Well that was what he liked to hear. Smiles. Jimmy nodded casually as they reached the seventh floor. "I'll hold you to that." He told her. And you know, maybe hold her to him as well. Heehee.

"Maybe a little smart. Keep it on the down low though, right?" He raised one eyebrow at her. "And what about you, non-verbals huh? I was a little impressed, I admit."

The banter was fun. It was helping him forget about certain things. Certain people. Inept people. "My imagination? Vividly." He supplied along with a cheeky grin. He examined the wall as they stopped, eyeing it curiously. He watched her walk back and forward, her expression one of focus and then there was a door. Raising one eyebrow he followed her inside. That was pretty cool.

He looked around. It was quiet. Almost a blank canvas, which was kind of perfect since Marie became the splash of colour. He looked at her. "Perfect." He wasn't talking about the room either.

"Oh I expect you to hold me..." and I will hold you too "...to that." she finished after a bit of a pause. Oh yeah, there would be some holding going on for sure.

"Right, wouldn't want anyone to know that you were good looking and smart would we." She teased. Huh... He was impressed, with her? "Thanks," she said feeling a little embarrassed. She didn't realize that he had even noticed when she did that. "I've had a lot of time to practice, you know being alone in the dorm room a lot." Hopefully those days of staying in hiding were over with now though. She had finally taken her bracelet off and was pushing a certain someone out of her mind. She was moving forward, doing things that made her happy like hopefully snogging a certain 'claw.

His imagination couldn't be any more vivid than hers was right now. Looking at him from head to toe she knew she should have been blushing just from her thoughts alone. "Yeah you're it's perfect." she said gazing into his eyes. "I'm glad you like it."

Jimmy raised an eyebrow at Marie and smiled appreciatively. Well. She'd kinda... warmed up to him, huh? Not that he minded, it was kinda.... mutual. Whodathunk after all that rotten food?

He looked around the room again, eyes assessing the couch for a brief moment before the crooked grin was back in full force. His face? Would hurt later. From all the smiling. "Exactly." He answered. "You forgot the brawn part." He told her, and with a joking expression he flexed, not completely serious. He made a rawr face and struck a few poses and then with a chuckle he moved further into the room and pretty much threw himself on the couch, giving a new meaning to the word lounging.

"Yeah? I started getting the hang of it in my fourth year too." A quiet admission from Jim. "I dunno. Its just... I don't usually think about it. I try not to do it but sometimes its just instinct." A good thing, really. But it did feel kind of odd to admit that he found something that most found difficult to be completely natural. He frowned thoughtfully, a little crease between his brows and his lower lip jutting out slightly in a pout. "Most people don't know that about me." He added, giving her a wary look.

Yeah pretty much just Finlay.

"You know... the room doesn't matter. Its the company." He added, sitting up a bit and meeting her gaze. James patted the couch cushion next to him. "So... why don't you tell me things that you think people ought to know about you?"

Marie couldn't stop the giggles from escaping her when Jimmy started to pose and flex. "What was I thinking, forgetting something as important as that?" she said between giggles.

She listened as he sort of admitted to her that he really was smart... which she knew had to be true since the sorting hat insisted he be a 'claw. "Why do you try to hide it?" If something came that easily to her she wouldn't hide it. Of course she wouldn't go around bragging about it either but she wouldn't try to hide what she could do. Oh and now he was pouting what a cute pout he has. Oh... he was worried she was going to tell his secret. "Don't worry, your secret is safe with me." She would never tell anyone what he had just told her if he didn't want her to. She actually felt sort of honored that he felt comfortable enough to tell her. She wasn't about to do anything to make hi not want to trust her now.

"Yeah, you're right. With the right company a dungeon can look like a palace." She said as she sat on the couch next to him. "Hmm, what do I think people should know about me?" Well, she might as well start with something important. Something a lot of people don't know about her, you know since he did tell her something a lot of people don't know about him. "I'm the great granddaughter of Draco Malfoy." she said after taking a deep breath. "Not many people know that about me..." she said before pausing. "Not because I don't want them to either but because people tend to judge me based on only what they know about my families past history." Yeah people judge her because of what happened over seventy years ago, a time that she had no control over. So why tell him now? Because she didn't want this to ruin their friendship or whatever they may have later on down the road. It was best to tell him now and let him decide if he wanted to stay or run from her.

She watched his face. Was he going to be one that would judge her for her name or for who she really was?

"I know right? Very important. Going back to Hunter/Gatherer days." Rawr. He grinned lightly and nudged a cushion into a more comfortable spot behind his back.

Now that was... a big question. Jimmy's expression was thoughtful. "See the thing is, when you're good at something, people start taking for granted that you'll be the best, that you'll always work hard. It stops being... special I guess. Expectations happen and then you don't get a break. You can't relax and the balance of how you live your life changes. You start living for success, and you beat yourself up for failure instead of just being proud for trying in the first place." That was part of it at least. He met her eyes. "Thats just for starters." And she was gonna keep it quiet? He smiled in appreciation. "I feel like I owe you for that."

He was pleased when she sat down, and James nodded in agreement, smiling wryly. "You'd know." Slytherin. He was interested to hear her answer to his question, though he made an effort not to seem too interested.

Hehe was she really worried about that? "I guess, you know, our families associated with one another in the past." He ventured casually. Wilkes. Yes. Of those Wilkes.

Jimmy smiled. "You can do better than that." That wasn't about her after all.

Listening to Jimmy explain himself Marie started to understand him better. Basically to her it sounded like he didn’t want to be judged because he was smart. Kind of like she didn’t want to be judged for what her family had done in the past. Yep, totally understandable. “That’s just for starters? You mean there’s more?” What other reasons could he possibly have other than people expect too much, can’t live a normal life, and he’s too hard on himself? “You don’t owe me anything. What kind of friend would I be if I went and blabbed all your secrets?” Besides, now she knew who to go to if she needed help with her homework or even if she didn’t need help.

She looked at him a little strange when he said their families associated with one another in the past. She played back in her mind all she knew about her family and who they were associated with. It took her a couple of minutes before it hit her… his family was on the same side as hers. She had heard the name Wilkes a couple of times from her grandfather but she would have never pictured Jimmy as part of that family if he wouldn’t have said something about it. Well no wonder he wasn’t running from her. He had a dark past in his family too. “Right, I guess they did. And look, here we are, associating with one another now.” She said smiling at him. Who would have guessed that all these years later the two families would be brought back together again?

Yeah she knew she could do better than that but she wanted to get her family issue out of the way first, before she went into details about herself. “Let’s see, what do I want you to know about me?” she said tapping a finger on her mouth like she was thinking about it. “Well for starters I love being in Slytherin, I'm just not crazy about our Head of House." That woman was just mean. "I have no siblings so things can get pretty boring for me at home." It also meant she pretty much got what she wanted from her parents. If she didn't get her way from her parents then she went to her grandparents. Yeah, you could say she was pretty spoiled. "My favorite color is green and I hate doing homework." Okay so that wasn't really anything interesting or exciting about her but hey it was a start. Plus if he wanted to know more then she was pretty sure he would ask.

Arya was here! He smiled when she arrived, and then allowed her to make him move and see the rest of the most awesome room ever witnessed by human eyes.

He just couldn't believe it. Surely, he knew it had worked because all of the equipment they needed was there, but he was marveled at the room's abilities to transform into exactly what they wanted or needed. It was THE perfect room.

The room seemed to hold everything every single people needed for practice this, even if he knew little of the subject. He's skateboarded, alright, but on the streets, not in a place that's especially made for that sport. And...this wasn't skateboarding just yet...they were going to be rollerskating first, he needed to learn. Actually, wanted to.

"It's perfect" he almost whispered, still marveled, and now his eyes were on Arya, "What next?" easy, simple question, and then who was that on the couch, "Who's that?" were pets allowed to skate, too? He had no idea they could do so.

Her eyes continued to scan the rollerblades while she contemplated starting her friend off on skates instead. It was his first time, but maybe it would be better to start him off on rollerblades. Hm. He had to have decent balance.

A grin spread across her face and her eyes flicked over to the boy. "First we pick out what kinda skates we want. Do you wanna learn on skates or rollerblades?" Best to let him decide, he was the one learning, not her.

Standing on her tip toes, she began to pull down a pair of rollerblades in her size, not bothering to look at who the boy was referring to. It was only three of them in the room. "That's my kneazle Perseus. He's just here to watch." The kneazle didn't participate in any of her activities that required equipment. His green eyes fell on the boy briefly, appraising Treyen before returning back to Arya.

His idea of 'skate' was skateboards, sooo he couldn't help but wander off to the nearest cool-looking skateboards in the wall. Man, this room had everything!

Huh? Wait, what? What was the difference between those? Because as far as he knew there were NOT two types of those things in this room, there were at least five different types of shoes with wheels on them, and Arya was only naming two? Er, yeah, he had no idea. But instead of asking that something caught his eye...it was a pair of a 4-wheel inline skates colored black with lime green wheels..."How about those?" he gestured, unsure of what their name was.

And then...Perseus? That was a nice name! He eyed the kneazle, and then back at Arya, "They're supposed to be very smart, no?" he had no idea, the only two pets he had well...very rather...distracted. Gilderoy, the owl, was always living by his own rules, which seemed pretty awesome to Treyen. And Phineas, he wasn't even a pet, but the Niffler got sidetracked when shiny stuff was around.

And the Dugbog in his dormitory, well, it didn't do much, really.

Having found a pair of red, silver and black roller blades in her size, the young girl plucked them off the wall and skipped over to Perseus only to pause and turn when Treyen spoke up. "Those should do," She said with a nod after examining the skates. "There in line skates, just make sure they have a break on the heal." Cause she couldn't see that from where she stood.

Arya hopped onto the couch with her kneazle, who proceeded to move to the arm of the chair as she removed her shoes. A grin split across her face. "Very smart. At least Perseus, and he likes to do lots of exploring." With her and with other kneazles and cats in the castle. "Do you have any pets?" She figured that he didn't have any kneazles, but maybe he had others like she did.

"Do forget the pads," She added belatedly, still contemplating whether she would wear some as well or not.

Haha. Grin!

He could spot those he'll be needing. Awesome. And the black/lime combination ones seemed to be his size. The boy only paused in the whole retrieving the skates part when Arya asked about...er...a break? Oh, well, those seem to have something else besides the wheels, he assumed that was what Arya was talking about.

This has been the greatest idea he'd ever had while at Hogwarts. The Room of Requirement idea, of course, we'll see how the whole rollerskating goes...if anything, he'll take that cool blue skateboard and get the skates off.

Treyen nodded as he walked to the nearest couch. He needed to put those things on, right? His eyes were on the kneazle for a moment, "That's nice, a little explorer..." like Phineas, well, no, Phineas was more of an adventurer, you know, "...I have an owl, which I love, and I'm sure he loves me back...except...he seems to react badly every time I mention his name, I don't think he likes 'Gilderoy' very much, but that's his name, he can't do much about it" like Treyen couldn't do much about his.

Phineas didn't truly count as a pet, so he didn't mention the Niffler. And...the Dugbog...mmmm....why not? The boy's eyes were staring at the skates, while he put those things on. "I'm also taking care of a Dugbog, one of Saylen's actually, it followed me from class" thing was...class had been months ago, he should've returned it by now.

Huh? "Pads?" the boy frowned, "We're at Hogwarts...if something goes terribly wrong we have the pretty Healer to help out" yup, Healer Moretti, "Professor Zookara, I'm sure, would be happy to help us out too, since we're doing something muggle" Ducks, he was a especial fellow.

"Okay. I'm ready, I think" he said, venturing up, up, up, up from the couch...and...succeeding at standing with skates.

Treyen 1, Skates 0.

"Theres always more." Jim answered with a shrug. "I mean, I wouldn't be here with you now if I'd worked harder and graduated early like they wanted me to." Yeah. Thats how smart he was. "I dunno. I'd be... alone, I guess. And maybe not so good at relating to people or whatever." Not that that was one of his skills exactly, but he'd definitely spent more of his time focusing on socialising than he had on studying. What kind of friend would she be? "Not one of mine." He answered thoughtfully and then cracked a smile, eyes twinkling at her. "What a tragedy that'd be."

"So we are." James agreed easily. He wasn't at all worried by her little confession. There were enough truly bad people in the world to worry about without adding people who just happened to be related to those who made bad decisions into the mix. "My mum is a Bones." He confided. "So, I guess if I were the type to give a stuff about old loyalties, I'd be stuck somewhere in between anyway." He did happen to think that blood status was important, just not in a political sense. A cultural sense though, sure. Part of his identity and something he was proud of, but that was the extent of the pureblood thing to Jimmy Wilkes.

"She's hot." James responded with a grin. "Not that I, you know, know her all that well or whatever. I'd like to mess about in the potions lab sometime but I figure if I start doing that, or showing an interest in any of that stuff, I'll end up having to do more work." So. That was a no. He listened as she kept talking. "Yeah, I'm an only child too" He perked up and grinned, leaning towards her just the slightest bit. "I reckon homework would be better if you could choose what you wanted to study." He'd SO study her. No contest.

"Oh right. Well in that case then I have to say I'm glad you didn't work so hard." Marie said when he mentioned not being here with her. "Besides, we wouldn't want you to be alone now would we?" She knew she didn't want him to be alone. Not a friend of his? "Yes, that would be a tragedy. A tragedy we won't have to worry about though because like I said, your secret is safe with me." She would take it to her grave if she had to.

She smiled as he talked about his family and being stuck somewhere in between. "Hmm, I have something you could be stuck in between," she said with a mischievous grin. She could wrap her arms around him, again, then he would be stuck in between her and her arms. Only this time there wouldn't be any rotten food between them.

She wrinkled her nose at his next comment. Laflame hot? Maybe a hot head. "You're lucky you don't know her that well. She's NOT a nice person. And yeah, I'm sure she would make you work harder." Which was something they couldn't have because then he may not get to spend any time with her. Now that would be a tragedy. She felt her heart speed up a little when Jimmy leaned leaned towards her. Sure he only leaned in a tiny bit but still, he was that much closer to her now. "Yeah, choosing what to study would be good, it would be very good." She said as she started to study is face, starting with his lips.

"Being modest." Ella repeated with a small nod. "Right, whatever." Ella didn't buy that. He was putting himself down, and not admitting it. Which meant he was being slightly hypocritical, did it not? Hmm.

He did have a valid point. "You're right. You did put me through a lot of crap, but apart from that. You are certainly very nice." She established with a firm nod. Aiden obviously didn't know his own personality too well. And just to clarify, "you are the nice one. And I am the mean one." Unfortunately true. Ella didn't continue to speak, the whole conversation was beginning to confuse her. But it looked like it was confusing Aiden a weeeee bit more. Hehe.

"Maybe you do. How do you know so much about it anyway?" Ella asked with an eyebrow arched. He wasn't a muggle, so why was it any use to him? Unless he found it remotely interesting, or something. Ella didn't see the appeal. Muggles just had a tough life compared to magical folk. They had to do everything by hand. Poor folks.
'Coo-coo for Ellakins?' She rolled her eyes, with a smirk. "Well, yah. I don't blame you." Cos Ella was irresistible. Lol, jk. See? He was agreeing to her wonderfulness now. "I know, right?" Hehehe. Wasn't sarcasm great?

OOH. Instead of a laugh, which Ella was completely expecting, she received a kiss. No room for complaints there. She kissed him back, keeping a small smile on her face throughout.
Seriously, the pair had kissed so much today that it could be turned into a sport and they'd win the gold medal. Pulling back, Ella's eyes opened and she smiled up at him. "What was that for?"

Bahaa.
"Oh, duh. I knew you had a brain somewhere up there." She tapped lightly on his head. His big head, that is. Aiden may not believe her, but it was almost inevitable for her little brother to throw a dungbomb at him. Maybe she wouldn't mention it though. Hehe.

"Why, thank you." Ella beamed. Even though it wasn't a real compliment. He was clearly annoyed by her awesome acting skills. Ah well. PSH. "Yah, I'm pretty curious too." And she had legit reasons. Gaspar was the only REAL friend she had lately, and he just vanished. Well, WHATEVER.
Someone wasn't getting a Christmas card this year.....

Bent over, the girl grinned as she clicked on her roller skates. "Yea...he loves to be able to roam around." All of her creatures did, especially Altair. The owl hated to even be caged. It was much easier for her to simply let the bird travel home on her own. "Maybe you could give him a nickname, since he doesn't seem to like his full one." Changing it wasn't an option, but nicknames seemed to always work out nicely. "Call him...Roy or something." She shrugged. Wasn't many nicknames for the name Gilderoy.

"Does she know you have the Dugbog?" Her eyes flicked from her skates when she finished clicking them on to Treyen. If she didn't know, her friend miiiight be in a world of trouble. The woman wouldn't find out from her though. Nope.

He had told her about all his pets, she should tell about the rest of hers, yes? "I also have an owl, Altair. Smore is my pygmy puff, but I don't take him around the castle much." Unless she decided to head for the kitchens. "We have a bunch of other animals at home on the ranch." Listing them all would take too long, maybe when she wasn't teaching him to skate she would tell him about them all.

A frown crossed her features as she slowly rose. Arya would rather not go to the healer, she had avoided that place for two terms now and had no plans on returning. "Rather not go to the healer..." Or Zookara, she liked the man well enough.....just not enough to let him heal her. "I guess we can go to him if we need help skating." But not healing.

Arya easily spun in front of Treyen, frown replaced with a grin. "Great! Your standing." Step one. Complete. "Now....slowly start walking around....to get used to the skates, and stay on this side of the wall." They would feel heavy on his feet, but it was better that he learned to walk in them while on carpet than when they got to the wooden floor.

*Making sure as best as he could that no one was following him, Matthias went to the room. He had been so busy with school work that this was the first time he had gotten some time to himself. Matty was always a bookworm and would get lost in his school work and seeming to others to have dropped off the face of the earth. When the room he wanted came up he smiled happily and went to the piano. With a deep sigh Matty started to let his fingers dance over the keys just playing without much thought or plan.*

"And I don't plan to overdo it now either." Jimmy agreed. In fact he wouldn't mind cutting back his study time even more if it meant possibly hanging out with Marie a little more. Not that he'd say that. Pshh. No. He grinned at her. "Well look at that, I trust you already."

Say whatttt? Jimmy's mind was in the gutter and it took him a moment to recover his tongue and he smiled slowly. "Oh you do huh? I'm intrigued." Totally intrigued.

He thought it was funny how she reacted about Lafay. And the nose thing was cute. "I don't have any intention of getting to know any of the professors too well." Heck no. Not when it would cut into valuable time that could be better spent with girls. "So what would you choose? Whats your favourite subject and all that sort of deal?" He shifted a bit closer and smiled innocently.

Marie smiled when he said he didn't plan on overdoing it now. Not that she didn't want him to study it's just that she wanted him to have time to be with her. Yay. He trusted her. "Well I am very trustworthy." She was good at keeping secrets. Especially if it benefitted her and keeping this secret would do just that.

Hehe, she couldn't help but giggle at the expression on his face. "Yeah I do and if you're lucky I just might show you." Oh yeah, she would definitely be showing him before they left the room.

She unwrinkled her nose when he said he didn't have any intentions of getting to know any of the professors too well. "Good. I would hate that you couldn't spend time with me to see you get stuck doing extra work for them." Yeah she knew Lafay would probably keep him in that lab brewing who knows what. She needed to keep him away from that woman.

"I would most definitely have to say Jamesology Defense class is my favorite." How could it not be with Headmaster Hottie teaching it. Not to mention she got to hug this very hot Ravenclaw she was now with throw food and not get in trouble. So what about you, what's your favorite subject?" She asked as she noticed him scooting closer to her. She scooted a little closer herself. Pretty soon she would be close enough to just reach out and give him that hug.

*scoot*
*scoot*
*scoot*

Then Treyen liked Perseus. He didn't know if the kneazle liked him back, but it didn't matter to Treyen.

How come he'd never consider it? Never in this past couple of years he's consider giving Gilderoy a nickname. That was...very Lockhart, the lack of creativity for names, that is. His sister, after all, did name her owl Snowy, and it was (still is) a Snowy owl. Creative much? She should've called that thing 'Bite' or something like that, because the owl loved to bite people's fingers.

Back to Gilderoy, "Maybe I should ask him what kind of nickname he'd want" since he didn't get much saying when Treyen chose the name, "Yes, that would be best" he finally said, with a nod and a smile.

A smile that quickly faded, and his eyes were on Arya as if to say 'don't say anything'. "I...don't think so" he said, eyes on the floor now, "I found the Dugbog in my backpack when...do you remember when those Aparecium pamphlets came around?" the ones that spoke of two people being an item? He still needed to ask what that meant, by the way, "Well, yeah, that day...so I kept it" because there was no way he was going over to Saylen that very same day and give it back. Now it seemed like he had no choice but keep it until someone made the discovery, or...er, forever? No, he'd set the Dugbog free.

Oh, she had an owl too? Those creatures were the greatest, forever useful. Well, not forever, they experience death, of course, but..yeah. "Smore?" he smiled, that was a very cool name, "What color is it?" the pygmy puff. His grandma had a purple one, or was it yellow? He couldn't recall...the thing didn't last too much. Aha. The ranch back at home, he totally had the image of another Hogwarts as Arya's home.

The boy shrugged, "It's okay, it's not like we'll need them anyway" he said, with a nod, "Any injury won't be too bad as to call for help" he was not denying that injuries could happen, he was just...not hoping for them.

Arya looked like a natural with the skates on, and Treyen will get there, soon. Hopefully. "Okay. Awesome" he was standing, and it didn't seem to take much of him to do so. It was easy. Why did he had to keep close to the wall? Er, never mind, he'll follow the instructions, of course.

Hahahahaha. It's like his feet had grown big with all the weight that the skates gave them, it wasn't too much, but he didn't feel as light as before. He...slowly at first...started to walk around in the skates. Hey, that was easy! He could balance himself pretty well, and he actually liked the feeling of being taller, though, not taller than Arya, yet. The carpet actually worked as some sort of brake, which made him believe that it wasn't over just yet...he had to slide eventually, no?

Hands in his pocket, he was walking faster now, looking like some military dude, possibly, "How much walk?" he asked, a smile on his face, thanks to the whole 'feeling taller' thing.

"That sounds good." Arya had never considered asking her pets what they wanted to be named. She always consulted with her friends or family. Next time she would ask the new pet what they wanted to be named. If she had time for another pet. Maybe something small...

With a small nod of her head, Arya returned his look with one of her own that said she wouldn't tell a soul. So she didn't know. But how had he.....oh. From the first CoMC lesson, and the pamphlets that spoke of her and Sabel. Yea, she remembered. "Are you gonna return him or set him free?" Cause to her those seemed to be the only two logical choices. Unless he wanted to keep it as a pet.

With a big smile present on her face, she nodded her head. "Smore. My friend got him for me for Christmas." Twas a awesome gift that little creature. "He's purple, I'll have to show him to you sometime when we're in the common room." She didn't bring the small creature out of the common room much on account of him not being able to watch after himself.

Not like Perseus or Altair could.

"Nothing too serious." She agreed, pushing all thoughts of injuries aside. It wasn't like she was teaching him any tricks, just how to skate in general. Nothing to cause any injures that required adult assistance on. She hoped.

Encouraging grin spread across her face, she watched her friend as he began to walk. This reminded her of when she taught Ivy to skate over the summer, she had started off the same way. And he wasn't doing any sort of stumbling, good. She kept only a foot or two between them as not to crowd him, and also encase he tripped and she had to catch him or something of the sort.

Briefly her eyes flicked to Perseus, grin growing. She would swear that if he were human, he would be sporting an amused look. The kneazle sat on the arm of the chair, watching the boy with interest. Maybe she would take him for a skate later.

"You can start to skate on the carpet, since you have the walk down." She said with a slight giggle. He looked a bit silly with his hands in his pockets. "Instead of walking....start to glide on the skates. Kinda like you your sliding across the floor in socks." She demonstrated for him as she spoke. It took a some effort since she was on carpet, but still she moved with ease.

Like sliding across the kitchen floor in socks.

Eben Wallace walked past the door three times picturing it to be a lounge like area that he and Esme Lennox could enjoy after their day together at Hogsmeade. He didn't want to call it a date because he didn't like labels.

Taking her hand cautiously, the boy led his red head companion into the room and looked around, content with what the room had transformed into. It was supposed to be like his rec room at his house. Esme had never been in his home but now she would get a little incite to his world a little more.

"This is the place I lounge about in when I'm at home." Eben explained as he looked to Esme and smile nervously. "I hope it's okay."

Esme gulped. Eben was holding her hand. He was touching her. She wasn't sure that she liked that at all but she couldn't bring herself to end it either.

"Th-this is in your house in Camden?" Esme looked around the room with interest. It looked nothing like her house at all.

She stared down at their entwined hands. 'What in the name of Merlin is going on?' She asked herself.

Eben let go of her hand and walked a little further away from her, checking to look at the Muggle DVDs that he watched when he was home. It kept him sane when all his parents wanted him to do was read books about magical theory and whatever dollopy nonsense they considered important.

"This is just one room." he explained, looking to her. "It's magicked because Mum hated the original layout of the house but liked the location." His sister Granuaile was like their mother in that respect. Always needing everything to be perfect.

Shoving his hands in his pockets for a moment, Eben glanced over to the comfy chairs. "Would you like to sit down for a bit?"

As soon as he let go of her hand, Esme sighed (with relief?) and wrapped her arms around herself.

"Frida and Malachi changed our house when she moved in, thankfully. It wouldn't have been big enough for all three of us like it was." Esme was watching Eben look at some little boxes and wondered what they were. She didn't really have anything to do with Muggle things that weren't fashion.

When he invited her to sit down, she did. "So... do you still hate me?" She asked him. It was a rather blunt question, but Esme was a rather blunt person and besides, it had been annoying her all afternoon.

"My parents made it so I had my own little wing of the house." Eben explained taking his hands off the DVDs. "It was nice of them really, spending more than half my life living on a dirt floor most of my nights to living in a lush room and having a door that closes properly."

He joined her on the seats and was about to start another conversation with Esme, perhaps about her favorite subject, or something of the sort when she spoke up first. Eben opened his mouth and then closed it, and then opened it again. "No. I don't hate you." the boy confirmed with a firm shake of his head. "I don't think I ever really hated you."