Kylie sat at the Hufflepuff stable... astonished. She'd just finished yet another year at Hogwarts, and yet, it felt like it'd all passed in a few weeks. She honestly couldn't believe it. She tried to eat some of her food, and as good as it tasted, it was almost as if she was eating it without tasting it. Everything seemed to be going by in a blur now. She'd already packed, everything was set. She was sure she'd get to make her goodbye's at the station or on the train. So, now she just didn't really know what to do... except mindlessly eat her food.

Zach sat down next to Kylie and smiled. "Hey," he said. It was weird to think that they were going home already. It seemed like it had been such a short amount of time. "Strange to think that another term is over, isn't it? Looking forward to hanging out basically every day this summer?" He grinned. "You're probably going to get sick of me by the end of it." Another thing that was kind of weird was that even though he hadn't known Kylie very long, he felt like they were already really good friends... Really good friends who were NEIGHBORS. Score.

Kylie was a little startled by the sudden appearance of... someone. She looked over and immediately her stomach twisted. In a weird way. In a good way. "Yeah. For sure." She suddenly perked up. She couldn't help but notice that Zach had sat down next to her. She knew it was silly for her to notice something like that after the night in the common room, but still. She definitely noticed.

"I know. I always think it passes by so fast." She gave him a wicked smile and a spark erupted in her emerald green eyes, "Don't you dare go thinking that could EVER happen. I'll be surprised if you don't get sick of me..." She paused for a second before recalling a letter she'd received from her parents. "My parents sent me a letter... supposedly there's some sort of surprise when I get home. We get home. Apparently my brother's coming to get me, not my parents." She laughed at the idea.

Kylie perked up visibly when Zach sat down next to her. Did someone just make someone else's day? Hmm... "Sick of you? Never," he said with a laugh. "A surprise, huh? What do you think it is? And does this mean I get to meet your brother?" Interesting... Another Matthews sibling. Was he as cool as Kylie? Kylie had talked about him, and she seemed to really love him, so he had to be pretty awesome, right?

Kylie felt a rush of heat to her face when Zach said he could never get sick of her.

WHAT?! NEVER? *Squeal* The teenage girl in her had a mini-episode. She forced herself to mentally breathe and continued conversation as normal. "Well of course! I mean, if you're going to be at my house every day, you'd have to meet him anyway. Usually all he does during the summer is slum around and go out to his friends houses, anyway. Although he's always really excited about magical stuff at first."

And as far as the surprise went..? "Well, I've been thinking about it... annnnddd I don't know. I mean. My grandma sent me something saying the floo network was all set up. So that's not really a surprise. But, they said things would be a lot easier for me at home now... and that there was something the whole family could enjoy. So. I have absolutely no clue." How her family even knew what to build was something to her.

Rex went to the HufflePuff table. "Does anyone know Kay Potter Evans?" Rex asked anyone on the table. " Jhave been looking for her since we had a very nice talk in the Room of Rewuirement" Rex told the table. " Has anyone see Kay?" Rex asked them

Zach suppressed a smile when he saw Kylie blush a little bit. He shook his head slightly, clearing his head of the thought he'd just been having about her being cute... "Oh. Yeah. I guess that's true," he said with a chuckle. "I didn't think of that." Duh, he'd meet her brother. "The floo network..." He tapped his chin absentmindedly, trying to think of what the surprise could possibly be. "They are good secret-keepers, I assume. Those hints are soooo vague." He grinned. Yet another thing he'd learned about her family. It was good to be prepared before you met your friend's family, right? It was totally normal for him to be nervous and want to make a good impression on them... Right? Not that he had, you know, ulterior motives or anything. He was toooootally just going to be friends with Kylie... RIGHT?

Kylie saw Zach shake his head a bit and took nothing from it. A jump in her stomach made her quickly wonder what it was for, but she silenced it as soon as she could. She could still feel the heat in her face and was trying to cool that off. She almost wanted to go run and scream for an ice-bucket. But she figured that might be counter productive. Maybe...

And then he talked again, "They are. Incredibly. It's even harder when I don't live with them. They're all so good at lying. Except my dad. He's just... well, not." Kylie thought of her dad idly. He had been so.. understanding when his mother-in-law was tearing through the house screaming about witches. He'd, understandably, wanted to keep his daughter in muggle school. Although that was of no use to her now... But hey! Kylie had an elementary school education!

"Good at lying... So they could say they like me when they really hate me?" Zach asked half-jokingly. "I guess I'm just gonna have to get in good with your dad, then. He can't lie to me." A grin spread across his face. He tapped his fingers on the table, thinking about this summer. It was going to be a good one. Totally relaxing every day, hanging out with Kylie... Alright!

Kylie burst out laughing. Her family didn't dislike, as a rule. They were so incredibly supportive of her and all her endeavors. Her brother was the protective, father-figure-like one. She suddenly felt a lot more alive. The food she did happen to place in her mouth wasn't quite so bland.

"My family consists of the nicest people ever. Really. My mother or father would never dislike a friend of mine. Regardless of how close we were, or if they disagreed. They trust my judgment completely!" Kylie chuckled a little more, "It's Jack that's the protective one." Although he was generally cool with Kylie's friends too. She didn't see why Zach would have any reason to worry.

"Why are you nervous? Eh?" She smiled and winked at him. She figured it was an innocent enough gesture that if he liked her, it'd drive him crazy... and if he didn't... she really hoped that wasn't true... it would just look friendly. Like she was joking around.

"Merlin. So the first member of your family I'm going to meet is the one who could potentially hate or kill me," Zach said with a laugh. He wasn't super worried about it... Mostly... Ish. But then... WINK! SHE WINKED! THERE WAS DEFINITELY A WINK THERE! THAT WAS NOT SOMETHING IN HER EYE! THAT WAS A WINK! Wait... What did THAT mean? Shaking his head slightly again to silence his screaming brain, he added, "Nervous? Who's nervous? Not me. No way." He smiled yet again. He seemed to do that a lot during their conversations.

Kylie laughed again, her whole face did this thing... it was... undeniably happy. Even for Kylie, who was a happy individual indeed. "I seriously doubt either of those things would ever happen. Zach. You're a Hufflepuff." She chuckled a bit more, "Anyway, he's protective against people who might be a bad influence. You're not a bad influence. You two'll probably get along great. Everyone else who's met him had." Not that a ton of people had met him.

But Hufflepuff's were basically destined to making good impressions. It was just true. He did that weird head shaking thing again, and Kylie couldn't help but feel like she'd done something wrong. "Um. Do you have a headache? Or.. something?" She wondered if she knew a charm for headaches.

Oh yeah. He wasn't nervous AT ALL. "Mhmm.... what if I told you to come have dinner with us when we get home?" Kylie wasn't sure that was going to happen. But, her family probably wouldn't mind. His might.

"Who says I'm not a bad influence? MWAHAH!" Zach laughed dramatically. "Okay, okay, who am I fooling? I'll take your word for it on this one..." He was still a little nervous about meeting her family... Wait, had he just said nervous? Noooo way. Zach wasn't nervous. He'd already established that, yes? "Headache? Nope," he said, looking a little bit confused. Maybe it was all the head shaking. But nah, he'd been TOTALLY discreet about that. He thought. "Din. Dinner." he stammered a little bit, his eyes widening. OHNOSOCIALSETTINGPEOPLEHEDIDNTKNOWANDWANTEDTOIMPRE SSPANICMODE!!!!!!!!!!
Buuuuuuuuuuuut. He'd go. He wanted to. It terrified him, but he wanted to. Did that mean anything?

She smiled getting right up in his face, try'na make him smile cus it was like his last day and she didn't really want him crying and all that cus then everyone would be all oh Torin dont cry. then Cry themselves and then she'd look mean for not crying aaaand besides he was hers. So she didnt want everyone coming over and taking him off her. "Nope. Just some chocolate frogs. Maybe a few bags of 'em."

"Juust because Im small and your tall you shouldnt call me names." she said jokingly.

Kylie smiled and laughed along with Zach. She felt like she'd known him forever, even though they'd only just met at the end of the term. She was glad that Zach seemed to be recovering from his earlier trauma. He really had nothing to be worried about. Her family was so incredibly sweet...

Ah. Dinner. She watched painfully as Zach did nothing short of freaked out in front of her. When she couldn't handle it anymore, she took her hand and covered Zach's with it. "If you don't want to, or can't... that's okay. I mean, really." She couldn't believe the disappointment that was already stemming slightly in her voice. She hadn't even thought this through, and she was already disappointed that Zach might not come.

WHAT. WAS. SHE. DOING!? Much like the number of licks it took to get to the center of a tootsie pop... the world will never know.

"I. No. I. Want to come." Zach said, nodding, reassuring himself as much as Kylie that he did, in fact, want to go... eat dinner... with her family... whom he'd never met... and wanted to impress. Cool! ...HAND. Handhandhandhandhand. Her hand. On his hand. Hands. Okay, so he'd held her hand before, that one time. But that was before he realized that he liked her. He liked her? He liked her! Yeah, okay, he'd admit it. To himself. ONLY HIMSELF!

Kylie smiled. A warm, bright, kind, inviting smile. As if Kylie possessed any other. But still, it was special. There was something special. About Zach, about Kylie while she was WITH Zach. It didn't really make sense. But, things didn't always have to make sense. "I'm glad. It'll be fun." She felt dumb. Really dumb. Her parents didn't even know about this. Ugh. Having non-magical parents was so difficult sometimes. Took forever to get any post out to them.

"Um... I do recall you telling me YOU had siblings?" Kylie suddenly felt a strike of nerves. He had family. Who she'd undoubtedly meet. She had always been good with impressions among adults... but first impressions among her peers... well, that was more difficult. And she had no idea how old all of his siblings were. Or how many he even had.

She was so wrapped up in her thoughts, she forgot her hand was still resting on Zach's.

"Fun. Yes. Fun." Zach repeated, still nodding. "Siblings? Yeah. Yes. I do. Have them. Siblings." He cleared his throat. Pull yourself together! he mentally slapped himself. "Uh. A few. Like... 3. Zeke is 18, Hannah is 17, and David is 14." He looked at her. "Wait... Who's nervous NOW?" He smiled in satisfaction. It wasn't just him. YES. He looked down at her hand on his and smiled slightly.

Annabelle looked at Josey. "Yes. This is very true, but Venice is too close. I want to go to the states. So badly." She said. And then she realized Nymphy and left our conversation, how loved she felt.

Josey nodded eagerly. "Me too, like New York, and California, and ooooooo, Disney world." She smiled, that would be fun. "But I still want to go to Paris." Back to the previous subject..."where would you want to go in the states? What would you want to see?" Oooo, how about the Grand Canyon?

Annabelle looked at Josey, she looked very excited. "Josey, take a deep breath. CALM THE HECK DOWN!!!" She said. She wanted to go and see the 9/11 place thingy she heard about one day in the news. It sounded sad, but those people needed to have hope. She also wanted to go to Minnesota maybe. She wanted to go shopping in the Mall of America. She wanted to SHOP!!

Josey scowled. "Why do I have to calm down?" She asked, frowning. "I don't need calming." She humphed and scowled again at Annabelle. "You didn't answer my question," she accused.

Gold nodded. "Sure will, Mr. T."

Aww. "But Saturdays and Sundays are my free days," she pointed out. "That meaaaans -" Dun dun dun! "That the people I write to, on those two days, get longer letters than everyone else." Nah. She was joking. She would write as much as she had content, to put into words.

No more, no less.

Unless, of course, she had things to hide. Which she probably wouldn't. These were her closest friends she was thinking of, after all.

She looked up, when she heard a familiar voice. Chris. "You," she said, rising to her feet and grabbing him by the arm. "Be right back, Mr. T," she said, giving Torin a quick, one-armed hug before draaagingggg Chris off, to the edge of the table. Because there were a lot less people, there.

"I'll miss you," she said, reaching out to hug him. God. Xylon, Torin, Chris, Raven, Brody, the Lawsons, Professor Truebridge, Cela ... it looked like half of the population had decided - or had - to leave.

This was not a good day.

"You don't know that! Don't be suprised if I show up on the doorstep of your house." she said. So the sugar was really talking now, 'cause deep down she knew she probably wouldn't do that.

"Yes, I want it to be sparkly and have it say Princess Violet!" she said. It would be sooo prettyfull! With all the sparkles, pinkness, unicorns, and writing it would be like a dream come true!

Oh yeah...that. She didn't know how Torin lived not getting on sugar rushes. "Torinnnn, I need to tell you a secrettttt!" she said and she pulled his leg even closer to her face. "I love chocolate, but you shouldn't eat it or the chocolate fairy's will get mad!" she whispered, and kissed his leg before returning to eating the chocolate. Chocolateeee was good!

Chris chuckled at Gold's logical writing plan, even if it was completely rediculous to think of her writing a small letter. She was too caring and full of conversation for that, surely. He was tyring his hardest to look at his friends faces and try and soak up all the happiness he could, but found the sadness and feeling of seperation seeping into him from all over. There were some of his favorite professors leaving the school ,not that he would have to deal with a new professor, but it was like Hogwarts was slowly losing pieces of itself students and professors alike.

He thought of some of the people that were leaving alongside him: Torin, Brody, Cela, Professors Lawson and Truebridge?! He felt Gold tug his arm and pulled himself out of his worrying to look at her beautiful smile. He allowed himself to be scooted away from the others, waving shortly to them, this wasn't goodbye obviously. When he was away from the others he let her hug him, returning it in turn and then kissed her on the cheek. He wasn't sure how she felt their relationship should go on, but he would certainly love ad miss her regardless. It was really up to her what she wanted to do since he was ok and would understand the strain it would put on her if she decided to just be friends for the time being since he was going to be who knows where...although they both had plans for Wizarding University right?