Nika laughed and then straightened her back. "Well I'm a proud lion!" She said and added a tiny Rawr afterwards. She was willing to do anything for her house to win. Besides a bit of house pride can't hurt anyone. It's all friendly competition right? Well Nika is very competitive so she's going to do anything it takes to get Gryffies to remain on top.

The conversation was starting to get slower and slower so Nika thought that she might as well bring something else up too. "So what was that you were reading?" She asked with a smile. Nika was impressed, she didn't really like reading. Little did she know that Jonathon wasn't a fan either.

Nika skipped around the courtyard and readjusted her panda earmuffs. Even though it was the middle of winter time she loved the outdoors so she wouldn't let the snow get in her way of a nice walk. Besides she was always able to meet up with friends or meet new ones whenever she traveled out of the castle. She was beaming at no one in particular as she passed groups of students who seemed to be talking away. Looking around the courtyard she noticed a student crouching down and gathering snow. Maybe for a snowman!? NIKA WANTS IN!

She skipped towards the body still smiling cheerfully. As she got closer she realized it wasn't just a body. It was Ari's body!! "Heyy there! You going to build that snowman all by yourself or can I help?" She asked as she gave her firstie friend a sudden hug. Hey, it had been a while.

Proud Lions... they always are. Jonathan flashed her a smile instead of a smirk. Most people should be proud of their houses. That's what make them unite.

Book? Jonathan doesn't read. OHHHHHH... the book. She's referring to the one he's holding. "This one?" he lifted the book up for her to see clearly. "I don't read" he giggled to himself. "My mom gave it to me to read over the holidays but since I don't like reading at all, I'll be giving it as a gift to a friend" he shared that thought. Jonathan doesn't even know why his mother keeps giving him books when he specifically told her NEVER to give him books. The one he is holding is not even a school book. It's literary. Something mystery and murder perhaps? How would he know, he hasn't even opened the thing.

Fee's eyes grew wide as she saw Lynnie sitting there liek that.Was something wrong with her?Come on that couldnt be.Shouldnt Lynnie be bursting out in pleasure to see Fee?They hadnt seen eachother for sooo coome on Katelynn. And then the second year was walking away.Really?!The Slytherin was starting to get disappointed as she heard the brunette screaming her name.Hehe.That was waaay better."Lyyyynnniiiieeee",the blonde exclaimed hugging her friend while falling to the ground.Now that was a really wild hello.Hehe.getting up the third year readjusted her dress and her hair."I am good",she noded,"and you? What have you been up too? I missed you girlie."

Despite the fact that it was January, that the weather was bitter and it stung ones face, Roderigo walked through the corridor and made it out to the open Courtyard. Luckily, he had brought his extra cloak, which he hastily fastened over his robes as he looked around the stone courtyard. The gloomy overcast gave a gray aura to everything, and the sweeping drafts of wind certainly did make it quite cold. But Roderigo liked the cold weather; he preferred it over the sweltering hot summer weather. He began walking around, slightly bored. There were quite a few people in the courtyard as well, but he didn't know them and didn't want to bother them. Shoving his hands into his pants pockets, he leaned against a stone column that had a large gargoyle perched at the top. He had a break from classes and he needed to get out of the castle.

Managing to find his small, circular sled, Stephen rushed outside. It's not like he was actually going to do homework. He barely did because he just couldn't concentrate on it. Plus, Stephen would much rather be outside in the snow. Then probably get sick so he'd have an excuse not to go to class. But then Lexi would make him go to the nurse and get better in a second.

NO. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.

Jumping off the stairs to give him some air, Stephen jumped onto his sled and began spinning around. Losing control and his grip, Stephen's sled slid out from under him and kept spinning along, making him fall on his face into the snow. Laughing, he rolled onto his back and got up. "Gotta get lessons from Kat now," he mumbled, slowly walking towards his sled, which had stopped next to a boy leaning on a pillar.

"Sorry, it didn't hit you, did it?" he asked.

Just as his hands were beginning to tingle with numbness, Roderigo heard a loud noise from behind him. He spun around just in time to see a sixth-year boy fly into the air while a small, unaccompanied sled came speeding towards him. He had barely a second to get out of the way as it slid with a muffled thud against the stone column Roderigo had previously been leaning against. Relieved to see a grinning face, as opposed to one in pain, the seventh-year Spaniard couldn't help but smile back.
"No, it didn't hit me," he said, still smiling. "Are you ok, though? That didn't look too...ah...graceful." He picked up the sled, which miraculously hadn't been damaged, and handed it to the boy. Roderigo recognized him; he was in his house and only a year younger than him. But seeing as he had only been going to Hogwarts for the past year and a half, the chances of them having met were minimal to none. Brushing snow off of the hem of his cloak, Roderigo resumed his position of leaning against the stone column, only this time he had his arms crossed against his chest and he gave the unknown sixth-year a quizzical look.

Surprised by the hug, Ari didn't say or do anything for a moment, but then she hugged right back tightly. Ariadne loved hugs. 'Oh, Nika, I missed you!' she finally said. Taking in her appearance, the firstie noticed her friend's adorable earmuffs. 'Wow, those earmuffs are really cute!' she gasped loudly. Secretly, the girl wished she had a pair just like that.

'I'd be glad if you helped me. It's quite a lot of work and it'll get dark pretty soon.' Ari replied. 'The first bit is finished, we need one more just a tad smaller and then one for the head.' she explained. 'So, let's start.' Ariadne chuckled, wondering where this sudden cheerfulness of hers came from. Probably Nika's good mood was contagious. 'So what have you been doing lately?' Ari asked, while gathering some more snow.

"Oh, good," Stephen chuckled, taking his sled from the boy. Next time, he'd have to add barriers around it to avoid injury. But then the barriers might hurt him. Ugh. Stupid dangerous sleds! "Yeah, I'm fine. Maybe some bruising that won't show up till later. But when having fun, you sometimes need to get hurt," he laughed. Well, when they were his ideas, he wouldn't get hurt. If they were other peoples, ESPECIALLY Kat's, your life would be at risk. Oh well, they were fun so dying was worth it.

"I'm Stephen, by the way. It's weird we never really met considering we're in the same house," he said, pointing to the boy's robes.

Roderigo slightly marveled over the sheer recklessness of Stephen. It was quite humorous, and he couldn't help but grin stupidly as his new acquaintance spoke so freely of his current and future injuries. He tilted his head forward slightly in a sort of nod as Stephen introduced himself.
"My name is Roderigo De Lacerda," he said, reaching forward and shaking hands with his fellow Ravenclaw. "Ah, well that might be because I've only been attending Hogwarts since last term. Before that, I attended Wizarding school in Spain. " He said, answering Stephen's question. "You're a sixth year, right?" He asked. He stopped on the ground a few times, trying to compact the snow beneath him so that he was on level ground.

Now it was time for Nika to preform some sarcasm of her own. "No I was talking about the other book you had in your hands." She said chuckling. It was her best at sarcasm so you must give her that much. "Yes, that book." She said with a chuckle. Don't read? Nika read... if you counted the occasional muggle magazines, but even then she really only looked at the pictures. "Yeah I don't really read either. That's why picture books are my favorites." She said with a big, stupid grin on her face. She just left the reading for her friends... and the ravenclaws. "Why read when you can watch the movie!?" She felt a bit ashamed of saying that but it was true. Reading was for smart people, not the lazy.

Nika beamed at Ari, "I missed you too! It's really been too long!" She smiled appreciatively when her friend complimented the earmuffs. And the people at home said they were stupid. Heh. "Thanks!" Nika didn't really like hats or earmuffs too much, but when they were cute little animals who could resist!?

Nika jumped up in the air and let out a loud, "YAY!" The snow was actually a lot of fun. So far she made snow angels, had a small snowball fight, and now to make a snow man. She bent down to pack together some snow as she heard Ari speak again. "Oh nothing much. Just homework, classes, seeing friends, and oh you know the usual." She said with a small smile. Nika didn't even want to mention what had happened between her and Emily. She felt like she had already told too many people and she didn't want it to become a big deal. Besides she was already doing such a great job of masking her sadness. Why go and ruin a perfectly cheerful mood?! "What's going on with you?"

"Nice to meet you, Roderigo," Stephen nodded his head. Spain. ..Spain. Stupid Tyler popped into his head whenever he heard the word Spain. "Oh, so you're a transfer student, just like me. Except, I've been here since my fourth year. ..I think," he added. That seemed right. Seeing as the terms dragged on forever and it felt like Stephen had been here since his first year. But yeah, it had to be his fourth year.

Did he not look like a sixth year?

Well, he was kind of tall for a 17-year-old. And too old to be sledding on his own terms by himself. Pfft. As if he cared. "Yup. What about you?" he asked, guessing he was probably, most likely older than him.

'You'd think we'd meet more often since we are, after all, in the same House.' the young Gryffindor chuckled. But homework and classes took up so much time!Plus, all those weird things that were going on, with the pirate ship, and the X on the wall...Since the girl had been curious about that, she wasted spent a lot of time exploring or doing research in the library. To no avail, of course.

Ari laughed at Nika's loud yay; she had never seen anyone get so enthusiastic about building a snowman. 'Did you go to Hogsmeade?' Ariadne asked her friend, when she mentioned classes, homework and friends. 'And have you noticed how strange people are acting? This whole pirate thing?' Probably peculiar things always happened at Hogwarts, but this was really not something you'd see every day, not even at Hogwarts.

'That's probably enough snow.' the girl decided, putting the pieces together. 'Perfect.Now we need to find something for eyes, nose, mouth, hands...' her voice trailed off, as she already started looking around for approppriate objects.

Okay. In THEORY this was going to work. And be totally epic. IN THEORY. Lexi gripped her wand and looked down at her pink wellington boots and chewed her lip. Okay. This WOULD work. Certainly a certain amount of confidence would keep her from hurting herself too badly.

...

Taking a deep breath Lexi flicked her wand toward the cold, snowy ground and cast a nonverbal Aguamenti, thus creating a patch of ice. Mhm. So far, so good. Then she stepped back and cast Glisseo on her boots. Immediately she started to slide on her makeshift ice rink. HEHEHEHE. WIN! HOW FREAKIN AWESOME.

...Until she kept right on sliding since she had cast Glisseo on her shoes. Crud. Clearly she had not thought this through completely. She began to flail her arms, her wand forgotten, and shouted, "HELP MEEEEE!"

As right shoulder was starting to lose feeling due to lack of blood circulation, Roderigo stood back up and placed his numb hands in his pockets.
"Yeah, I transferred from Córdova, Spain right before my sixth-year," he said, nodding once more. "And, I'm a seventh-year." He added, answering Stephen's question. Despite being in the Courtyard, sheltered by high stone columns, the chilly winter wind still managed to sweep inside, causing Roderigo to shiver. Finally succumbing to the cold and wanting some warmth, he pulled out his wand. He was sure Stephen wanted some warmth too. He pointed his wand into the palm of his free hand. He gave it a small wave, and performed a nonverbal Blue-Bell Flame charm. Blue flames shot out and landed in his palm. He held out his hand so that the warmth could radiate between the two of them. "I was getting cold," he said to Stephen. He looked down at the sled in Stephen's hand. "Do you sled around here often?" he asked, grinning slightly.

Nika nodded as she furrowed her eyebrows. "Hmph. That's a really good point." Why hadn't they bumped into each other in the common room or even the dormitories? Hmm... odd. Nika would have blamed it on homework or something, but she normally does that last minute anyways... Probably because of all of the strange happenings around the school or something. But what's important is that they are together now.

Nika nodded with a toothy grin. "Yeah! I would never miss out on an opportunity to stock up on some chocolate frogs." she replied with a giggle. Besides she needed to hug some Slytherins for hug a slytherin day and what better place to find them than Hogsmeade. "Did you go?" Most students went just for the chance to get out of the castle for a bit. Then Ari mentioned the pirates. What was up with that!? "I know!?" She was just glad she wasn't the only one hearing everyone speaking all weirdly. "And Proffessor Vindictus, I think he's their leader or something..."

She patted the snowman a bit more as she tried to level it out. Then came for looking for the "accessories". Nika laughed as she too looked around to find things. AHA! She found two smooth/flat rocks lying in the middle of the snow and so she picked them up and showed them to the firstie. "These could be the eyes?"

Marie couldn't help but roll her eyes at Carter when he said him and her 'I'm too good for the family' cousin were good for each other. Good for what she had no clue.

Was she trying to look out for him? Pfft. As if. Well maybe, a little. She wasn't going to tell him that though. She wasn't even going to comment on that.

Pleasure to meet you? Wow, Carter needed to get out and meet more people if he thought it was a pleasure meeting someone that looked like they wanted to rip your head off, which she had a feeling Matty would be trying to do if she wasn't standing there with her arm around him.

What was he mumbling about now? Turning to look behind her she seen what Carter was looking at. Looks like her dear cousin was in some pain over there. Aww, too bad for her. Oh well, it got Carter to leave before Matty decided to punch him anyway.

Once Carter was gone she turned back to Matty. "Yeah, I'm fine. He didn't hurt me." He may have yelled at her a lot but he didn't hurt her. "I was on my way to find you before I got stopped and yelled at." Standing on her toes she gave him a kiss. "I missed seeing you in class today. Are you alright? You're not sick are you?" If he was she would be happy to take care of him... again.

*Matty growled at Carter as he walked away. Taking a long sigh he tried to calm his anger down. Feeling Marie kiss him he smiled as a good bit of the anger just melted away. When she asked about why he wasn't in class he rubbed the back of his neck. He knew that she would not like his answer one bit.*
"I was talking to my uncle... about the war... and how I might join S.A.M and not finish my last year here at Hogwarts."

Danny wandered outside of the castle and wrapped his scarf tighter around him. He did not care how cold it was, he would rather be outside than inside. He took a step toward the courtyard and found a quiet place in the corner. He dropped his bag on the ground and slumped down against the wall. Something about being outside always relaxed him.

He began thinking about his nephews and how he was going to be an uncle again pretty soon. Everybody in his family was debating on what the gender of the new baby was going to be. His mom was positive it was going to be a boy while Sammy argued that it was going to be a girl. Benny was hoping for another boy but Mona (his wife) was hoping to have a little girl. Danny was staying out of the argument but he had a feeling it was going to be a girl. He didn't know where he was getting the feeling from, but he couldn't see them having another boy.

As his mind began to drift again, he couldn't help but think 'Where did the time go?' He remembered when he was just a first year and now he was a sixth year? Almost a seventh? Almost graduating? It was almost too much for him. But he couldn't help but smile. After all he had been through, it was nice to be able to smile again.

Watching Matty rub the back of his neck like that Marie knew she wasn't going to want to hear what he was about to tell her. He seemed to only rub his neck like that when he had bad news.

And she was right. Not only was the news bad... it was news that scared the hell out of her. Falling back on a nearby bench she didn't even care that she was sitting on snow. "You're not... going to finish school?" She asked trying to fight back the tears. Visions of him laying there in his bed almost dead this past summer kept flashing through her mind. She hated the thought of him joining S.A.M. She seen what happened to him while just in training. She couldn't bear to think what would happen to him once he joined and was actually fighting in a battle.

It was odd how fast the year seemd to be going by. It felt like just a moment ago, it was October. Suddenly November had gone and passed, and December; Unlike the last year, she had gone home for the holidays to be with her family and Legend's, and of course it had been more than worth it. Going home was a very needed escape from classes, homework, NEWT preparations, from thinking about how quickly time was passing and how Orlando and Danny would handle being the last two of their group left at Hogwarts. Katie already knew, Lando was not happy about it. And now, now it was January. Another month gone by too soon. Another month Katie was not ready to leave behind just yet.

Tugging at one end of her scarf as she adjusted it, the red fabric soft against her cold hand, Katie dropped her hand back into her coat pocket and continued to walk through the courtyard slowly, no Nova thumping along in front of her this time. Few students were around, and even if there were more, Katie surely wouldn't have missed the young boy sitting on his own off in the deserted corner of the couryard. A small, warm smile appeared on her lips at the sight, and her feet quickly changed course to guide her toward him. The faint sound of snow crunching beneath her shoes was probably the only sound that came from her before reaching the sixth year and without a single word uttered, carefully sunk down into the snow beside him on the ground and leaned her back against the cold stone wall. "Hey Danny," Katie greeted quietly, a soft voice reserved for her cousin's sake. He looked a bit lost in thought at the moment, and she had recently come to know the feeling.

A slight wind began pulling lightly at his scarf, so he wrapped his right hand around the end to prevent it from flying off. His other hand was drawing absentmindedly in the snow. He let the whispers of other students float around him; not focusing on any one student. People were walking all around the courtyard, so he didn't think anything of it when another set of footsteps came toward him. However when they stopped near him he tuned back into the real world and looked up to see a young woman standing above him.

And a young woman she was. Danny could not believe that Katie was going to be graduating in a few months. It was not going to be the same without her, Legend, Jae and Mat. It was only going to be him and Lando! It blew his mind how Lando shot up in height. Lando and him were always the short ones of the group, but Lando finally got his growth spurt and towered over him now. Even Katie was taller than him. But that was nothing new. Katie and the rest of them have always been taller than him.

His mind was wondering again. He barely registered Katie sliding down the wall to sit down next to him. Her low voice brought him back to reality again. He was no longer the jumpy little boy he used to be. It helped that his friends (Katie and Jae more so than Legend and Mat) used lower voiced when talking to him.

Danny gave his cousin a smile and laid his head on her shoulder. It always soothed him to lay his head on someone else's shoulder. He only laid his head on people he was really close with and he often did it more to his family members than any one else. Her curly hair tickled his nose and he let out a soft chuckle before moving a piece of her hair behind her ear.

"You are graduating soon." he said barely higher than a whisper. Luckily his mouth was close to her ear, so he was sure he had heard her. "I'm going to miss you, Katie."

*He knew that she would not like this news and he was right. Seeing her go and sit down wasn't a good sign but seeing the look in her eyes was a very bad sign. Getting on his knees in front of her he rubbed her cheek and gave her a warm smile.*
"Hey... no need to be sad. I wont get hurt like last time again okay? I will always come back to you..."

Marie tried holding the tears back but when Matty started to rub her cheek the tears started to fall. "How can you say you won't get hurt again after what happened the last time?" She did NOT want to get another letter from his uncle telling her he had been hurt again... or worse...

No, she wasn't going to think about the or worse part. She couldn't. Thinking about that hurt too much. Looking into his eyes she still had tears running down her face. She wanted so bad to ask him not to go but she knew she couldn't. She had already tried that once over the summer and it didn't work. She was pretty sure it wouldn't work now. She didn't think there was anything that would change his mind once he had decided what he was going to do.

This day was just getting better and better.

NOT!

Stephen nodded. So Roderigo most likely didn't know Tyler since he went to America when he was five. Good thing for him too. "So after this year, you'll be leaving," The thought of leaving Hogwarts was kind of sad. Not just for him, but for anybody. No more free food. Speaking of which, Stephen was kind of hungry now. But not enough to actually eat something. Ehh. "Do you know what you're doing after Hogwarts?" he asked. Was that being nosy? Well, curious was more like it. Yes. That was it.

Looking down at his sled, Stephen answered, "Not really. Once in a while, when I'm feeling an adrenaline rush. Other than that, I throw snowballs at little first years with my friend Kat,"

*When he saw her tears start to fall Matty shot up and put his arms around her. He wished that he hadn't told her at all but he would never lie to her. This was what he was made for, to protect others.*
"Marie... what happened last time was my own fault, I was stupid and got myself hurt. And now with all that happened last time they wont let me even get a stubbed toe let alone a curse shot at me... Please don't cry..."