"Miss. Shepard. I do NOT! Repeat. Myself." She said glaring at the girl. "You WILL! Hold his hand... or I will throw you in detention. With Carter. In the Lovers Layer. Are you sure you want to meet my wrath?" She said and started at the girl a little longer.

"Stop goading her Carter. With your idea of Hygiene, anyone would be afraid of your hands." She said and watched them. "Now. Hold. Each. Other's. Hands!"

Now... chocolate substitute... Jam? ...No! Bertie Botts? ...Nah! Vegetables? ...DEFINITELY no!

Shaking her head, Kita frowned slightly and put her head in her hands. This was definitely harder than she thought. Cake? ...Not without chocolate! Fruit? Meh! Stranger? Never in a mil-

Wait.. WHAT?! A stranger?! She can't eat a stranger! o__O Her eyes shot open and she searched around for the source of the thing that had driven her to say that she would eat a stranger. Her eyes landed on a familiar brunette who seemed to be asking her something. But there was only one problem... who the hell was she?

Confused, Kita looked at the girl carefully, trying to see if she could find any clues that would remind her when and where she had met her. And that's when an image of a bookstore entered her mind.

Gasping, the sixteen year old blinked at the girl in front of her before throwing her arms around the girl and giving her a hug. "Samira!" she squealed, letting go, "It's been so long!"

"That's the spirit, William!" said Kelley, grinning widely at him.

Samira laughed and hugged Kita back enthusiastically. That's my name, don't wear it out. "Kita!" Samira took a step back. Last time Samira spoke to Kita was before the term started, at Diagon Ally. They had a riveting debate over which House was more superior: Slytherin or Hufflepuff. Kita had surprisingly good reasons, and Samira wasn't sure if the debate was settled. Then again, maybe it would be better if they didn't settle it. It was fun while it lasted, though.

"Look!" she said excitedly. "I got purple hair extensions!" Samira twirled a strand of dark purple hair to show. Luckily, they came out, and it was nothing permanent. Samira was not doing anything permanent to her hair. It was only so she could match Nika's pink hair--which was permanent.

"So what have you been up to?" she asked curiously. It really has been too long.

Cove laughed. "Do you wanna plaque? I can get you a plaque. But I do get to take your picture as you're doing Arithmancy. It's an actual wall in my house." She said smiling.

O_O

Destiny's eyes widened.

Why was Josh walking closer to her? It was almost as if he wanted to hold her hand. And of course, being Destiny and all, she couldn't help but think that all this is what he really wanted. It was all part of his plan. He knew she was going to run into him, because he was obviously stalking her, and he knew that, if he threw his shirt at her, she would immediately run to Lafay.

And he must have met up with the Professor beforehand! They had planned this together!

She narrowed her eyes at the Gryffindor before turning to Lafay. She hadn't asked the woman to repeat herself, so she had no idea what she was talking about. But she did know that, being in the dungeons with Josh, especially in the Lover's Lair, was not something she wanted to do. And her wrath? Destiny wanted to say that she could already feel her wrath from where she stood, but decided against it.

Being lit on fire once was enough.

Heaving a giant sigh, and feeling slightly offended that Josh had goaded her without her even knowing, Destiny narrowed her eyes once more before taking a few steps closer to him. She was going to wash her hand for hours afterwards. Holding her hand out towards him, she turned her head slightly. If she couldn't see it, it wasn't real.

Like thestrals.

"I swear to Merlin, if he squeezes my hand, I will squeeze his face off." Somehow.

" Yes, I am sure girls have it just as bad in rleationships" William told Katelynn." Yes all tat and more" William said to Katelynn." We are together" Wiliam smiled." Ahh, I am not really great" William blused for the first time in his life. "We are both happy" Willaim explained to Katelynn. " Do you want to go to the lake?" William asked Katelynn.

" Yes, that is the spirit Wiliam" he laughed. agreeing with Kelley." You are a really good friend" William told Kelley. " This is Katelynn, my girlfriend" William introuduced her to Kelley. " I am still going to have a lot of male friends" William reassured Kelley.

"well, I do try to be a good friend," said Kelley with a smile. She looked up at William's girlfriend. "Hi," she said to the girl, holding out her hand and introducing herself. "I'm Kelley. It's good to meet you."

Christopher laughed and nodded in agreement. It had been too long. "Oh I'm sure your skating has improved at least a little in the past year." He said, chuckling. He grinned as he remembered Viola falling flat on her face, getting furious. It wasn't funny that she was falling of course, but her reaction was slightly amusing, he couldn't deny. He smiled again and said, "Oh, I hope your headache feels better, you could probably get some chocolate in the Kitchens or the Hospital Wing. But otherwise I'm glad you're doing well!" He said this almost jealously, wishing he could feel such light happiness, with nothing but a simple headache tugging at his life. It'd be so relaxing. But he had to stop himself from getting his hopes up that it truly would happen.

"Oh, well... erm...." Christopher fidgeted awkwardly, not knowing what to say. He wasn't going to lie and say he was fine, because he wasn't. But he didn't want a pity party coming his way either. It'd probably just make him feel worse, too. "I, erm, am dealing with a loss right now. It's hard," he concluded, deciding that would be a perfectly sufficient answer.

Nika laughed along with Ari. Congratulations were in order, after all it was a giant accomplishment, or so Nika thought. Nika chuckled a bit more as she answered the first years question. "I got Salazar Slytherin." She shrugged slowly as she tried to give her best guess as to why fate gives her Gryffindor and Slytherin. "I guess I'm a Hogwarts founder magnet." Maybe those cards were just naturally attracted to clumsy, pink/red-haired girls. Nika nodded her head when Ari mentioned Seborus Snipe, severious Snap, Sev- who is that?... But she just kept nodding her head and smiling, pretending to understand. She made a mental note to go to the library and actually get a book about him. If only the muggleborn read, then she would be able to understand everything.

"Yeah! Just like Dumbiedoors Army..... maybe." Dumbidoor? That's what she said right!? "Erm Ari... What is Dumbiedoors Army? Nika really needed to look these things up. She should just go and check out the whole library. Too bad she isn't much of a reader. "I don't think so. I think you just sort of show up." Zara had asked Tate about it and so it was open to everyone. Nika smiled happily as Ari did the spell and watched as the mouth began to go up and down. She applauded Ari and beamed, "It looks great!" Then she thought about Ari's question carefully. "Actually... Actually I think there is something missing." She nodded her head as she reached for her own wand in her pocket.

She took out her wand with a smile and looked at Ari. "Last term we learned a spell that transfigures trash into other things that have a use! So maybe I could use a peice of trash and transfigure it into a hat!" Now what was the spell again... Codavium or something like that right? She reached into her bag and grabbed an empty chocolate frog box, that was trash right? "I think it was erm... Left swish, then tap the item." She mumbled as she brought up her wand. "Co- vah- dium" Nothing.. Left, tap, "Co- vah- dium!" Still nothing. Left swish and tap, "Co- vah- dium!" AHA! She looked down at the box that was now a hat! She placed it on the snowman's head and beamed. "Perfect!"

"Sorry to disappoint you but I think I'm still horrible. In fact, I'm more terrible..if that's even possible." Viola replied, laughing. "It's really embarrassing, you know." Her face turned slightly red when she remembered how pathetic she really was. Anyway, she wasn't going to skate. Ever again. Ugh. "But, you're great!" She looked at him and smiled. "Thank you. It's probably because I haven't been getting any sleep for the past few days." She giggled. "I think I'd go with getting chocolates in the kitchen." Yeah. Who would want to go the Hospital wing?

Viola looked at him, slightly confused. A loss? "Gosh, I'm so sorry." She looked at him, feeling sad. "If you don't mind me asking.." Viola bit her lip. She really shouldn't have said something so insensitive."If you don't want to talk about it, it's completely fine."

" A great job of being a good friend" Willaim told Kelley. " So what class do you like?" William asked Kelley.

Katelynn giggled; she couldn't help it. She had a boyfriiiend! and not just any boy. The boy. William. But yet, Katelynn couldn't help thinking about Kita. She wasn't standing far from them, and she would just tease her so much! She tried to stop thinking about it, and looked at William.
She took his hand and said "Sure, I'd love to" and started walking out the courtyard.

Katelynn took Kelley's hand and shook it. "I'm Katelyn!" she said and chuckled. "It's nice to meet you too! Sorry if I'm acting a little silly at the moment, I guess I just have to get used to being introduced as someone's girlfriend.." she added and looked at William.

" I thought you would like a walk to the lake" William told Katelynn. "Well, you are my girlfreind" Wiliam said to Katelynn wnen she told Kelley about William
s introduction. " We could skip to the lake" Willaim smiled.

Ronnie walked into the courtyard. She stared at it. The wind blew her bright orange hair behind her. She thought. She thought about what happened to her family. She wished she could have someone right now at her side to comfort her. To tell her everything will be okay. But no one has done that yet. She felt alone. She felt as if she was under an invisibility cloak, where no one could see her if she walked by. She wished for everything bad happening at the moment would just go away. Would disappear, but it stuck to her like glue. It wouldn't leave her, it followed her every move. She stood there, in the entrance of the courtyard, thinking all these things. She looked at everyone laughing and talking with their friends. She wished she was right there, laughing and talking with them. But her heart was broken. Broken into many many pieces, and she was struggling. No one would come to her, comfort her. No one at all. She felt alone. More alone then ever before.

He saw her turn slightly red...It was a pretty hot day. "Hi Amy, I could help you look for your potions ingredients if you like," He said smiling kindly. She had really pretty eyes, especially when she tilted her head towards the sun, making them glitter. He got so caught up in the moment, he stumbled. "Did I say I'm Alex?" He asked stupidly.

SMACK.

Yup. Trust Sammy to fall flat on her face. It was in her nature really. But luckily enough Sammy always fell over so she got up quickly and brushed herself off before continuing to run, then jump up onto one of the benches take a deep breath in before yelling out

"THE AIR HERE SMELLS SO GOOD!"

Yup. Sammy was loud and proud. No doubt about it. She hadn't fallen over, or taken a good sniff of something in Hogwarts in what seemed ages but was really little less than a year.

Alex walked up to a girl who had just fallen flat on her face. "Are you ok? You seemed to..." He made his arm go from vertical to horizontal while making a raspberry noise. "Yeah. I'm Alex by the way, how about you?"

Isobel skipped through the Courtyard on her way to the Treehouse. She looked around vaguely, not really expecting to see anyone she knew but....what? Sammy? No. Maybe there was a mirror there that she had never noticed before. Slowly she walked over to it and reached out, poking herself in the shoulder. AAAH! It was a person. "Sammy!" It totally had to be Sammy. If it wasn't...that would be embarrassing. Wait. How was Sammy there. Isobel thought Sammy was dead.

"Are you a Zombie?" She asked with a completely serious expression on her face. Because she was completely serious. Then her mind completely changed subjects. How had she even thought it was a mirror? They weren't even wearing the same clothes. And the Sammy Zombie had talked, but Isobel hadn't. Mirrors don't talk. Unless they're talking mirrors. And there were only talking mirrors in fairy tales, like Snow White. And that was the only fairy tale with a talking mirror in it that she could think of.

"I'm fine thanks" Sammy said with an extremely happy look on her face "I fall over all the time, it's nothing out of the ordinary" she said with a reassuring smile. "Sammy. Sammy Star." she said jumping down from the bench and extending her hand to the Alex kid "Pleased to meet you"

O______O

THE COURTYARD WAS TALKING TO HER.

Sammy turned around and saw her double, Isobel. "HAI!" she said before answering her other question "I don't think so. Zombies don't have brains and my head doesn't feel any lighter than usual" she said with a confused look on her face, before saying "PINCH ME!" yes. Sammy was a genius. If she could feel the pinch she wasn't a zombie because zombies don't feel anything. YES. She was a genius.

Isobel took a break from looking serious, she grinned. "Hii!" Back to looking serious. How do you not know if you were a zombie? It should be pretty obvious. "Zombies might have brains," Isobel said. "There might even be a zombie college somewhere." Yep. Isobel nodded, like she didn't just say that and was trying to act normal. Isobel pinched Sammy zombie. Wait, how would that prove anything.

"Oh Good coz dat looked painful and..." he did the arm thing again. "Nice to meet you too Sammy Star. I was just wondering if I could sit down here, or are you waiting for someone?" He asked awkwardly as someone else had approached her.

Kelley smiled at William's comment and then thought about his question. "I guess I like Potions... and Transfiguration. I also like Charms," she added.


Kelley shook Katelynn's hand and smiled at her. "it's okay," she said. "I've met people who are pretty weird, you don't have to worry about it. You and William go ahead to the lake," she added, "I don't want to waste any of your time together." she smiled at both of them.

"If they do, they don't work 'cause zombies are laik. Dead." Sammy said, before yelling out an "OW!" okay, she wasn't a zombie. She had felt that. "Not a zombie, a zombie wouldn't have felt that" she said with a knowing nod of her head. Because Sammy was OBVIOUSLY a genius when it came to zombies. Clearly.

Sammy smiled before sliding across the seat and saying "Take a seat kiddo" before shaking her head "I was just out here to smell stuff" Because all normal people did that "everything smells better here" she said with a nod of her head "what year are you in?" she asked, because he didn't look older than her, nor her age.

Right. That's true. There would be no need for a zombie to go to college because they could never get a job. She sure wouldn't hire a zombie. What if you walked in to a resteraunt and a zombie took your order? Isobel bet they wouldn't get very much buisness. "That's true," she said. But Isobel still wasn't entirely convinced. "Okay, one question. Do you have an urge to eat my brain?"