" I see you made sure everyone knew you were here" Rex teased Kyle about the fork flying situation." You just missed me and I did nit think you were that upset about me graduating" Rex laughed. " How are you doing otherwise?" Rex asked Kyle. " I really enjoyed my time with yo uat HogWarts" Rex said to Kyle. "Are you going to take any of my dance classes?" Rex asked Kyle.

Dallin grinned, returning the hug as Satine sat by him. "Hey!" He greeted, but she was already talking. He smirked slightly and shut his mouth and listened to her. His head bobbed a few times. "Totally crazy," he agreed, trying not to laugh. "My second fourth year and my first year at Hogwarts. Gone. Crazy." 'Twas.

Plans? "I have wonderful plans. I'm going to go to the beach, swim, surf, swim some more, stay at the beach, probably not go home a lot..." And maybe visit his sisters... but the beach was the best part and what he was looking forward to the most.

"You?"

Satine's smile just shined as she talked to Dallin. "O I had forgotten this was your second fourth year...." she said with a little nudge, "Weeellllll, hopefully it was the best of the two years?" she said with a little wink as she set her cup down on the table in front of her.

She listened to his plans. "O those all sound great! I can't wait to be out on a beach with my toes in the sand. Maybe I'll run into you on one of those millions of beaches and you can teach me how to surf better." she said with a shrug of her shoulders...she truly did like the idea of running into him. "Not go home?...are you gonna sleep on the beach or under a bridge or something?" she asked teasingly.

O he had already gotten to her plans...she made herself force her smile to stay on her face...I mean she was excited about this...wasn't she? "O my plans...well, I'm going to visit my aunt's beach house in Florida for a few weeks and then go visit some old friends in Texas...." she said with a pause..."But then in the middle of July, I'm moving to France to start my year long internship through Beauxbaton in....France." she said the last part quickly looking off into the distance almost mumbling through the year long part....

Caroline smiled "You're welcome!" She nodded. "Yeah, we met at the Library. Yeah I'm going to New York to visit my sister and some of my friends are staying over some this summer. What about you?"

Dal nodded once with conviction. "Definitely better. Not that the first one was bad, really, just..." This one was better. For a quite a few reasons.

His eyes widened when she mentioned the beach. He didn't know she lived by one! And then she mentioned running into him at one... He just stared at her completely serious when she asked he asked if he was going to sleep on the beach. "I wish. But nah, my mom wouldn't allow that." He half-smiled. He could imagine what his mom would do if he didn't come home one night... she would flip out.

"Oh my GOSH you're coming to FLORIDA?!" he exclaimed, almost standing up until he remembered he was sitting at a table. "You HAVE to visit me, okay Satine? Come to Miami. PROMISE." He looked at her with wide eyes. She had no choice but to promise to visit him.

And... what? "Fr... France?" His jaw dropped and his excitement faded in a blink of an eye. France... was where Aimée was from, right? And that was... not Hogwarts. "A year." He repeated blankly. "So... you're not... coming back." He'd heard wrong, of course.

Ellie snorted. Loudly. She didn't mean to, but what Alex suggested... was not a good idea. Ellie imagined herself telling her mother what was "on her mind". No. Nope. Bad idea. She quickly covered her blushing face and mumbled an apology to Alex and those who heard. She turned to Alex. "If I told my mother what was on my mind, to her face... I would get kicked out. Forever." Emphasis on the forever. Meaning she would never get to come back.

Staring at her uneaten apple, Ellie reflected on what the letters between her and her mother had said. "I was cruel." She whispered, looking at Alex in the eyes. "I told her that she was wrong. That magic was the only way of living for me. I told her that a real mother would support her daughter in her decisions..." She looked back down at the table. "I told her that my dad would be disappointed in her."

That was the worst one of all. Ellie's mother hated when she brought up her father. She knew her mum loved him, but the burden of his death was apparently too much to hear his name or any mention of him. And what Ellie had said to her broke her mother's heart. Suddenly, tears threatened to spill out of Ellie's blue eyes, so she buried her face in her arms. "I"m a terrible child." She groaned, though it came out muffled. And she hoped with all her heart that Alex wouldn't think of her differently now that he knew what terrible things she had said.

Just as Vashti had decided to look up from her empty plate, she heard the cheerful voice of Ivory, and as she looked the girl's way, she caught sight of her fellow Ravenclaw waving to her. In return, Vashti waved back and managed what she hoped looked like a genuine, friendly smile.

Hearing a voice near her introducing himself, Vashti looked up, took a few moments to find who it was, and then, once she had, she offered the faintest of smiles. She could at least try to be friendly, right? It would surely make her less likely to burst out crying, which she would probably have plenty of time to do on the train.

"Nice to meet you," she said. "I'm Vashti."

Oh look, there was Spike! He seemed unaffected by the end of term - that was good. Not everyone needed to be all depressed and weepy. But-

"What's that on your head?" Vashti asked, raising an eyebrow and eyeing the object curiously. It looked like...but no, it couldn't be. Perhaps it was just some kind of hat that was too small to cover all that hair.

And there was one of her graduating friends... Oh Merlin, she wasn't going to cry she wasn't going to cry she wasn't going to cry!

"Hey Emily," the fourth year greeted her teammate.

" Thanks for being friendly to me" Rex told Caroline." Going to Nre York, being with yoru family and friends is really a great cup of tea" Rex explained to Caroline." I am getting married" Rex said to Caroline.

"Well it would have been nice to have celebrated with you.. but oh well."
Emily sighed, pouring herself a glass of ice cold pumkin juice she listened as Rex told her about his plans.
"Oh that will be lovely. Spain is such a lovely country." she said.

Naw Spike was such a sweetie. How on earth was Emily going to survive without Hogwarts? this was just getting majorly depressing. Would it be possible for her to ask to fail her subjects so she'd have to repeat them?... probably not. Besides she was still waiting to hear back from the Ministry of Magic regarding her application for YATI.

"I'll hold you to that Spike Hutchinson!" she said jokingly. "You'd best write AT LEAST once a fortnight! and you have to tell me all about the Quidditch games! I'm sure you guys will do great."

"Hey Vashti!" replied Emily as she saw her team mate approach the Ravie Table.
"Got much planned for the holidays?" she asked, before raising her pumpkin juice to her lips.

Mmmmmm. Finlay could smell the food as soon as he walked into the great hall. Part of him really thought that the house elves made better food for these end of term feasts, but he really wasn't complaining, he loved the food, and was really hungry, he could probably eat a ton of food.
Although there was one thing he was thinking about as he made his way over to the ravenclaw table. Emily was leaving....which was a bad thing. He really didn't want her to leave, not when they'd just go so close. It would be a shame. Ahh. There she was, surrounded by quite a lot of the ravenclaw team. Mmm. Another celebration maybe?

"Hey Emily..." He smiled, as he sat down at the table.

So much was going on, there were so many thoughts racing around in her mind, Emily almost didn't realise Finn had arrived. Then she heard his voice.. that voice. She would miss it.
"Hey Finn..." she said, choking slightly on her words. She took another sip of pumpkin juice. Despite all the delicious food and drinks, she didn't feel much like eating... or celebrating.

Never had she thought that graduating would be such a horrible thing. This time last year she couldn't wait to graduate, to move on with her life, to start working... but now....
She couldn't leave Finn... she just couldn't.

She shook her head... no no no......... this wasn't happening.
"I....... d-d-don't want to go yet"... she managed to say.
She turned her gaze to the table, hot tears streaked down her face.

She promised herself she wouldn't cry. She especially promisd herself she wouldn't cry in front of Finn, especially after everything that had happened between them recently. But alas she couldn't help it.

Oh no....Emily was crying. And it kind of freaked Finn out because he really wasn't good at tears. But he had kind of been expecting this. They'd gotten really close over the past few weeks, so it was inevitable really that saying goodbye was probably going to be hard for them. Although he didn't really know what to say when she started crying. He wasn't good at comforting people. "Em...." Finlay watched her for a few seconds, not really knowing what to do. A hug would be okay right? Although he had a feeling that might cause her to cry more, but wouldn't it be some comfort too.

He hoped so anyway, because he wrapped his arms around her, giving her a nice big hug. "Don't cry Em." He didn't want her last feast to be ruined by her crying. She was meant to be celebrating her graduation, yet now she was crying. Maybe it was a bad idea that he had come over here.

Before she knew it she was being wrapped up in Finlay's arms. Her refuge. Her sanctuary. Resting her forehead against his chest, Emily's breathing began to settle after a minute or so. Still her teeth were clenched tightly. Could she trust herself to speak without falling apart?

When she felt she was ready, she pulled away from Finlay's chest, though she still had her arms around him.
"I'm sorry", she said in a small voice. Well at least she didn't burst into tears again.
"I knew... this would be hard... I just didn't think it would be THIS hard."
Emily brushed a few stray strands of hair out of her face, tucking them behind her ears. She needed to relax. It wasn't the end of the world. It was just the end of her time at Hogwarts.

"I'll be ok now..." she said taking a large gulp of pumpkin juice and pouring herself some more. She managed a smile...

Spike eyes rolled upwards as if he had super vision and would be able to see through his skull and brain to identify what was on his head. Unfortunately his couldn't - but really didn't need to be able to either.

"It depends," he said was a lopsided grin. "Mum likes to identify an unruly birds' nest on my head...better known as my hair. But I guess you're probably talking about the lovely Matilda." He gave a little nod, because yes, Matilda is lovely. He was surprised Vashti didn't know that was Matilda's favourite hiding place - it certainly hadn't taken Ellie long to find out ruffling his hair wasn't a good idea. Though to be fair Matilda had been generally staying out of the way in the dorms throughout lessons and practice.

"At least once a fortnight?!" Spike eyed her. She did realise this was Spike she was talking to, right? Spike who had a strong dislike for sitting and writing and was more likely to be found outside looking for new critters or with his hands in mud? He bit his lip. He'd do it for Emily. Or try to.

"I can't guarantee how long they'll be," he said after a moment's thought. Probably most dependent on how long he could sit still for, how much homework he had, and most importantly how often Jacob had them practicing. If he got in the team again next year, of course.

"We will! Definitely." He nodded to confirm it. "And what will you be doing, Emily? Will you write back and tell me of your adventures?"

...and then someone else came to join them. And stole Emily's hug AGAIN. He frowned.

"FINN!" Hmph.

Spike tried to look annoyed. And failed, spectacularly. "You stole her, and made her cry. She obviously wanted hugs from me, see?!"

"Oh I'll definately write," she said smiling at Spike, " Hopefully I'll be able to tell you awesome stories about all the bad guys I catch!" she said grinning, though really it would probably just be a lot of theory and training... with not out in the field. Still one day she'd be able to tell those stories.

Emily couldn't help but laugh at Spikes next remark, brushing the last tear out of the corners of her eyes she wrapped Spike up into to hug as well.
"You boys should know I love hugs from BOTH of you!" she ruffled Spikes hair again, carefull so as not to disturb Matilda.

Satine giggled a little bit at his excitement about her visiting Florida, "Well, yes, my aunt, Iridesca, has a beach house there and we try to go each summer for a few weeks." she looked at him and raised her right hand into an oath, "I promise that I will come visit you in Miami. I think that would be a blast! And you must must must teach me how to surf better. "

She put her face down towards the ground a little bit as he talked about the next part of their conversation. "Yes France....I'm very excited, but...." she let her last words fade off, "and it's a great opportunity for me, but...." and this was the hardest part but she did have to think about her future and everything....there was life after Hogwarts...right?...she looked up at him and met his eyes just for a second and then looked back down twirling a piece of purple hair in her fingers. "the bad part is that I'm not coming back my seventh year....but I just couldn't pass down this..." she said the last part quickly almost trying to convince herself more than him....okay Satine just say it....

"And the other bad part is that I won't be able to run into you randomly...which always makes me smile..." she said finally meeting his eyes. She let her hands come up out of her lap and touch his hands gently.

"I would have love to have celebrated with you, too" Rex told Emily. " Welll, to be honest with you, I thought the party was only for RavenClaws" Rex said to Emily."Spain is a very lovely country and I will be taking the train from England to Spain every day" Rex explained to Emily.

Slipping into the Great Hall - yes, she was late for the final feast, but she wasn't going to parade that - Aimée walked down the side of the Ravenclaw table, scanning it for a face she recognised. Or back of the head, as the case may have been. She didn't have to travel far, though - near to the end she spotted Stephen, who was sat on his own, looking a little, for want of a better word, lost. Not as in he didn't know where he was, no; more as if he was wondering where everyone he knew was. Glancing down at he wrist, and the beautiful green bracelet she had worn every day since the boy had given it to her, she made up her mind.

"Excuse me, Stephen," she said softly, sliding into the seat opposite him. "I 'ope you do not mind?" because it didn't matter if he didn't - she was sat down now, and she didn't plan on moving.

As she looked at Stephen, a boy sitting a few places along caught her eye. "Dall!" she smiled softly at him, raising her hand in a little wave. She wanted to ask him how he was, how he'd enjoyed his first year and if he was going to come back, but she noticed that he seemed to be in a deep conversation with someone she didn't know. Neither of them looked happy, so Aimée offered both of them another smile. Maybe she'd speak to Dallin later.

"Awesome." Dallin smiled. "And I'd be glad to help you surf." Although he had never actually tried to teach someone how to surf better before, so he didn't know if he'd even be able to do so. But he would definitely try.

He nodded slowly, his smile fading. "Well, of course I'm happy for you too." That wasn't a total lie... "I mean, new school and new experiences are awesome. That's what I came to Hogwarts for." He was rambling, now, but he couldn't stop. "I bet Beauxbatons is amazing. And of course you couldn't let this opportunity go. It's a once-in-a-lifetime." He didn't know if he was trying to make himself feel better, or if he was trying to make Satine feel better. He didn't even know why it was such a big deal to him. He'd left friends when he went to Hogwarts, why should it be any different when a friend leaves him?

... Probably because he was closer to Satine. His friends at Merlin's had just been there to hang out with, mostly.

He half-smiled when she said that she liked to see him. When she grabbed his hands, though, he lost his train of thought. Stop acting like you're eleven years old! He scolded himself. You're fifteen! He squeezed her hands softly. "You can still write, of course. And visit." He forced a bigger smile. "It's not a goodbye forever. Just a see you later."

Hearing his name, Dallin jumped, pulling his hands away from Satine. He looked around where he thought the shout had come from, and caught the eye of the girl he'd been thinking about moments before. "Hey Aimée!" He waved, a grin instantly reappearing on his face. He was about to ask her to join him when he saw that she was already sitting by someone she seemed to know. So instead, he just waved again and smiled a less-dorky smile.

"Merlin, I might as well go back upstairs..." Stephen murmured to himself and slowly began to get up. But not until he heard someone say his name and sit next to him. "Oh, hey Aimee. About time you got here," Stephen chuckled and sat back down. No need to leave now if he had company. "I don't, rather have you as company than be all lonely here," he grinned, a childish grin. "So do you have any summer plans?"

Aimée couldn't help but smile back at Dallin when he called a 'hey' to her. She waved again, and wanted to laugh just at the dorky grin on his face. But she didn't, she liked Dall too much. She had, however, noticed how he'd been holding hands with the girl he was sat with before she'd shouted and interrupted them, and the fast way he'd let go. Was that his girlfriend, or just a friend? For some reason, a slight pang went through Aimée as she considered the possibility.

...Why did that make her feel weird? She couldn't figure it out, so forced her smile back onto her face and turned back to Stephen.

About time? "'Ow late am I?" Aimée said, forcing a little smile as a blush crept up her cheeks - was it noticeable how late she was, or was it just because she'd decided to join Stephen that he'd noticed? Shaking the thoughts away, she returned his grin and fiddled with the bracelet on her wrist. [b]"Ah I see! Well I am glad you welcome my company right now zen!"[/b[ she said with a laugh.

Summer plans? Thinking for a moment, Aimée shook her blond curls and shrugged. "None really - probably just babysit. My dad wants to go on 'oliday zough, so we might go to Italy. 'Ow about you?"

Satine put up an I Love You Sign like the surfers did and with a funny grin said, "Totally Awesome..." with a giggle, "that sounds like a plan and a date...so don't be running if you see purple coming towards you on the beach..." she said with a slight nod left and right.

She smiled a fake smile as Dallin replied to her new endeavor. She couldn't tell if he was serious about being happy about her opportunity or not. She smiled half heartedly holding slightly to his hands...she felt like her hands fit well with his, but then she pushed that thought out of her mind...she didn't need to be thinking like that when she would be gone next term. She looked down at their hands and then back up at his eyes with his comment about not a goodbye...her smile slowly reappeared and this time it was her genuine signature smile. "I like the way you think" she said with a wink, "Yes, I will have to write and we can't loose touch at all...I mean I'll come visit during breaks and I'll still have to come to Diagon Alley to shop for school supplies so we can always meet for ice cream and licorice wands..." she said softly, but her next thought was cut off when Dallin pulled away from her....

She glanced down the table towards the girl and tried to keep a straight face and not stare or anything. She turned back around and grabbed her cup for a drink suddenly realizing that she was really thirsty. She took a drink and then set the cup down instantly grabbing a piece of purple hair and twisting it in her fingers...come on Satine you need to tell him...you are seventeen years old and should be able to handle this...those words kept circling in her head.

"Well, I just wanted you to be one of the first peeps that I shared the story and, I guess, good news, sord of, with..." she said softly smiling at him...she wasn't good at this serious stuff...her smile always snuck through, "Well, and, ummmm," she glanced down in the direction of the girl that had waved...o no what if he was talking to her...well who cared Satine would be gone soon so he could talk to whomever he wanted to...she would be...gone soon..."I have really enjoyed getting to know you...yes...

"Hmm. Not so late, we're actually just beginning the feast," Stephen said, looking around at everyone who was chatting away, just like he was. But he still wondered where his other friends were. Especially Lexi and Brigid. Now Brigid, she was definitely a good laugh whenever they argued about that tree house situation. Though he was sadly going to build it for hr this summer, maybe.

"Oh, Italy?" Stephen smirked a bit. "What you need is a break from all that babysitting! You're going to become one stressed little girl at your age which is never a good sign," he added, wagging his finger a bit to Aimee. It was true. Well, in his head it was. "Me? Just stay home as usual or go do something dangerous. Nothing new,"

If they were just beginning, then that was fine! Aimée sighed a little relived sigh and the colour faded from her pale cheeks. "Ahh good, I 'aven't missed much zen?" she asked, hoping she hadn't - it would be a rubbish end to the year if she had, and she would admittedly rather stay at the Castle over the holidays. She'd missed her dad, yeah, but she would probably miss the school and her friends more over the next two months.

"Oui, Italy," Aimée confirmed with a nod. "My dad 'as always wanted to take me to Rome so I zink we are going to go next monz." She couldn't stifle her giggle at his waving finger and grabbed it in her hand to stop the motion. "But et ez 'ard for my dad - 'e 'as gone from 'aving 'is own firm to working at xe bottom. I'm just 'elping," forcing the smile which had faded a little back, Aimée shrugged, letting go of the finger she was still keeping still.

"What exactly do you mean... 'somezing dangerous'?" Aimée asked, a little worriedly. Surely he wouldn't get hurt?

Swooping into the great hall, wonky wings flapping erratically, the tawny owl flew aimlessly around the dining hall just below the enchanted ceiling, large owl eyes searching. It had been a long flight for Furmy filled with many distractions, lots of mice, and now lots of children. But he had letters to deliver, so the mice would regrettably have to wait until his job was done.

Emitting soft hoots, he slowly descended towards the Ravenclaw table and landed. Holding out his leg, he hobbled to the edge of the table towards the Emily person, and waited for her to retrieve her letter.

Hopefully soon, he had mice to catch.