Emma was totally embarrassed. Way to walk into someone, she told herself. Whoops? Was that all she could say. She smiled. "Umm.. no I was the one that ran into you.. So don't apologise." she added quickly. He wasn't going to be blamed. She smiled sweetly as he picked up her books. "Oh thanks! Okay, good." she exclaimed, glad to hear he was okay. Emma was a bit of a klutz sometimes.

She shrugged her shoulders and blushed. "Well, I'm pretty okay at it. It's one of my best subjects. I really enjoy potions a lot, except the teacher, she's a bit scary. " she told him. She then thought it would be wise to introduce herself. "I'm Emma Malfoy, third year Slytherin. What's your name?" she asked, holding her hand out for him to shake. She beamed him a smile.

"Oh, but I can't allow a young lady to take the blame, it would just be.." Outrageous, preposterous, unthinkable, "Wrong." Returning the sweet smile just as the girl gave it, Ethan could help but be amused. She was very, young. Of course he was sounding incredibly patronising in his head, but his mother had always told him, that if he was going to be rude/out of place anywhere, it had to be his head, and his head only. It couldn't even begin to effect his facial features. And so, with a smile that would of turned a Chimera to jelly, he tuned back in to what the girl was saying.

The teacher was scary. For one second, and one second only, the impression of another person registered on an emotional scale in his head. What if he was scared by this teacher too? Fear was a.. Well, a weakness. Everyone knew that.

Reaching out to take, Emma's hand in his, Ethan smiled softly, "Ethan Norton, sixth year, and it appears we're in the same house. How... Fortunate." He allowed himself to be drawn in by his own amusement and flirtyness charm. "And may I say what an immense pleasure it is to meet you." Should he kiss the hand... Nooo. But forward for a first meeting, she was three years younger than him as well. Thirteen year olds were so easily run away with by their feelings.

She blushed. "Well, thank you, You are very chivalrous." she said, giving him a compliment. She felt like giving him a curtsy or something. So she gave him a small curtsy. Just cause she could.

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Ethan. Yes, very fortunate." she added, smiling. YAY! Another Slytherin. She smiled happily. Woot! Another person to hang out with in the Common Room. Wow, he was three years older than her, but he was still very cute. And wow, this was quite a formal conversation. "So is this your first year at Hogwarts?" she asked, curiously, still smiling.

Ethan - 1
Rest of the Cynical Word - 0

He was chivalrous. Tempted to get her to write down the comment she'd just been so kind enough to bestow on him, Ethan simply swallowed down the whoops of joy, and nodded carefully at her. Years of training. A man could get whiplash from nodding too quickly.

Oh. She learned fast. Soon enough he'd get her fitting the word "fluctuation" in to her sentences instead of the word "changing" or whatever. "Yes, it is." He replied slowly in answer to her question, "My parents thought it was better for me to spend more time in adult company so that when I left home to come to Hogwarts," he still hated the name, it just sounded so, dirty, "I'd be able to use correct terminology and be able to not have wild mood swings as I've heard many teenagers do." According to Arthur, many a fist-fight had broken out between school-boys all around the country because of this lack of control over their tempers.

It seemed highly improper that they should have to soil their names or clothing just to give in to an urge that should be so easy to resist. Thank goodness he'd had proper parenting. "What about you, is this your third year?"

Emma smiled at his reaction. Somehow she felt that he was hiding some joyful thing, she put on a smiling poker face. She grinned. "Well welcome. If you need any help getting around, I'd be glad to offer you my assistance or my cousin's, the Head Girl. " she added, proudly. It was so cool to have her cousin as Head Girl.

She raised her eyebrow, surprised. She nodded. "Ah.. I see. You speak very well. I'm glad that I came to Hogwarts. However, at home my parents and grandparents except me to speak like a grown lady. It's partly because we're Malfoys." she explained.

Emma smiled and nodded. "Yes it is! So what do you enjoy doing for fun? Do you play quidditch?" she asked, with a bright smile.

She was a relative of the Head Girl, eh? Well, this could work out well. He could get his etiquette group sooner than he expected. Although, a lot of the time, they expected girls to run those sorts of things. Very odd. Men needed to learn how to get on in life as well as women. Before he could allow himself to get run away with by his thoughts, Ethan realised he was drifting from the conversation again. Socialising was harder than it looked.

"Malfoys, hmm? Aren't they a really old Slytherin family? Go far back?" He asked, a renewed spark in his voice. His parents would be SO pleased if he wrote and let them know that the first person he'd made himself known to was a member of one of the oldest families in the history of the Slytherin time. They went much further back than the Nortons. Ahh, now history. That was something he excelled in.

A short bark of laugher escaped his lips before he could stop it, shaking his head, he quickly intoned, "No, Quidditch is really, not my thing at all. I'm far better at Muggle sports. My feet stay on the ground in their cases." And he fitted into the uniform too. With the pads for Quidditch, he just looked a bit, well, daft.

Emma grinned and watched his face, thinking. She nodded. "Yes, The Malfoy's are. My grandfather is Draco Malfoy." she explained. She was proud of him but not of her great grandfather. "To tell you the truth, I'm not exactly proud of my family history.." she explained, hopefully he'd know the whole story. She wasn't proud of how they served the Dark Lord and how they continued to be prejudice, that was something she was totally against. She thought it was absurd.

She smiled in a nice, friendly way. "Aww, it isn't. Personally, I love Quiddicth. I've been playing ever since I could walk. Oh Muggle Sports? Then what muggle sports do you enjoy playing? Football, American football, Rugby, Basketball, Tennis? I don't really know a lot about muggle sports.." she explained, hopefully he could explain more.

Ethan blinked twice. His face a mask of total confusion. How could one not be proud of ones family. They may of done awful things in the past, but they were still your family. He wasn't totally up on all of his history, but he was aware that in the time of Potter, not all Slytherins did the right and noble thing. Which was, of course, keeping their heads down. The Norton's weren't a magical family at that time, but they were only one generation out. Choosing not to pursue the subject, just in case of a conflict, Ethan slipped both hands into his pockets... And to his delight, found a pencil in the left one.

"Tennis and hockey." Ethan retorted, slipping the newly found pencil behind his left ear, "although Tennis is my favourite. You basically, hit a ball with rackets, over a net, but it has to bounce once in either side before you hit it..." Explanations. She'd caught him at his weak spot. Glancing up at the clock behind Emma, he rapidly consulted the timetable in his head, where he needed to be, where he was and the amount of minutes that they'd been standing talking and brought it up to... "I'm terribly sorry, I've got a Divination class that I'm going to be three minutes late for."

Taking Emma's hand in his again, he shook it warmly, but not too firmly, and smiled at her, "It has been.. A pleasure, I'll hope to see you again some time, perhaps in the common room." Cutting himself off quickly before he began to list all the other places they could meet, Ethan detached his hand from hers, gave her one final grin, called out a quick, "goodbye!" And made his way back up the stairs, toward the Divination towers.

The way Cedric was staring at her Marie felt like he was trying to look right through her. Either that or she had something on her face.

How was she doing? Well let's see, her boyfriend just pretty much told her he didn't care about her feelings and then walked away from her leaving her on the pathway crying and feeling like a hippogriff just walked all over her chest. She wasn't about to share that information though. Not with someone she was just meeting... well meeting again after a couple years. No, she would just keep that not so happy smile and act as if nothing happened. After all, isn't that what she's supposed to do, deal with her own issues and not bother anyone with them according to James Wilkes... so as not to push others away with her problems.

So that's just what she did. Hugging James robes close to her she smiled. "I'm doing just great. Couldn't be better." LIE! "How are you?" His life had to be better than hers that was for sure.

There was an apparent hint of sadness in her voice Cedric could tell. Indeed she told him she was well but her somewhat melancholy tone and facial expression opposed what she said. Cedric felt like reaching for Marie, taking her hand, consoling or comforting her like a friend would. Cedric loathed seeing women crying. It sort of crushed him inside, snuffing out the happiness that was within him or mystically obscuring his true self, cheerful and perpetually smiling. Why, his mother had a great deal of crying here and there, mostly when she had had a fight with his father.

"Are you sure you're fine, Marie?" He just remembered her name, see. Hence he called her by her name. The seventh year flopped down on the stairs, seating right beside the girl but kept a fairly good amount of distance lest Marie might feel rather uncomfortable.

Marie moved over just a bit when Cedric sat next to her. Not that she didn't want him sitting there... she just didn't want it to look like anything was going on if a certain someone happened to walk by... which probably wouldn't happen anyway... but best to be safe just in case. "I'm sure. I'm just... nevermind." No, she wasn't going to do this, she wasn't going to talk about her problems or issues. That's what pushes others away. She just needs to learn to keep them bottled up more than she already does.

Time to change the subject.

"So I haven't seen you around much. Well last term I didn't see you much anyway. What have you been up to, other than prefecting." Yep, talk about him, that should be a safe thing to do.

Marie really looked like on the brink of breaking down or something... or so Cedric thought. He wanted to help her in anyway he could but he would not insist on knowing why she looked not fine; he would hate it if she thought he was being too prying or somewhat inquisitive. "Sorry," he said, giving Marie an apologetic smile. "I shouldn't have asked."

And then Marie asked him about something, probably trying to change the subject. Of which she succeeded.

"Ah, yeah, I've been away last term. Gone almost half of the term." Cedric didn't really want to elaborate where had had been half of the term of the last one. It'd be downright embarrassing in his part. Cedric grudged a grin, endeavoring to obscure the red spots that were starting to flare on his cheeks.

"You don't have to be sorry. At least someone cares if I'm alright or not." Too bad her own boyfriend wasn't that someone. "Thanks for being concerned but really, I just need to figure some things out on my own I guess." Maybe Cedric could meet James and give him lessons on how to treat someone you supposedly cared about. Cedric was practically a stranger to her and he was already treating her better than James had. How sad is that.

"Well that would explain why I didn't see you around much. I'm glad to see you're back though." She said giving him a friendly smile. Was he... blushing? Why would he do that? All she did was ask what he had been up to. Did he not like to talk about himself?

Cedric returned the smile, submissively. He was glad that he could be of comfort to Marie or to anyone. "You're welcome," was all Cedric could say at the moment. Figure things on my own... That sounded really smart, independent, and all. Cedric for one had always figured things on his own. And figuring things on your own wasn't really the easiest thing.

He raked a hand through his tousled dark brown hair. He knew that at times like this, a good decent sense of humor was always a good thing. Uplifting in that sense. "Why, thank you, I'm glad to see me back." Then there came along his lopsided grin.

Marie was glad that Cedric didn't pry or try to ask further questions about what was wrong with her. Yeah she knew she sucked at hiding the fact that everything wasn't alright but that's just how she was. That was something she was going to have to work on too... hiding her true feelings.

Folding up James' robes and laying them on her lap she let a little laugh slip out when Cedric said he was glad to see him back too. "Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh at you." She said looking down at her lap. That's the first time she had laughed in a long time and she really wasn't expecting it to happen, especially not today of all days.

OOH, look, she laughed! Ah, now, that was better. Cedric was glad to see her perking up and all. "Hey, it's okay," Cedric told her, finding himself chuckling as well, "You look better when you're like this... seemingly happy and all." He then noticed something, robes to be specific, neatly folded on Marie's lap but didn't bother ask whose was it for fear she might think he was asking too many questions.

He really hoped Marie would start to feel better now. And that her problems would be soon solved. Time heals all wounds, right?

"Thanks. I'm usually not in a mood like this, it's just... well I'm sorta having a bad day." Boy was that putting it mildly. She was actually having a rotten day now. Although Cedric was helping to cheer her up just a bit.

She did notice him looking at the robes laying on her lap but she didn't offer to tell him whose they were. If he wanted to know he would ask. "So, where were you headed before you stopped to talk to me?" She obviously knew his main destination was not there on the stairs with her and she didn't want to be keeping him if he had other places to be.

Hehe. "Guess what? You needn't tell me that." Cedric grinned, out of habit. "That you're having a bad day and all. It's quite visible." Yeah. That was true. Marie's face really bore some signs of that of a person who was apparently in a bad mood. But he noticed she kinda lightened up a bit. Had he succeeded in cheering her up? He hoped so...

Where was he headed? Well, let's see... "I was actually thinking of going to... to," Cedric stalled, his brows furrowing. Truth be told he didn't know where was he heading before he saw Marie. He then finally finished his sentence with a "Nowhere, I guess."

"Yeah, I guess I'm not so good at hiding my emotions. I really should work on that." It's just that one can't really hide the red, puffiness of the eyes that is caused from crying so much.

"Well, looks like we were going to the same place then." Truth was other than going to her dorm room to sleep, hopefully to wake and find this day had been a dream, Marie had nowhere she needed to be.

Going to the same place, eh? Well, that was funny. Cedric listlessly checked his wristwatch... oh, no... he should now be heading for his next class! How could he forget? Ugh. The blonde had been quite a distraction. Hehe. "Not for long, Marie. I think I now need to head to somewhere else." Cedric smiled, a little apologetic. They could meet some other time, yes? And by some other time, he hoped Marie would be be a great deal better.

Well it looks like she'd done it again... she had gone and made another boy want to leave her. This one couldn't even think of a good enough excuse to tell her, just that he had to be somewhere else. "Right, well don't let me keep you from wherever it is you have to be. I'm just gonna head back to my common room now anyway." Well more like her dorm room where she would go to sleep and hopefully wake to find out she had been dreaming that whole scene that took place earlier.

She stood up and started down the stairs to the dungeon not bothering to look back. She just wanted this day to be over.

Oh, maan. What had he just said? Marie looked as if he'd said something wrong. She seemed on edge. Ugh. "So we'll see each other tomorrow? Or later, perhaps?" Cedric smiled at her rather sheepishly, seeming somewhat flustered. He now considered Marie a friend and friends do meet up, yes? Well, he would really like that. He didn't have many friends to hang out with.

He watched Marie as she stood up and started walking away. He really hoped she was fine. Or that she'd be fine.

Hearing Cedric say something about seeing each other again Marie stopped and turned around. "Yeah, sure. Tomorrow sometime." That is if she came out of the dorm room, let alone out of the common room. She might just stay in there for days. She knew where Destiny hid her chocolate, she would just eat that until it was gone. She was sure she could survive at least a few days on what that girl had hidden in their dorm.

Turning back around she quickly made her way down the stairs to her common room.

Aimée held back a giggle she really wanted to utter as Dallin offered her his arm. Such a gentleman, she couldn't help but think as she took it, the little voice of her thoughts going all girlie and high pitched, even in her head. "We shall," she said, smiling before being to walk arm-in-arm with a very cute American boy Dallin towards the Castle.

Ten minutes later, she stepped into the Entrance Hall and stamped her feet rather un-gracefully on the ground to try and get some of the snow off her boots. Running the hand that wasn't still clutching at Dallins arm through her hair, she brushed a stray curl from her forehead. "I 'ad fun today," she admitted, giggling a little.

Following Aimée's example, Dallin kicked the ground a few times to get the snow off of his shoes. He shoved shoved his hands into the pocket of his hoodie before looking back at the girl holding onto his arm. Then he grinned at what she told him. And her giggle. Heh.

"I had a lot of fun," He told her cheerfully. He was about to add more, but had a feeling that it would probably be really embarrassing if he did. He ran his free hand through his hair before sticking it back in his pocket. "We should, um, do something else some time. Ya know, hang out?" Well, they were still kind of doing that right now, right? But still. Some time in the future...