Jumping to her feet, she just couldn't sit there, now. She felt like pacing, but that seemed even more ridiculous then being so flustered! She hadn't started the year like this, not even close. She'd been so sure of herself, so determined, not interested in even thinking of a relationship. UNKISSED even.

Sighing, she turned back to Ivan, she shook her head. Deep breath...let it out...let it out! Letting out the breath, she said quietly only loud enough that she knew he'd hear her. "No, I was just gonna ask, if you wanted to be more then just friends."

Turning she looked back at the tree, "There. I said it. Tease me, make fun, whatever you'd like." She knew he would, she was acting like a fool and she knew it. He wasn't interested in that, never had been. It was just him wanting to get to her, and nothing more.

He watched with a raise eyebrow as she stood up and started pacing. Oooooooookay. Would she just say what she wanted already? Then she did and his other eyebrow raised. Not what he was expecting at all.

Hearing her then dismiss it and expect him to make fun of her he frowned. Why would he do that? He stood up and walked in front of her. "Well one, I'll make fun of you for a lot of things but not for sharing your feelings. And two, don't dismiss it like that because you don't know my answer, which by the way is yes." He never had a girl ask him out before. This was new. Not unwelcome though it was nice to be wanted.

Her eyes lifting up and finding his as he spoke, she was stunned. She hadn't expected him to not tease her. It seemed like that's all he had done, and...wait. He said yes? Now that surprised her even more then him not teasing.

Her full attention now on him, she didn't question him, though her mind still hadn't fully realized what had just happened, she smiled softly at him. "I just, really didn't think the answer would be yes." Searching his eyes, she gave him a little teasing smile, "So what do people do first after deciding that?"

She couldn't help it, she was now just happy that they'd finally come to a serious discovery.

Ivan smirked and gave her a wink. "If I didn't like you I wouldn't be messing with you," simple enough. He only ever flirted with girls he liked. Hearing her question he took a step toward her and shrugged, "Well usually people kiss but since we've done that..." He smiled and gave her another kiss.

Pulling back he looked at her and sat back down on the rock casually as if nothing major had just happened. Well this wasn't the turn out he'd been expecting but it never hurt to give something a shot. And she was fun.

Her smile still on her face, she knew what he meant, and it thrilled her because she'd not really thought much of that. But what else would a person tease or flirt with them for, unless they really did like them. Laughing lightly she nodded, "Guess we've gotten past the awkward part then." Seeing his smile before the kiss, her eyes twinkled happily.

Sitting back down on the rock next to him, she wanted to giggle again but didn't. Now they were acting like nothing out of the ordinary had just happened. "I think it'll be an interesting rest of term." she teased leaning into him just slightly before sitting normally again.

Never mind. He cared very little, that's why he was still smiling.

So, wait, what had happened? Was he right about 'Cute'? Or was Ellie right about? Or were they both mistaken? Or...what? He was entirely lost at to what conclusion they'd come, if they'd come to any.

Perhaps it was better just to let it go? And hopefully he wouldn't have to hear it again?

Yes!

WIN.

And..."I hope you do, you're carrying my birthday present in there." The pictures, all three of them, though, he'll be happy with just one, but if he could all three, then all the better.

A small smile was on his face as he shrugged. Treyen wasn't an expert on those theories, and they mostly related to Muggle beliefs not their own, given the fact that he knew ghosts existed and all. Oh! Perhaps he should pay a visit to the Fat Friar and ask him whatever question popped in his mind, or the Fat Friar should come find him because he was clueless about where to find the ghost. He wouldn't ask the Baron, that's a given.

"I'm positive that you may not remember your previous life, I believe Muggles to think it's only the soul or the spirit that sort of...lives as someone else," hey, they could ask Bishop...er, no, forget it, scratch that. "But I don't know much about the subject." Not yet, anyway.

Obviously, his smile widened even more, because yet another picture had been taken at him. Oooh, question. "How many pictures of boys have you taken with the camera, Ellie?" that only had boys in there, only one. Because he had proof that she'd taken a few of him.

Heh. She felt important carrying his birthday present around. "So I will also handle it with the utmost care." Hehe. "If Screech were around, I'd send it home immediately." Jokingly, Ellie looked up at the sky. Screech-free. No surprises there. Screech was a lazy, stubborn thing.

Right. She nodded. That would make sense. Otherwise, people would be running around with thousands of years worth of memories in their noggins.

He didn't know what he was talking about, did he? Giggle. "Well when you find out, let me know?" Ellie didn't believe it, but it was entertaining.

"You ask the weirdest questions," she said, scrunching up her face. "It's not like I count every picture I take." That would be...there was a word for it, she knew...she just couldn't think of it. "Besides, you've got the lot in there, minus the ones from Charms and just now." So Treyen could see for himself if he so pleased.

At least, she thought he had them all. Like pretty sure.

" You are right, I am not a loser" Rex told Fee." Busy or sick, I do not care about Rene anymore" Rex said to Fee. " How about a dance?" Rex asked Fee.

Ivan looked at TJ and could see how happy she was just by him agreeing to become more than friends. It also made him kind of uneasy. "I guess it will be, I haven't really thought about it." Nor did he want to. Why did girls have to change their actual relationship when they want more. He never did understand that.

"Umm...TJ. I need you to know that I don't want anything real, real serious. At least not right now." More like friends who..kissed. That would work well. He didn't even really know her that well. "I just don't want there to be confusion or anything. I like you and I want to be a bit more than friends but I don't want like the label of boyfriend and girlfriend." If that made any sense?

Oh, he was pleased with that answer. However, it's not like she was carrying the most expensive birthday gift ever, or Bowman Wright's first Snitch or anything. Actually, that would be an amazing gift.

"Thanks, Ellie. And don't forget the one of Aslan." Treyen had the feeling that he was going to remind Ellie to do so more often than ever. Unless she actually remembered? No, he'll remind her. Totally.

"What kind of an owl is Screech?" And Treyen actually blinked after asking that. What kind of a question was that? Did it truly matter what kind of an owl it was? The poor fellow did have a very awful name, by the way. But there's no comparison to the amazing Gilderoy. The owl, of course.

And the person.

Haha. "Absolutely, if I do." It was Muggle knowledge and he had a great deal of trouble when it came to finding that stuff out.

Weird? It wasn't a weird question once she knew the reason behind it, and he laughed once more. Okay, so, she wasn't one of those obsessive people when it came to pictures, got it. He waited for her to finish 'answering' before speaking up, "You never answered." Smirk. "So, I have all the pictures you've taken so far," it seemed like it, because he was holding a book, sort of, "Your dad didn't ask you why there were pictures of a random boy between them?" He'd failed to see pictures of any other, other than himself, that's why he'd asked.

She was definitely confused, now. She had no idea what he was talking about, a bit more then friends, not boyfriend and girlfriend. What was it then? Shrugging, she didn't want anything serious either. "No I don't want serious either." she replied, honestly. Serious? Wasn't it really just the fun of being together, spending time alone or well other couples at times? Serious stuff came later, like when she was older, of age. Not now, she didn't want anything serious.

But where...what the heck were they then? Talk about losing the entire idea of what he meant by that. "Alright." she replied a tint of confusion in her voice, because she really had no idea what else to say.

Christopher was so into his book, he didn't notice anyone approach him. When he heard a voice asking if they could join him, his mind did a flip. Did that really just happen? Some one was really talking to him?? Well that was most definitely a first.

"Of course, go ahead!" Christopher smiled as the new-commer sat down with him, a book in her hands as well. "I'm Christopher, by the way. Christopher James." He extended his free arm to shake her hand "

"What're you reading?" He looked curiously at the book she was holding. "I'm quite the Shakespeare person myself," he grinned motioning to his own book. He was all for Muggle classics!

"Right. After Aslan, I'll send it home." Yeahh. She totally didn't forget...Ahem.

Giggle. THAT was a funny question. "A Screech owl." Treyen should learn to expect the obvious from her. "I don't remember who named him..either me or Aidan..and Mum probably introduced him as a Screech owl, and we just thought that that was his name." Shrug. "It stuck."

"Good." Now Ellie would hold him to that.

But she had answered. Kind of. "Right. All that's been developed."

Haha. "Well, it's not like I've talked to him, have I? I just sent the camera, and he sent it, plus the pictures, back." He might ask when she did see him again, though.

Nod. Okay, after Aslan. He'll remind her, granted.

Now, we're not going to lie here, for a moment there Treyen thought she was messing with him. A Screech owl named Screech? But once she told the story of how Screech was named, then, he just blinked, for a couple seconds, and laughed afterwards, "I find that funny, actually, because Kaika named her owl 'Snowy' and it IS a Snowy owl." He'd remembered thinking how much creativity his sister lacked. But that wasn't Ellie's case, because Kaika had been on her own when she bought the owl, sort of like he did.

Of course, his owl hated the name Gilderoy, but he didn't listen to Arya and didn't make a nickname for him. Arya could call him Roy if she wanted to, but he'll be Gilderoy to Treyen.

"Hopefully, Aidan will get a bit more creative when naming his own." Not that it mattered, really.

Mmmmhmmm, he was holding all the pictures he knew of, good. The big book of pictures by Ellie Stone.

There was a smile on his face again, "I see." Surely his dad will ask him something about the redhead in the pictures Ellie will give him, or maybe not, if he never got to look at them.

He was blinking...was it really hard to believe? But then he laughed. Which was acceptable THIS time. Because the story wasn't serious at all. Ellie even found it amusing herself.

Giggle. "How old was she when she got Snowy?" Her and Aidan had been young, so the naming was sort of unsurprising. Kaika must've been young too, yeah?

Nod. "He'll probably need his own by Hogwarts." They'd had Screech for a while now. Ellie couldn't remember exactly when they'd got him. He'd be much older when Aidan went to school. She wasn't sure how long owls lived, but he at least wouldn't be making the trip to Hogwarts and home weekly by the time Ellie left.

She was...sort of resisting that question. She'd noticed she asked it a lot. Particularly to Treyen. But...why not, right? "Why?"

"I could ask the same of you when you bring pictures of a random girl home, couldn't I?" And that was basically her doing so.

Cass smiled as she sat down next to him and glanced at the cover of her book. Which was coincidentally also by a muggle author. Normally, she wouldn't be reading anything by a muggle, but after the recent visit of muggles into the castle...she became curious about them.

"Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens." She answered with a smile as she showed him the cover of the book. Oh, Shakespeare! She's read a few of those, from Lyra's library of course, "I love Shakespeare." One of the few muggle authors that she really did like "Which book are you reading?" She asked with a smile

Did it matter? Actually, it did, and very much. "She was eleven, same as me." So, everyone at that age makes stupid decisions, apparently. It's not like he'd made the smartest of them all. A smart call was Thaddeus, because he'd made sure that the creature liked its name. It was the only pet he'd actually asked whether or not they were agreeing with the name Treyen was giving them. Neither Aslan nor Phineas had issues with it, and Aslan was a very pretty name.

"And the owl is still her personal owl." She doesn't trust the others with her mail, at least not her personal letters and packages. But Snowy bites. Gilderoy, not.

He was nodding now, because Aidan should get a chance to have his own. Like Trey had.

If he said he hadn't been expecting that question, then Treyen will be lying to himself. It was no surprise. "I don't know. Got curious, I suppose." And Bishop had said that curiosity was not a bad thing.

He'll probably feel bad about saying this, because that was a minor slip up, "IF you're asking it, and I'm assuming that you are, my answer will depend on which girl are you referring to." Merlin knows he has many friends who happen to be girls, "But I assume again that said random girl is you, because I have no pictures of any other, and...actually, none of you either...BUT...," could he answer once and for all? "...you're not a random girl, you're my favorite Ravenclaw." See, where there was the slip up. By saying that he sort of agreed that HE was a random boy. Which was not something he could enjoy.

Erm... what?! No... seriously?!

Kita opened her mouth. Then closed it. She opened it again. Only to close it again. Yes, the chatterbox had nothing to say.

And then she opened her mouth again. "Oh Caroline!" she said, giving her best friend a hug, "I'm sure she's not trying to replace your father." She let go and looked at Caroline seriously. "No one will be able to, don't worry. Everything will be ok," she added, giving the blonde a small smile.

Kita sighed and looked away. "I know! This year's gone by really, really, quickly," she said, turning back to Caroline, "Of course i'll come! My last summer was so boring because i didn't go anywhere! I'm not letting that happen this year." Nope, never again. She started laughing. "Thanks!" she said. And then a mad urge came over her. Reaching to the top of her head, she removed the sunglasses. "You can have it if you want," she said, holding out the sunglasses to Caroline, "I have way too many!"

She nodded. Snowy was definitely an understandable name coming from an eleven year old.

Blink. Same as him? "You named your owl Gilderoy at eleven?" That seemed like a mouthful of a name. Even for Ellie at fourteen, it seemed...long.

More nodding. Owls were supposed to be pretty faithful, were they not? That was why wizards (and witches) trusted them with their mail.

"Well, if you're so curious, I'll let you know how it goes when I do see him." Mhm.

Ellie remained quiet as he went on...and on...answering her question. "But you DO have pictures of me, Treyen." They just weren't in his possession yet.

GRIN.

His favorite?

"But how many do you know?" Because she could say that Aidan was her favorite brother, but she didn't have much of a choice there, did she?

...Actually...on second thought, "Nevermind. Don't answer that." He'd said she was his favorite and that was all that mattered.

GRIN.

Treyen nodded once and was about to nod again but he stopped himself from doing it. Why did she ask that? "That's right. I did. Why?" Now he was the one asking Ellie's favorite question. He wasn't precisely curious, he was actually wondering what reason had made her think that Gilderoy was an odd name for an owl. Yes, that's what he thought Ellie had wondered in the first place.

She seemed to be agreeing with him so far...

...and still continued to do so.

Haha. He was smirking now, "Please, do so." But trust the boy not to wait for it.

That was...unexpected.

He knitted his eyebrows together, "I think I would know if I did. And...I don't." The pack of pictures he was holding served as evidence to that fact, and he didn't have a camera of his own, so, he wouldn't have taken any random picture of her. That was actually rather creepy, taking pictures of someone without them knowing.

However, if he was the one people were taking pictures at, then he was totally cool with it, never mind that he didn't know the name of the person behind the camera.

Again. She smiled. And he did the same.

How many...Ravenclaws? "Oh, well, there's...," he was lifting one finger at a time whilst his head did the count, and he was already up to four...but...she didn't want to know now? Haha. Okay. "You sure? Fine. I won't answer." He'd lost track of how many he knew, anyway.

She tilted her head to the side, "Well...Gilderoy...It's not like that's a very common name, is it? Not one an eleven year old would immediately think of?" Gilderoy was very unusual indeed.

Nod. She would. She said she would.

"You do. Not physically yet, but the pictures you just took are yours." So there.

Ellie eyed his hand as it moved. Mmm... "Positive." Seriously.

Sigh.

No, really, he sighed after she was done explaining. He'd been wrong, sort of, she'd meant that an eleven year old wouldn't possibly think of it, but that's not what he was sighing for. "Here's the thing," he started to say, moving his hands along as he kept on talking, "Maybe not many eleven years old could be familiar with the name, however, I was, since I was five or something." So was Kaika, yet he hated the man and the name.

"Gilderoy Lockhart wrote many books back in his days, he even taught at Hogwarts, and I'm related to him." He certainly never thought he'll be sharing that information with Ellie so soon, he was only hoping that she had no idea who the man was. "He was, like my hero or something." So, that's why he named his owl Gilderoy. End of story.

No, Ellie, he didn't! He didn't have any pic--Oh.

And he smiled, rather sweetly actually. 'Yours'. That was...like...perfect. "So, you'll be mine?" No, no, wait, he knew that sounded way off and had a totally different interpretation, especially on Valentine's Day, which is why his cheeks were oh-so-slowly turning PINK, not red...yet. "I mean, the pictures...the pictures will be mine, yeah, I knew that, totally, of course, mmhmm." And he was looking away, very much away, trying very hard for Ellie not to notice the slight pinkness of the cheeks.

Once he thought it was okay to look back, he did it. Positive, eh?

Good.

"There's no competition either, so, you don't have to worry about losing that spot." Unless Tiberius was coming to Hogwarts, and he highly doubted that was EVER going to happen.

Sigh?

...She didn't say anything did she? Ellie was about to give him a nudge..just for sighing, but he'd started talking again.

So she listened.

A smile began to creep back onto her face...but he wasn't smiling, so she kept it at bay. "You're related to an author?" Maybe that's why he liked books so much. "What kind of books did he write?"

And..."What do you mean was?" Ellie asked this ever so cautiously. Maybe he'd just died recently or something...That would be sad.


Ellie...also may have shown some pinkness on her cheeks. For whatever unknown reason. "Right. My pictures will be yours." Wasn't that why he took them?

Smile.

The fourth year looked from the Castle to Ellie, and then back again, "Two, actually." He said, with a small smile. "My grandpa writes too," occasionally now that he was older. But while grandpa Lyle had been at the Ministry it had never occurred to the man that he had the gift of writing, it was after he left that he started to do so. He would've been as great as Gilderoy, though, Treyen could see now why the comparison wouldn't have been too enjoyable to his grandfather.

It was almost impossible for Treyen not to smile, because he still loved those books and he'd grown reading them, when no one was watching. "About some travels and encounters with Dark Creatures, that's how I know about the Yeti, actually, and the fact that you have to keep your eyes open for one while in Tibet." Something Ellie should've done and would've done if she knew who Gilderoy was.

Well, Treyen was feeling a bit more comfortable talking about it, Ellie didn't know about Gilderoy.

But he couldn't lie to her, "Well, he kind of still is, it's just...my vision of it all sort of changed as I got older." There was a 'kind of' and a 'sort of' in the same sentence, very odd for someone who's always certain of things, no? Yet that was the best way he could explain himself without giving too much information OR lying.

Right. He nodded. They were settled about the whole pictures thing.

Two authors in the same family. Undoubtedly why Treyen likes books.

Wow...Gilderoy sounded pretty amazing. "Was he like an adventure seeker of some sort, then? Like, did he purposefully go after Dark Creatures?" That was wicked, brilliant, and...dim at the same time. Like walking into the Forbidden Forest WITHOUT an adult. Or ghost.

....Honestly, Ellie was really going to try and not pry. "Why's that?" If only her will power was stronger. Heh.