Ivan walked down to the courtyard yawning. He really needed to get more sleep. Searching for a spot to hide or sleep more likely he spotted Lexi and his eyebrows shot up. What was she doing? Shaking his head he cleared his throat to make his presence known. Might not be good to be found staring at her this way.

"What are you doing?" he asked trying to keep the smirk off of his face and failing.

Letting out a long breath she laid her body almost flat against the ground as she stretched her arms out as far as she could in front of her, straight down the middle, between her legs.

Hearing someone clear their throat and step into the itty bitty patch of sun that shown on her back she heaved a little sigh. Sitting up straight she reached her arms over her head, bending her right arm at the elbow she grabbed it with her left hand and stretched her body to the side a bit.

Opening her eyes to spot Ivan gawking at her she smirked. "What does it look like I am doing... it's called stretching. You should try it... I am going running after this," she said to him. "You know... DADA assignments and all."

If he paid attention to things like that .

Ivan watched her movements again and had to swallow. Would she stop with that? It was distracting not to mention could lead him into a lot of trouble. He rolled his eyes at her sarcastic remark. "Really...I didn't know that..." But she still needed to stop. "Can you stop that it's...distracting."

Wait DADA assignment? What? "What DADA assignment?" Was that why all those kids had been in the training room? Hmm. "You want some company?" Wow he really was an idiot. Not to mention he wasn't dressed to go running.

Dropping her arm and looking up at him she shook her head and laughed. How could it be distracting when she was wearing frumpy sweats and such? BOYS. How typical of them?!

"You should pay better attention in your common room I reckon. Lord Borr owled in our assignments for the entire term, Ivan. It's all exercises and singing and dancing. Literally. Singing and dancing... and like... daily affirmations," she said with an eyeroll.

Leaning back down at the waist the grabbed both feet and pulled herself a bit toward the center. She needed to streeeetch.

"Can you run in Italian loafers, Ivan? Would you like to run change while I stretch some more?" she said with a quirked brow toward the ground. Seriously... boys... stretch in front of them and they go wonky in the head.

With his running gear on and a towel draped over his shoulders, Salander walked out onto the courtyard, thinking of having a jog and doing something about that DADA project. All he remembered was that they were supposed to do something healthy and jogging sure was one way to do it.

Just as he was about to tackle the stairs he noticed a familiar blonde-- Hello! "Hey there Lexi!" he grinned as he strode over, watching her stretch. Yup pretty limber she was. He crouched near her and, unable to hide the smirk added "Want me to help you stretch?" Of course he meant just as they are.

"Yeah I guess I probably should." Wait..singing and dancing???? "What does singing have to do with defense?" He could see dancing, maybe, it had it's uses. Least he could dance though so he wouldn't make a big fool of himself.

Then she was stretching again. Now she was just doing it on purpose he was sure. Wait...did she ask him something. "What?" he asked focusing again. Did she say change? He looked down and nodded, "I..umm..yeah I guess so. Be right back." And he was running off pushing past some younger students in his hurry.

He reached the dorms quickly, changed, and ran back down in a pair of tennis shoes, a t-shirt because it was getting rather cool out, and a pair of sweat pants.

Coming back to the courtyard he stopped he tossed the water bottle he had been carrying into the air and caught it with a smirk, "All set." The smirk fell though as he saw Sal and he decided it best to start stretching his arms so he brought one across his chest. Why did he always have to be there?

Lexi smirked to herself as she sat up in time to see Ivan scurrying off to get changed. HAHAH. Closing her eyes again she stood up and bent over laying her hands on the ground. Oh!

Hearing a familiar voice she looked up and smiled. "Sure hon! How about you sit down in front of me, spread your legs as far as you can and then we will grab hands and you lean your body back, pulling me so I can stretch a bit more," she said as she folded herself down on the ground once more.

Oh! Smiling at Ivan she patted the ground beside her. "Come on... you both have to stretch before we go running. Otherwise you will regret it," she said with a smile.

"Alrighty!"The Slytherin lad grinned very happily and sat himself across from his Gryffincess, their shoes touching solidly. He reached out for her hands and started to pull her towards him, gently at first, then pulling further with each pass, bracing his shoes against hers to steady her.

It was then that he glanced up to meet Ivan's lone form, who didnt seem to be too pleased seeing him there. Salander offered a kindly smirk anyway-- they always seem to be finding each other in this kind of situation. "Ready to get some miles under your belt Ivan?" he asked the Ravenclaw lad then gave a quick glance at Lexi "There is some running with the DADA project right?"

Ivan raised an eyebrow at Lexi and shook his head. "I'm pretty sure I can handle running without all...that stretching. Considering I just ran up seven floors to change," he said pointing his water bottle at her. What was that anyway?

He opened the bottle of water and drank some his eyes falling on Sal and shrugged at his question. "Not like I don't do this regularly with James anyway." He reached down with one hand and brought his right leg behind him to stretch leg so he didn't hear Lexi gripe about him not stretching.

Lexi smiled across at him as she put her much smaller feet against his BOATS. Hehe. Boys were so much bigger than her. It was funny. Reaching out she actually wrapped her hands around his wrists and then let him pull her. Oh geez! She was feeling the burn on that one. Everytime he went back a little bit her little bottom came up off of the ground and she giggled a little bit. "Sal, I am little, remember. You weigh marginally more than I do and you are about to pull my arms out of the sockets," she laughed a bit.

Oh lookit him being all nice and stuff. She was proud of him. Mhm. Smiling at him and tossing him a little wink she nodded her head. "Stretching and running actually," she said as she pulled back on his arms this time... As far back as she could and giggled.

"Ivan..." she started but stopped when she saw him start to stretch as well. "Besides we get credit for stretching. Why not get it out of the way as well," she said with a nod.

"And stop trying to... show off. I live in the towers as well and stay in shape, but that doesn't mean I don't want company doing it now and again," she said with look that CLEARLY told him to be nice... she was wearing her wand in it's trusty holster. She was not above giving him a little incentive to run faster. SMIRK.

Luke watched as the two dance. It was quite a sight; considering Oakey was shorter than Isobel. He didn't want to be rude-well, he kind of did but he didn't want to make Isobel mad. After the two had danced for a while he tapped Isobel's shoulder. "May I have this dance?"

Isobel felt a tap on her should and looked to see Luke. The tops of her cheeks slowly turned pink as she let go of Oakey. "Sure," she said softly to Luke. "Oakey, I hope you don't mind." She turned around and took Luke's hand. The other one she placed on his waist.

Half-nodding, half-shrugging at Ivan, Salander replied "Good! So we can all keep more or less the same pace." Whatever pace that would be heh. "Where is Jim anyway? Is he trying out for Quidditch this term?" After the close call last term, Salander wondered if his buddy would want to take a break, unfortunately this year being his last.

He turned his attention back to Lexi when she started to speak. Oooops. "Sorry Luv, I didnt realize my own strength, " he grinned sheepishly and went a little easy on her stretching. When it was his turn, he could feel the muscles through his upper torso beginning to stretch as he bent forward. It felt good but-- "Pull further on the next pass Lexi." he said as he started to pull her back towards himself

"Oh yes just what I care about. Homework..." he said rolling his eyes and switching legs so his left leg was being pulled behind him now. She knew better than that. The chances of him even turning it in was slim to none.

He looked at Lexi and raised an eyebrow "What I'm not showing off. And I just said I go with Jim." Geeeeeeeeez. If he wanted to show off he'd have done a lot better at it.

Dropping his leg Ivan turned to Salander and nodded, "Well you are supposed to keep pace with each other when you run with other people. Unless it's a race of course." Jim? Oh he was friends with him wasn't he. "I think he's helping Mia with some spells. She asked him to work with her the other day while I was down in the Defense Training Room. And no he's not." Probably a good thing too. Last thing his best friend needed was another concussion.

Lexi shook her head and chuckled a little bit. Boys. What can you do? "It's not hard to forget your strength with me. I think my personality gives others the impression that I am bigger than I am," she said with a chuckle and a wink.

Nodding her head she pulled harder on his arms and bent back so far her lower back was brushing the ground. She would stretch him out. "The three inch height difference is hindering the stretching for you, I think."

She shot him a LOOK. Sighing slightly she shut her eyes and took a deep breath. No getting angry. She would work all the aggression out. THAT was the answer.

"How far do you two want to run today?" she asked them. Mhm. She was used to running a lot... seven or eight flights of stairs a day... it was rough, but she was used to it by now so she was in better shape than those not from the towers. Hehe.

Cove was back out at the courtyard.........for the fourth time this week. SHe was so BORED! She needed someone new to talk too!

No not at all Oakey said releasing his hands from Isobel.

He looked over at Luke next. He winked at him, a wink that if read right could mean She's all yours pal.

Oakey took a seat on the "warm" ground watched the two of them dance.

"Well babe, you are a lot stronger than you look." he grinned, and deftly wiggled a brow at his Gryffincess. Which frankly to him, isnt a bad thing. Not a bad thing at all heh.

As Lexi began to pull back farther, Salander bent forward and feel his muscles stretch even further "Thats it!" he encouraged her, his voice muffled slightly as he bent forward. Twisting his head the other way, he managed to catch onto what Ivan said "Jim aint trying for Quiddtich? Iz too bad for the Claw team but 'least keeps Jim safe. He be lucky walkin around after last year."

When it was his turn to give Lexi her stretches he added "Jim.... Defense Training.... right he mentioned something about that to me..... " maybe he should swing by the training area, see whats going on with it. Goodness knows he can use an advice or ten with his spellcasting.

After a few more stretches he straightened up and considered Lexi's question "Eh, whichever Luv, twice around the lake and a round along the grounds is what I usually do. Is that far enough for what the DADA project needs?"

Connor saw the fluttering ribbon that was caught on his robes. He got it and placed it in his pocket. He glanced up but noticed that she was looking away. He reached up to run his fingers through her hair just once. It was as soft and silky as he had imagined.

He reached inside his shirt where he kept the charm she had given him close to his heart and pulled it out, twisting it through his fingers as he did when he was alone. "I know about being different Kurumi. I've been this..this thing all of my life." He sighed, then continued. "I'm not a human being and I'm not a veela, I'm a monster and when I get angry I don't like what I become. There are things the veela does to me that I can't control and very literally I become a beast." He turned his head away so she couldn't see his tears as he spoke. "Do you ever wonder why I wear makeup all the time? it's because I can't bear to see my face. It reminds me of the first time I ever got mad enough to transform."

He looked down at his hands and saw the claws they became. "I was a second year at Drumstrang and some of my roommates were not very nice. My fear of fire came out somehow and I woke with three of my roommates standing around my bed. One of them had a muggle lighter and set my bedcurtians on fire. I yelled and screamed and cursed them and tried to put the fire out when one of them laughed at me and I got so mad that I turned into this..this thing. I opened my mouth to speak and instead of words it was more like the caw of a crow." He shuddered at the memory. "I jumped at the guy and I hate to think what I would have done if Luke, Dani's brother, had not pulled me off of the other boy. Luke had me by the arms and pinned me to the nearest chair until I calmed down, but before I did I looked at the full length mirror near the chair and I saw the face of the monster I became." He shuddered. "I wear the makeup so I will never have to see that face again." he didn't care if it made no sense. It helped him. "you say you've never seen what you can do, who you are. I'm afraid of what I am and what I can do." he whispered.

He looked into her eyes. "You say I deserve more than to be the one to turn to to help you forget. The thing is that I want you to." He sighed. "Not so much because I want to make you forget him Kurumi. I don't, I meant what I said earlier. It's because you are the only grirl ever to see the thing that I am and love me anyway. I don't ever want to loose that." He turned to her with tears falling down his pale cheeks creating tracks of tears and black eyeliner. "You said you came to a decision after reading the letter, what decision sweetheart? He asked softly as he reached into his pocket for his green handkerchief and wiped his eyes, removing the makeup.

"I don't want to remove myself from us Kurumi. I want us to have a chance. "

Kurumi tucked a few strands of her hair behind her ear and bit her lower lip as she listened to Connor talk about being part Veela. Why did it always seem like those she grew closest to were struggling with the same thing: being different. Selina had her visions that hung over her like a dark rain cloud, Connor with the very blood flowing in his veins, and herself with her metamorphagus abilities. Lexi had taken her aside, talked to her about not being afraid of her abilities and to embrace them rather than run from them. She had only recently begun to take that to heart and, as a result, had found that she was better able to control them.

"The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely," she said quietly looking back into his eyes. "Connor, I used to hate what I was too. When I learned that I was a witch and could speak openly with my father about it, I asked him why I had been cursed with metamorphagus abilities and not my brothers. We don't get to pick our blood, but we can decide what we do with it." She paused for a moment and looked around at the ground. Where had her ribbon gone? Oh well, that wasn't important at the moment. "I hate it when I change, transform, and I can't always control it. It frightens me, but you can't stop denying that part of yourself. It hinders you from greatness. It prevents you from becoming more." Lexi would be proud of her for this little pep talk she was giving. Kurumi too had finally begun to realize that she had been looking at herself as if the her with the ability and the her without the ability were two different people, and one needed to be shut away. Truth of the matter was that they were both the same person and THAT made up her.

She shook her head as Connor continued. "Y-You don't get it," Kurumi said sadly. "I think I like you, but I think I may like you because I feel that I need to fill the gap left by him leaving. It...it wouldn't be real...it would be me holding onto an idea," she flicked her gaze back up at him. "You are so much more than an idea, Connor. Don't say you want me to turn you into something that you are not. Don't you dare say that you would rather have me use you to dull pain instead of giving me time to grieve, find my footing, and then find you as a person, a man, and not as an idea that I want to hold on to." She wanted to add to not talk about love, seeing as she didn't even know where to begin with understanding it, but she hoped that that was at least hinted at in what she had just said.

"This is what I decided," she said in a low whispered as she removed the silver chain that hung around her neck and held it in her hands. "I'm taking it off, putting it away....looking forward." She looked at the ring and could almost hear Adam's voice calling her name, so she shut her eyes to hide the pain before it was reflected in her gaze. It took her six months, a letter a week from her, and one in return to finally figure out that she needed to let go of the school girl ideal she had been holding onto and take a small baby step forward.

The blonde Malfoy was walking across the courtyard when she saw a redhead girl all by herself reading a letter. Hmm.. Could be a letter from her parents or she could be sending one of to them...

The Quidditch obsessed Malfoy looked at this girl carefully. She seemed familiar.. She looked exactly like the redhead that had chased SuperBrae down Diagon Alley in the summer. And nice. Perhaps she was a Gryffindor or Hufflepuff? Emma walked over to the girl with a smile on her face. "Sending a letter to your parents?" she asked and pulled out of her bag her own letter to her own parents. "I'm heading off to post mine soon," she admitted. The redhead looked as if she was in her sixth or fifth year here.

"Mind if I sit down next to you?" she asked, beaming her a friendly smile. "I'm Emma. Emma Malfoy. Fourth Year Slytherin."

Samira nodded a bit in understanding, but inside she was perplexed. If he has told other people, why had they not helped him? Surely there were adults Levi could trust to tell. But that really wasn't her business, so she stayed out of it. It reassured Samira to know that Levi at least had some friends who let him stay at their place. "That's good. That you have friends that take care of you like that, I mean." The situation itself wasn't good at all.

What made Samira slightly angry was the fact that perfectly nice, decent Wizards like Levi had such a cruel life. Looking at the Gryffindor, Samira found it hard to believe he would even hurt a fly. Not to mention he was fully capable of magic, and if it wasn't for the stupid Wizarding laws, he could take on his father with only a wand in hand. But there was another thing nagging at Samira's mind. "Do you have any siblings?" Maybe that was the reason he stayed, to protect them. Or maybe to protect his mother. It was such a sad situation that made Samira ache for her friend. For the first time in her life, the Slytherin truly understood that bad things happened to good people.

"It is," he replied quietly, patting one of Vlad's wings. "It sort of takes the weight off the problem, you know? They're good friends. I'm sure they'd like you if you guys met sometime." It might have seemed weird but Levi usually felt more at ease around his friends back home than he did at Hogwarts. It wasn't because he was often surrounded by magic here but the place had different vibes. They varied, sometimes there were good vibes he got from people and other times, he could detect pretentiousness. The latter kept him from making a lot of friends in his own house because some Gryffindors could be that way. He was always yearning to meet people who were more down to earth.

At her next question, the dark-skinned boy nodded. "I have a couple sisters who live in Scotland but they don't really write that much and I have another one who lives at home but she's trying to get into this muggle university. She always out of the house but I can't blame her. Nobody wants to be around that crap." It seemed lame but Levi envied the fact that she had a car and could go wherever she wanted to escape that nightmare they called home. He still had to wait a few years before he would be able to become mobile like her. "I'll get out of there someday," he muttered, trying to assure her.

Kyle nodded yeah she had repeated herself, sometimes she did that. She was a little too, repetetive at times. Her own little fault. "Don't worry you didn't make a fool of yourself" Kyle tried to reinforce that - Selina was just being human and human wasn't bad. Human was good.

"You can stay there until she leaves if you want, or I can help you escape from her?" She offered with a soft smile, even though Selina couldn't see the smile from where she was standing. "Don't worry she and Vindictus sometimes scare me" she admitted in a hushed but honest tone.

Seeing the look that Lexi gave him Ivan had to force himself not to roll his eyes. He was being nice if she wanted him to be all enthusiastic about it she wasn't going to get it. He didn't have to cater to her every whim anymore that was Salander's job.

"Until I can't breath any more?" he muttered to himself. Of course that might actually take a long time since he was in pretty good shape.

Looking at Sal he gave another shrug. "I'm sure they'll find another person to fill his place. He wasn't too attached to that anyway." Actually he was pretty sure that he only got into it for the girls or maybe it was Finn. Meh he didn't care really.

"I don't really care. James and I usually just go around the grounds several times." Helped to stay close in case anyone was looking for you.