? ..got any pets? oh and and.uuhmm.." Lavi frowned, he couldn't remember his last question. Mweeh it would come up later, hopefully.

yay for questions questions questions!

"Well, want to go see if we can find the room of requirement?" The girls had been talking about wanting to find it. "Isn't it on the seventh floor or something?"

And he was free. Free of all the constraints of the castle. He had fresh air. WHEEEEEEEE. And sugar. Lots and lots of sugar. Alex ran uncharacteristically excited towards the playground swings. He barely skidded to a stop in time to avoid tripping over the very swing he wanted to play on. BAD SWINGY!

Pouting down at the inanimate object and behaving in a very much undignified manner Alex jumped on the swing and immediately began the familiar childhood motions. He hadn't played on a swing set for years and it was so much fun. Moving his legs faster and harder Alex continued to go higher a wild gleam of abandon making itself known in his eyes.

Exploring the castle was EXHAUSTING.

It was MASSIVE, perhaps even bigger than Beauxbatons! And she heard there were secret passages and hidden rooms at Hogwarts too. Not that she had actually discovered any of them. Not yet anyways. She would, one day. What the redhead needed now was some rest. She would sit somewhere over there and she would … umm … relax.

The redhead expected to find something similar to the lake where she could just … sit so when the thirteen year old made her way over to this unexplored place, she stopped dead and just stared at scene in front of her. Staring back at her was … some sort of playground. Madiison felt like she was standing in middle of a jungle. Like it was some sort of … jungle playground?

Strange.

Hogwarts was strange.

And SOOOOOOO COOOOOL!

Madiison LOVED it.

And so, forgetting ALL about how tired and exhausted the girl was just a few moments ago she ran for the playground. In particular, she ran for the swings. They were her favourite ... at least for now.

Hopping onto one of the swings right next to another boy, the girl started to swing, deciding all by herself that she needed to catch up with the boy.

Competetive? You BET she was.

And she was going to WIN this one.

She watched him as he mostly nodded and giggled when she took the lollipop, which she was happily sucking on now.
"Uh, let's see. I'm from Scotland, and I was born there as well. And yes, I have two pets, as a matter of fact. I've got an owl named Alison and a Pygmy Puff named Bubbles, and I acquired both very recently. They're my first pets, and I hope I can take care of them," She said thoughtfully as she considered him. "What about you, Lavi? Where are you from and do you have any pets?" She asked him, taking a bite out of her lollipop. Her mum always got aggravated when she did that because she thought lollipops were for sucking ONLY, but Lucy couldn't help but bite them sonner or later--it just felt satisfying.

Blink. There was a GIRL. There was a girl on the swings. Alex was sure there hadn't been one there just a minute ago. Oooooohhhhhhhhh she was competing with him. Or at least that's what Alex thought she was doing.

Giving the girl something between a smirk and a smile in his overly happy state Alex shouted "HAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII" as the momentum pushed him upwards, the drawn out greeting sounding cool as he came whooshing back down. Using more force Alex was determined that the girl wouldn't catch up. It was imperative. He was a Slytherin after all and he should be the best at all things. Even if it was only at swinging the highest on a swing set.

Letting out an unmanly giggle for some reason Alex daringly stood up on the swing, moving his hands higher up the chains, while keeping the toy in motion.

Woooaaah! Scotland? so cool! yup yup.

Lavi listened to the girl's background , thinking it was very awesome she was from scotland. Where it was , Lavi had no idea. Topography was never his best subject but the name sounded cool.

His eyes twinkled when Lucy told him she had two pets. TWO! Lavi got only one because his parents didn't want to have more. He felt slightly jealous of her. When he heard the word Pygmy puff , Lavi looked up and frowned. He pushed his legs so that the swing started to swing back and forth again and wondered where he had heard that name before. He swinged and swinged and swinged...until he remembered. "Pugypuffs are those Weasley's wizard wheezes creatures riiight?" he asked while coming to an halt and a grin spread on his face. yeaa he remembered them, and also the Puking pastilles he had stolen gotten from the shopassistant. "I wanted to buy an Puggypuffie..or whatever its called but my father doesn't want me to buy anything from www." he sighed and pouted his lips. Meany man.
"But i do have a cute cat named Mr.Kittles..i'll introduce you too him when he's around!."

Lavi too bit his candy cause it would take too long otherwise. He happily nommed on it and raised an eyebrow when Lucy asked him the exact same questions. "Oh, uhmm..I'm born in Sendai, Japan. My father is an japanese wizard and my mother an english muggle..uh i stayed in Japan till i was 13 and went to an all boys wizarding school " yada yada yada... "But now i'm living in Leeds and go to Hogwarts." He had to hold back a YAY when he was finished talking and he started to push his legs hard on the ground. The swing started to swing higher and higher back and forth back and forth. He was still swinging when he asked her another question...something that had been bothering him some time but he didn't wanted to show it.

The swing got to the top and he swinged back, when he was in the middle he quickly asked "Are the.." the swing moved backwards and he swinged to the middle "subjects here.." He swinged to the front and lowered down backwards yet again. "Difficult?" teehee.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Esme

Blink. There was a GIRL. There was a girl on the swings. Alex was sure there hadn't been one there just a minute ago. Oooooohhhhhhhhh she was competing with him. Or at least that's what Alex thought she was doing.

Giving the girl something between a smirk and a smile in his overly happy state Alex shouted "HAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII" as the momentum pushed him upwards, the drawn out greeting sounding cool as he came whooshing back down. Using more force Alex was determined that the girl wouldn't catch up. It was imperative. He was a Slytherin after all and he should be the best at all things. Even if it was only at swinging the highest on a swing set.

Letting out an unmanly giggle for some reason Alex daringly stood up on the swing, moving his hands higher up the chains, while keeping the toy in motion.

"HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Madiison shouted back at the boy as she swung, almost giving him a smile. ALMOST. Before she could complete the task he swung RIGHT UP. WAY beyond her reach. Like, really. There was no way she was going to be able to do that. She was small and she'd FALL right off the swing if she went any higher since she wasn't exactly heavy either.

HMPH.

But you know what? She was going to try anyways. She didn't care. And so the girl used ALL the force she could muster and thusted herself forward on the swing. On the way the girl would have sworn she heard a giggle, but she ignored it, thinking it was something she imagined and -

GASPETH!

That boy was INSANE.

He was MENTAL.

He was going to FALL.

So then WHY was Madiison following his lead? She was standing up too. Or at least she was TRYING to. And it was hard. Well, whatever. If he could do it, she could do iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii- aaaaaaaargh!

The thirteen year old landed painfully on the floor. "OUUUUCH! Ow ow ow ow ow ow!" Sob. Sob. Sob. IT HUUUURT! Tears threatened to fill up her eyes as she glanced at her sore arm.

OW.

Lucy giggled as he tried to say 'Pygmy Puffs' and got it all wrong.
"Yup, that's where they're from! And they're called Pyg-my Puffs," She said with a chuckle, trying to teach it to him. "My best friend gave it to me as a present. Which reminds me..I stilll have to get her something," Lucy said her mind lost in thought for a moment. But then she came back to their conversation and spoke again. "Oh, really? That's too bad. They're stuff is awesome, " She said, referring to WWW. "A cat?! Aww, that's so cute! I want a cat but I'm allergic to them. It's crazy because they couldn't even find a spell to make it go away. Anyway, I'd love to meet Mr. Kittles, just make sure he's...uh, five feet away from me so I don't sneeze like crazy," She said, felling slightly bad that she couldn't pet the cat. And she really liked the name--Mr. Kittles. Teehee. This boy was too cute.

When he told her he was from Japan, she nodded because it was pretty obvious that he was Asian. She found that pretty cool though. "I wanna go on a tour of the world once I'm done with Hogwarts. Maybe I'll add Japan to the list of places I want to go!" She said excitedly. And then he was swinging again, and in between swings, he asked her a question; something she was sure was probaably bothering him. "Umm, they're not that bad, but they do get harder as you get older," She said, hoping she hadn't scared him. "You'll have to take your OWLs next year, and those are really important. They're exams that get you ready for your career," She added, in case he didn't know what they were. She wasn't looking forward to taking her OWLs, though.

Glancing over at the girl as he came back down before forcing himself to go up high again Alex's face twisted into a mask of shock. She was trying to go as high as him? She was crazy, because while Alex wasn't heavy he wasn't as light as the girl.

Oh well. It would be interesting to see what happened.

Keeping up the swinging motions Alex noticed too late that the unidentified girl was following his lead in every way. Or trying to at least. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," Alex said as he saw the girl struggling to stand. Alex had only learnt how to do this after years of practice, and his hyung's teasing him about not being able to do it.

The words came too late however as the girl took a tumble off the swing. She seemed hurt. Oh noes. She wouldn't blame him would she??? Jumping off the swing mid-air Alex winced slightly on the landing but hurried out of the swings path and to the girls side.

"Are you alright?" he asked, worry evident in his tone and expression. He really hoped she was as he was starting to feel bad about his competitiveness nowsies. The hyperness he had been feeling while still there was getting pushed back by the worry for a stranger.

A heart attack. He swore he was going to have a heart attack one of these days as his hand snapped out to catch the edge of the ledge he was sitting on in order to prevent himself from falling over backwards. People just kept popping up everywhere. It took him a moment as he blinked at the new girl, who as quickly as she appeared had introduced herself and was now talking to Allison. Not wanting to interrupt he gave her a small smile of acknowledgement and righted himself on his seat. Merlin merely purred. It was a little frustrating how calm the kitten could be, but all the same, he was glad for its company as he realized with a start that they were the only two guys within the midst of four girls.



And then Allison suddenly perked up and he nearly jumped out of his seat. If that wasn't an expression that said 'bear hug', he wasn't sure what was. The thing was, he didn't do so well with bear hugs with his scrawny skeleton. Plus he wasn't too sure how Merlin would take to the jostling he would recieve from being on his owner's shoulders. So he was relieved when she abstained from the action.

He was however, releaved at the elevation of her emotions from her previous state and gave her a warm smile. "Hey Allison." He pointed at Merlin, noticing her cautious expression. "This is Merlin. My rascal of a cat I was telling you about. Don't worry, he doesn't bite anyone but me, and only goes after jewelery, hair, shoes or any thing else shinny or resembling yarn." He flashed a quick grin at Arya. "Like any healthy kneazle kitten."

After checking once more to make sure Allison was alright and knew that Merlin wasn't an iminant threat, Sabel returned his attention to Emily, catching something about the Room of Requirement. Seventh floor? Maybe he would walk with them until they reached the last floor and then slip away to the Gryffindor common rooms.

Mina swung higher and higher still lost in some random thought. She really didn't have a care in the world at the moment but felt she was missing something. Allowing herself to slow slightly, she jumped off the swing and landed in the sand with a plop. How she did love doing that.

From where she was standing she saw a few people she had met at the feast, but no sign of her friends from last year or the summer. Where could they all be? Shrugging to herself, she moved to the monkey bars. Quickly pulling her hair up into a messy bun, she proceeded to climb up a top the bars. The view from above was nice, she could see part of the Whomping Willow. You must go look for Mister Snake! She almost forgot about her little friend. She did have to go look for him later. Swinging her legs over one of the bars, she bend backwards and hung from her knees. Oh, how she did love being a child and playing like this.

Art walked into playground just looking around. He really never played in them, so coming here was more of a curiosity for him. He had enjoyed them when he was younger, with his mother, but really didn't have the affinity for them like he used to. He came to see who was here and what was happening , nothing more. He liked being outside and brought a book. He was wearing his uniform , but only in part, robes drove him batty. He wore the slacks, the collared shirt, partially unbuttoned with his tie askew. He looked more like he was wearing punk rock chic, but that was Art for you. He spotted Shana a little ways a away and smiled. "Hello there dovey." he said walking up to her.

Natasha was there as well and he gave her a wave,"Hello again Nattie."

Shana looked up from her place on the ground and smiled at Art. She simply looked back down to the floor playing with her robes for a bit before looking up at him again. She looked back down for a second time this time carrying on making her grass chain which was practically a daisy chain just it was made from grass instead. She looked up for a third time and noticed poor Art was still standing there looking like a bit of a loner. She stood up and straightended her clothes before dropping her grass chain to the floor and smiling again. "Hey."

Art watched as she looked up at him and smiled , but then looked back down. She played with her robes, looked back up for a moment and then looked back down again. She was making a chain of grass, he used to make flower chains with his mum all the time , so he watched her fondly. She now looked back up at him and stood up smiling with a 'Hey'. He found her demeanor rather odd and wondered if he should have left. Was she hinting for him to leave?

"Don't mind me, I didn't mean to take you from what you were doing. I was just watching. A playground seems like a kind of strange nostalgia for me." he smiled at her sweetly.

Shana didnt say anything to Art, only smiled at him. She wasn't trying to be rude she just didnt have much to say, she was gonna wait for him to say something because that seemed like the right thing to do because then she wouldn't one make a fool out of herself which she'd been doing a lot of lately, or two say something stupid and make him feel uncomfortable. She took hold of his hands and smiled up at him.

"Dont go." she said clinging onto him. "I wasnt really doing anything. Being bored s'all."

She simply and continued what she was doing for awhile. He debated leaving and going about what he was doing when she took his hands and smiled at him. She was back to normal, well for the most part. He wondered if something was wrong still though. He hated to think that she was sad and he was incapable of doing anything.

"Alright." he smiled softly as she clung to him. "I don't believe that I am really doing anything of pertinence myself." he whispered to her. "You make a pretty chain....I haven't made those in years." he smiled softly. He really hadn't made them since he was about seven. He stopped his little kid habits completely that year. For the most part Art was mature, he could still act quite childish depending though. Just get him around Blake and Lavi, but he didn't really act like a kid anymore.

He was trying. He was REALLY trying hard to keep his feeling bundled up by seeking interest in other girls around. But it doesn't seem to work. One moment he wants to go and ask Nikki out, and the next instant the idea of being with someone beside Helena sounds nothing more than a nightmare.

As time passed by, Blake was losing the ability to think straight. It won't take long till he lost his control and would kiss her. But something continuously nagged him. Maybe it was the feeling that she'd be graduating this year or the notion that Helena was now someone else's girlfriend? Whatever it was, Blake surely didn't enjoy it. However, when she murmured again, his senses zapped back and he caught the hint of slight irritation in her tone. He knew exactly what she wanted.

Releasing her instantly, Blake stopped for a moment and swallowed the lump in his throat while tears threatened to leave his twinkling blue eyes. Turning his face away from her, he stared at the ground as tears rolled down his golden tanned skin. Wiping them quickly with the end of his sleeves, he forced a smile and faced her, "Ss..sorry about that." He blurted out, biting on his lower lip. It IS love....and he's damn sure now! This is going to be disastrous. "Why the long face? You still have months till you graduate. Cheer up!" Faking a smile, Blake crossed his eyes and tried making a funny face but failed miserably. Siiigh, this is bad.

She sat down on the floor again pulling his hand trying to indicating him to come and sit next to her. "Well if you havnt made them in a while maybe we should make them ? If you wanna of course." Cause maybe he'd stopped making them cause he didn't like making them in which case they didn't have to make them only if he wanted to yush only if he wanted to make them.

Helena's eyes moved to Blake's face as he released her, remaining light purple and the tears in them becoming more noticable; she'd seen his face before he turned away and the fact that Lena was making her best friend cry was more than she could bare - oh, great. Now she knew how Chris felt when she'd get upset.....

Blake, she said quietly as he looked back at her. There was no hiding what he was feeling - it was apparent everywhere on him. She placed her hand on his cheek with a sigh and shook her head slightly, her eyes closing gently for a moment before reopening. Don-- don't be. Please, Helena said a bit stronger. She couldn't bare to see him trying to cheer her up. It was her fault, for crying out loud!

I'm sorry.... Blake, I'm so so sorry, she said, a few of her delicate tears rolling down her cheeks.

Helena relinquished her hand from his face and used it to cover her own mouth. She was so disgusted with herself. She shook her head once more before lowering the hand yet again. Blake meant everything to her. He was truly her best friend.... and.... she did love him. It wasn't enough, but she did. He'd been her first kiss and then she'd broke his heart. And still, she knew she had to keep breaking it, or she'd have to damaged best friends and that wasn't fair to Blake or Chris.

Carter wandered around the grounds getting acquainted with them when he ended up in front of a... playground!! Without missing a beat he jumped on the structure and began climbing.