She knew his birthday was soon but she had no idea still, what to get him. After all, she planned on it - it was only nice. "Well then if you ever need a hug ever...just ask" even though she did feel nervous saying that right then.

Maybe I should appologize for Hannah? She thought for a second, but that moment itself had left her so panic stricken that she dind't feel like being the one to bring it up. "Ooh that would be great - I have to warn you...she's not that 'approachable' at times." That was the nice way of putting it - it almost seemed that she had the personality of a Fanged Geranium.

"Anyways, um - so what brought you to the treehouse?" She asked, smiling, even though yeah that might have been the worst topic change ever - brilliant work there Kyle. You might have made things awkward in one go - B-R-I-L-L-I-A-N-T. Yes she felt like her skin was crawlinga at the moment but she wasn't about to let that on - nope. She wasn't going to act like she was nervous talking right then - but if you looked close enough the tip of her nose and her ears were slightly more pink than normal. Still, to notice that, you'd have to study her face, and that...she didn't know if he'd do that.

Zara smiled and nodded slowly, "Okay. It's fine with me," she looked at William. "It's settled then."

" Ok, I will be wearing my dancing shoes" William told Zara. " See you there" William said to Zara.

Matt nodded, a large smile breaking out on his face. Of course they were ok. It was as if it needed no answer, 'cause the answer was plain and simple. Of course. It made him feel slightly stupid, deep down of course, 'cause a warmth had spread through him, like a blanket thrown over his shoulders or hot cocoa running through his veins. Made him feel a little golden. 'Cause of course they were ok. Who was he to ever doubt that? Well, he was Matt. And of course Matt was a little dim sometimes.

"Brother and sister." He smirked. "Sounds like you and me." He often had fights with his siblings back home, although, they tended to be more violent. The thought of throwing punches at Zara made him frown a little; no, he could never do that. He could never hit a girl.

The first year noticed the change of tone, and turned his head to meet her gaze. He had to strain his ears to hear the soft breath of her voice and it took a few moments for what she said to sink in. He looked down at his feet then back at her face. "Well, I'll always be your brother." He smiled. "That is, if you'll have me."

Zara nodded and smiled. "It's getting a little late, I think I should go back now," she got her bag and bowed to William. "See you there!" And off she went.

Really? Zara looked at Matt's eyes. 'My brother.' That sounded nice, it was right. The thought made her smile. "Of course I will, Matt." She told him softly, as so not to disturb the silence of the atmosphere around them. "Brother," she repeated, smiling to herself. She had a brother now, though not a biological one. Still, it was more than nothing.

She let go of her hug at her legs since the weather was being nice now, and leaned on the railing, looking straight again. In her head, she kept repeating, 'Brother,' because it just sounded right. Perfect. It was a happy moment for Zara.

After a few moments of silence, she realized it was getting dark. Maybe she has to go back now. She sat up straight and looked at Matt, "Hey, wanna go back now?" Or maybe she'll go back first. Maybe Matt needed to stay there a little while. Either way, whether Matt would come or not, Zara needed to go inside. She missed the common room already.

Matt smiled too. He'd said the right thing, it seemed. Zara Griffiths, his newfound sister. SISTAHHH. He felt like he should join a nunnery now or something... Oh well. He could think about that when he left in six years time. He could pull off the outfit, he bet he could. Sexy Matt nun. Oh yeah. My head...

"Yup." He leant back, eyes closed, grin tugging effortlessly at his lips. "Although, I promise I won't be too annoying. 'Cause I know some brothers can be.. I'll just pester you every morning at breakfast, and when I finally learn how to play the guitar, I'll play you awful songs til your ears fall off, and then, I'll stick them back on with stickytape, 'cause that's just how much I care." He turned to face her. "Joking." he said, booping her nose.

He yawned. "Sounds good." It was getting dark after all. The common room sounded rather pleasing right about now, all tucked up on one of those plushy sofas. The thought made him go warm again. Dayuuum, he could do with some cocoa.

Zara chuckled. Well, it was okay with her if he did that everyday. Really. Hahah, Matt singing. Zara couldn't even imagine it.

"Okay then. Next destination for me: sleep." She grinned and stood up. Climbing down the treehouse, Zara yawned and lazily walked back to the common room, hoping to get some ZzzZ's at the girls' dormitories. Brother. Hihih, she couldn't stop thinking about it on the way back.

Matt followed her, trailing by her shoulder. Well, there you go! What a day. He'd had his first firstie fight, found out he only had girls as friends...which was weird...And now he'd gained a sister in one of them. It was cool, too, that his newfound sister was also one of his best friends.

"One more thing." he said, as they made their way back to the Common Room for sleepytiems. He held up his pinky, a small smile on his face. "No more pathetic quarrelling?" *pinkyswear*

"One more thing," he had said. Zara turned back and faced Matt, her left eyebrow raised. "No more pathetic quarreling."

Easy. Zara smiled, and held put her pinky finger and sealed the promise.

Jeez, Tara looked genuinely terrified of Samira. She wasn't that scary, was she? Poor little Hufflepuff was probably just embarrassed.

Oh no!

"Oh, Tara." Samira looked at her in concern. "Don't cry, sweetie. Everyone sneezes. It's fine, see? No biggie." Samira pulled out a pink tissue from her bag. "Here," she handed the tissue to Tara delicately.

"Classes are fine. I'm not too fond of the new professors, though." Samira knew Tara was trying to change the subject, so the Slytherin didn't say anything else about the sneeze. "Shaw is insane. I'm seriously worried about my safety around him. And the new Ancient Runes teacher can't even speak English! It's annoying." Samira rolled her eyes, thinking about how the Ministry keeps on interfering with her school. "How about you?"

"Well then! Welcome to Gryffindor!" Kurumi smiled giving the first year a soft golf clap. She was just a few months late, but it still counted. Her cheeks turned a soft rosy color when Ella complimented her name. "T-T-Thank you," she chirped bowing her head a bit. "I-I-It's Japanese for Walnut."

Kurumi blushed a slightly deeper shade of pink at Zara's words. Kurumi was glad that this little first year lion was opening up to her. Perhaps even one day they could play a duet on the piano together. Kurumi knew a few songs that required two people for it to sound proper. She supposed she could always brew a potion to grow herself another set of arms...but that seemed to be a little dramatic for something so simple as playing the piano.

Kurumi then began to think about what song they all would know. She was pretty sure that the songs she knew were not ones that the others did seeing as they were songs from her childhood in Japan.

Before Kurumi could come up with a decent idea besides the alphabet song, Kurumi heard Nessie offer up a suggestion and her stomach tied in knots. Yeah, she knew how to sing that song thanks to a certain rather LARGE man. Not exactly the most pleasant of memories to be sure.

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Kurumi nodded hiding her discomfort behind a smile.

" Bye til our dance lesson" Wiliam told Zara.Wiliam wonders why all the girls are bowing to him." Just get ready to have fun" William said to Zara.

Simon nodded as she seemed to repeat herself about asking her for hugs, not taking much notice of it other then if he ever needed on she'd be the first he would go to to ask for one. Woah...where did that thought come from...the whole comfortable with being so close with a girl and to look for help with a female friend? He took a breath trying to focus back on what else Kyle was saying, nodding to show understanding.

"I stand warned then," he replied moving slightly becoming slightly restless so he came closer to the base of one of the trees that supported the house. The Gryffindor absently wandering before leaning back against the trunk.

"My feet..." he teased with a chuckle at her question before waving off his weak attempt at levity. "But it kinda works seeing as I was just wandering and came here. Mina says its a family trait...wandering that is," he said with a shrug. "What about you? Just wanted to climb? Cause I doubt falling was in the plans," Simon mused with a friendly smile. He didn't know why he was chatty at the moment, the words just seeming to come at him.

She couldn't help but chuckle not only when he had said that he was warned but also when he had said his feet had brought him there. Yeah, even if he thought it was a weak attempt at levity it still made her laugh. Then again what didn't?

"Oh yeah, thats true...falling wasn't part of the agenda today" she nodded before considering pointing to the reason - or just saying it. "I - well, climbing...was part of it - I had a sort of reason to climb" she admitted as she looked over to the climbing rope.

The same rope that there was still a bit of a sandal stuck on. Thank you for ripping it rope great job. "Um, if you look up there by the railing" she pointed to near the end of the rope where a small black splotch could be seen. Well, it looked more like a wedge or something a little larger than a splotch after all it was rather high up there. "I climbed up it a week ago, and well...my shoe got stuck" she admitted sheepishly.

Brushing her hair out of her face, and tucking her face down towards the ground as her cheeks began to flush incessantly, after all it was embarrassing to say you lost your shoe on a rope. "I was climbing and got stuck" she admitted, "and no one even tried to help - I was pretty much stuck up there for half an hour until I could get my wand out of my pocket without falling and getting stuck upsidedown...My aunt Ali told me it was a family trait from my grandmother" she admitted sheepishly. Her cheeks even more red now even though she didn't bring up the fact that her other shoe was stuck on the railing so, instead of being upsidedown she would have been doing a mid-air-split for a while. Perfect yearbook shame moment there.

Mia was seriously considering placing the babbling curse on Evelyn. Maybe then she could get more than two words out of the girl. There was just one probalem with that though. She didn't know how to cast the babbling curse. She wanted to ask the Slytherin why she had suggested a walk if she was not going to talk.

But before she could even open her mouth, Evelyn was now asking her a question.

Oh?

"Nik and I are great." Of course the girl had to mention the distance. "It's not easy." That was an understatement. Mia had been determined not to return but Nik had insisted that she finish her education. "But we're going to see each other every holidays and Nik is going to come to Hogsmeade. So hopefully it won't be as hard this term." She gave Evelyn a smile. "One of these days I should introduce him to my friends." Eh, would they even care though? She knew that Marie would.

Zara's eyebrow raised as Kurumi seemed a bit..uncomfortable. Maybe it was the song? "What's wrong Kurumi?" She asked, pouting a bit.

"Of course I will," Zara said enthusiastically. "Byee! She shouted as she was already going down the treehouse, taking every step carefully. Of course she wouldn't want to fall down.

"Well I suggested it so yeah!" said Ness giggling then smiling at them all.

"Are you ok?" asked Ness being able to see behind Kurumi's smile. She had been pretty upset latelly and knew exactly how to cover it, so she could easily see through Kurumi's smile. She smiled at her to try and comfort her and she hoped it worked.

"Okay then," she smiled to all of them, "On the count of three."

"One, two, three!" Then she began to sing.

Nessie opened her mouth and joined in. Nessie smiled at the everyone while they sang. If anyone must have ssen them they'd probbably think there was choir practise going on. Nessie giggled then carried on singing.

Zara smiled as Nessie joined in with her. She encouraged the others to join too. It was fun to sing. Heheh. Hogwarts, Hogwarts...

She was swaying also to the song. Left and right and left and right. Weee~ This is fun.

Nessie linked her arm to Zara's then joined her in swaying. She was having lots of fun!! This was probably the most fun homework could get. She smiled even wider, so she could enjoy the moment more.

Ella smiled and nodded at Kurumi. 'That's so cool!' Then she stopped. 'And don't you have a cat?..' She ahd seen her little Henry running aorund with another very fluffy, and very pretty kitty.

Ella jumped. Oh. They had started singing. Taking a deep breath, Ella joined in. She new the words already.. naturally.

" I know you will have fun" William told Zara. " Bye" William smiled.

Brittany walked out to her favorite place at hogwarts. She was so disappointed when it disappeared last year and was plesantly surprised to see it back. she looked around not knowing anyone so went over to one of the quieter space while looking out over the grounds

OMG trees! With houses in them! Jade had always wanted a tree house, but there were no trees big enough to hold a house in her yard. But hey, theres one here!

Running up to a tree, she began to climb it. As Jade drew closer to the thick branch she had her eye on, she mumbled to herself "Almost there." When she reached the branch the little twelve year old pulled herself up on to it and perched. Luckily she wouldn't have to climb down, for her branch was close enough to the tree house that she could just jump. Jade giggled to herself "I think i'll come here again tomorrow."