I'm spinnin' around, move outta my waaaay!

Before you bash Ainsley's taste of music, she was actually listening to a muggle radio station, with her large headphones in, despite this not being the normal type of stuff she listened to. But in spirit of the song that was playing right now, a sudden burst of energy flitted through her feet and she was now, quite literally, spinning down the fifth floor corridor. Woooh yeah, no one stop her, she was a STAR.

...
KERPLONK. Well, yeah... she should have predicted something like this would happen. People of Hogwarts were so clumsy these days, so having your eyes closed and spinning towards them would NOT help the situation. Pulling her headphones off, Ainsley regained her balance and blinked once or twice in the girl's direction. Duuude, she was ruuude. Maybe it was time to unleash her inner Slytherin and tell her off.

Maybe... maybe... "Oh, I'm so sorry." FACEPALM. As she looked at the angry girl a bit closer, Ainsley's eyebrow raised. "Have we met before?" She definitely looked familiar. But she knew hardly anyone in this place so perhaps it was just her imagination.

Adam was looking for a change of venue. He had been in the library far too often this past week, and honestly he was getting a bit bored with the never ending rows of shelves of books. He supposed that happened with just about every place that someone stayed in for too long...even in your own home you needed to go to different rooms of your house to get a change of scenery. So here Adam was, walking down the corridor of the fifth floor, with his book propped open.

He should have known it was not the most intelligent thing to be reading and walking at the same time, but when one is as sleep deprived as he was things that seemed to be common sense weren't always so common sense. So just as anyone could have predicted Adam ended up tripping over a stone tile that was just slightly more elevated than the rest, and he went sprawling. The book he was reading flew out of his hand, bouncing a couple of times before landing with a rather loud thack a couple of feet away. Meanwhile Adam was lying face down on the stone ground, hoping that the usually busy corridor would be empty....just this once.

Smiling, Ellie was. For absolutely no reason other than it was December. Was that not reason enough? Her first match as Captain was coming up, Christmas was coming up, the winter break was coming up. December was such a lovely month, wasn't it? So lovely, Ellie was using the word 'lovely'.

Her grin widened as she saw a figure coming from the other direction. Adam. Only...he was holding one of those...things. Gross. Why would he do that? Why would he read? Especially while walking? Wasn't reading while sitting bad enough?

Then Adam went boom.

Ellie's smile vanished and her eyes widened. She quickened her pace as she approached him. She dodged the book, though. Yeah, not getting near that. "Bestfriend?!" Because Adam was her bestfriend. Totally. "Are you okay?" She crouched next to him. Honestly, the Captain wasn't too worried. How injured can you get by tripping? Quidditch had the potential to bring on much worse injuries and surely Adam, a player, was used to them. Still, though, he was her bestfriend and she was concerned.

Adam was still lying face down on the stone ground when he heard the sound of steps quickly approaching. Maybe if he just laid there the mysterious person would just move on and think he was asleep or something. Coughcough. Yeah....that probably wouldn't work...However when Adam heard the person say best friend and recognized the sound of the voice his whole body relaxed. Oh thank heavens it was only Ellie that saw him trip and not a complete stranger or worse...Rubiey. That would have been embarrassing beyond repair. When she asked if he was okay Adam pushed himself up slightly so that he was on his knees and gave Ellie a sheepish little smile. Definitely not the most graceful thing he had ever done in his life.

"Yeah...I'm alright," Adam grunted as he stood up. He shot the uneven tile a rather nasty glare before giving Ellie an embarrassed smile. "Note to self walking and reading at the same time are bad for your health." And that note was really to himself because he couldn't think of anyone else that would be as stupid as him to try it, but he felt like he needed to stay it anyway. He looked down to see a bit of a blood stain coming through his pant leg where his knee was, and let out a little sigh. "Not sure I can say the same for my knee though." Adam took a couple of steps towards the open bench, sitting down and pulling up his pant leg. Luckily it wasn't too bad, but it was bleeding more than one would expect. Pulling out his wand Adam gave a quick wave over it, the wound healing and the bleeding stopping instantly, before he let his pant slide back down his leg. He gave another flick of his wand and the stain was gone.

Ahh magic was a wonderful thing. "So, how are you?" Adam asked, patting the bench next to her in case she wanted to sit and chat with him. The book could just stay there on the ground and think about what it had done to Adam. "How is Quidditch going?"

Ellie returned his smile with a smirk. And giggled at his note. "I've found reading at all quite unhealthy myself." Books were scary, unpredictable and, clearly, MEAN.

Ew blood. She wrinkled her nose at the sight of his knee. Did he need a bandage or something? But before she could ask, he was up and hobbling over to the bench. She stood, too and watched.

In AMAZEMENT.

"How did you do that?" The heal-y thing-y. "Is that what they teach you lot in America?" Because that was cool. And convenient.

The fifth year obeyed Adam's patting and walked over to the bench, sitting beside him. He got over things quite quickly, didn't he? It made her giggle. "I'm very well. How about you?" And then he asked an awesome question. "Quidditch is going great!" Did he play? ...She....didn't see him there at the Gryffindor match, but...that hardly meant he wasn't on the team. And she didn't know the Lions' roster. "Your team played well in that last match." Nod. That was safe.

Adam chuckled at Ellie's comment about books in general being unhealthy. He had to admit that a part of him agreed with that statement, especially of late. The only thing books seemed to be doing for him at the moment were making him tired, making him freak out even more about the O.W.L.s., and now were causing him to trip and fall on a hard stone floor. While he was sure in the long run the knowledge would conquer these small setbacks, at the moment it was harder to see the bigger picture.

He gave Ellie an apologetic smile as she squirmed at the sight of the blood, before laughing at her amazement on how he managed to heal the wound and clean his pant leg rather swiftly. "I'm not sure if it's an American thing, but it's a convenient thing that I managed to stumble upon a year or two back. I took a nasty spill and the nurse at my school was really busy, so I just went to the library, found a simple mending spell, and there you have it," Adam said, giving his knee a little pat. "Tergeo is what I used to clean up the dried blood on my pants and around my wound, and for actually healing the wound...well...I'm not really sure how I do that. I kind of just point my wand at it and picture the same spell used to heal deep gashes, and it just seems to work." Adam gave a little shrug of the shoulders. Sometimes when people pointed these things out he felt like a bit of an oddball.

He noticed Ellie giggle as she sat down next to him, and he wasn't really sure why she giggled, but he smiled nevertheless. For some reason Adam always felt like he impressed Ellie, even though he didn't consider himself to be that skilled of a wizard...perhaps Adam was selling himself short. When Ellie said that Quidditch was great he gave her an enthusiastic smile. "That's great!" Then when Ellie mentioned the Gryffindor match Adam gave a small frown. "Yeah...I'm not sure we did as strongly as we had been hoping, but I'm sure we'll get better as the season goes on. Sadly, I didn't make the team, but we have a lot of talent so I'm not all that surprised." Adam wasn't really expecting to make a team as good as Gryffindor's when he had hardly played at all in the past three years, so he wasn't all that disappointed. "When is your first match?" Adam asked. He was going to be sure to be there whenever it was!

Ew. Ew ew ew ew ewww. He went to the library to learn to heal himself? Clearly, Ellie would rather bleed to death waiting for the Healer. It was probably true, though. Or she'll have to come find Adam.

Oh, yeah, tergeo. She could have guessed that herself. If she bothered. "Impressive." Really, it was. Even if he'd learned that spell from the library. Plus he did it nonverbally. Double impressive.

Gryffindor'll get better as the term goes on? Oh yeah? They'll see once they play HER team. Cause her team was awesome and would clearly win any match. But she was sad that he wasn't playing, and gave a half smile. "I learned that it's really hard picking who makes it and who doesn't. I'm sure it was an uber tough decision for Carter." SHE would have put Adam on HER team, though. Just saying.

"End of the month. You'll be in the stands, right?" Right right right????

Adam gave Ellie a warm smile when she said impressive, clearly in awe of what he had just done. "Um...thanks," Adam said somewhat sheepishly. "I wasn't so sure if I was going to make things better or worse the first time I did it, but luckily it turned out alright." In all honesty Adam was amazed that more things didn't go wrong in his life since he often just tried spells on his own without really learning them. He was sure this carefree way of teaching magic to himself would probably come back to bite him in the rear end later on, but so far he had managed to keep all his limbs in tact.

When Ellie mentioned it being hard for Carter to choose Adam gave a little nod. "Yeah...I figure I'll try and practice some more between now and the next tryouts next year, and hopefully I'll do better then." Adam thought that he had picked up something from Ellie's demeanor that she would have placed him on her team, but perhaps that was Adam's wishful thinking. Or perhaps it was his legilimens that seemed to always be creepily spot on whenever he was around Ellie...and really just Ellie. Maybe her thoughts traveled on the right frequency or something for him to pick up...or maybe this was not some creepy sci-fi movie that muggles enjoyed watching...

"Of course I'll be there!" Adam said with an enthusiastic nod. "It isn't by chance against Gryffindor is it?" Adam really hoped not, because if that was the case he was going to have a hard time cheering for Ellie without getting death stares from the rest of the Gryffindors in the stand...not to mention it was a major faux pas to cheer against your own house team.

That was so...Gryffindor, wasn't it? To just DO something without evaluating the consequences? Not that Ellie was being Houseist. She'd still love for him to have been a 'Claw. But it was amusing. "I'm awfully glad it worked out okay." Because what if he BLED TO DEATH. And she'd never have met him. And she wouldn't have a bestfriend.

What's life without Adam?

"I'll practice with you!" she spat out. Heh. She just couldn't get enough practice. Besides, it was funner WITH someone than on your own. But, yes, hopefully he'll do better. And then he'll be on the team next year and they could be rivals. Gameface rivals.

Hopefully he wouldn't beat her, though, because she learned that she DID care a LOT when she was beaten by people she thought she wouldn't mind losing to. She minded.

BEAM. "Nope. Hufflepuff." Which she was only slightly disappointed about. She wanted revenge on Treyen, but he wasn't playing. Hopefully, she'll just crush his team and feel better about it. Whether Treyen still played or not, it was still his team. It should feel just as satisfying, yes?

This girl actually apologized? Huh, she was strange. "Yeah, yeah, don't get all sympathetic on me. You're the one who needs to learn how to walk." Jade answered, holding out a hand to help the girl up. It's not like she wanted to get in trouble for having a girl bump into her and not help her up. Then again she was a Gryffindor, so she did have that teensy bit of a nice side to her. It was a cover anyways, but she would never admit it even if she had a kind heart.

Uhm? This girl sort of looked familiar but she knew that she had never talked to her before. "I'm not sure we have, but I've probably seen you in the hallways." The brunette shrugged. Had she? Eh, who cares so much, to actually think about that? "I'm Jade Skidmoore, fifth year, Gryffindor. You?" She asked, stating out the full details. Sure she could tell the girl about her nickname, but maybe later. That way she wouldn't have to answer questions about it over and over again.

Adam chuckled and nodded. "Me too! If not that would have been rather unfortunate!" Luckily for Adam someone, somewhere liked him and seemed to be keeping a pretty decent eye on him. When Ellie said that she'd practice with him, rather enthusiastically, Adam chuckled. "Alright! But you'll have to take it easy on me...being as you're the Ravenclaw Captain I am pretty sure that your Quidditch skills are going to far exceed my own," Adam said with a little smirk. And he believed! Ellie seemed like the kind of girl that took her Quidditch playing rather seriously, and that was something that Adam admired. After all he loved Quidditch, and anyone that was willing to be that much time and devotion into playing the sport and getting better at it was cool in Adam's book.

"Maybe you can teach me some tricks to help me make it on the team next year?" Adam didn't know what experience Ellie had with being a beater, but he figured if she was Captain she needed to at least be somewhat decent at all the positions, right? When Ellie mentioned they were playing Hufflepuff first Adam let out a little sigh of relief. "Whew! Now I can cheer for you freely without worrying about the other Gryffindors jumping down my throat...although I will say when you do play against my house I'll need to root for them. It would seem wrong not to, you know? But in my head I'll be quietly cheering for you," Adam said with a sheepish little smile at the end.

Ellie nodded far too vigorously. Merlin only knew what mayhem would have occurred had Adam failed at that spell. It was actually better just not knowing, and appreciating that he is all good and well.

Ohhh. She blushed. "No way am I going easy on you, though." If he wanted to get better, he couldn't practice against someone going easy on him, now could he? That was Ellie's philosophy, at least. To be better, you have to play someone better. That was why she'd asked her father to stop going easy on her yearrrrs ago.

Then, she fake gasped. "Teach you my tricks? I can't have the competition knowing my secrets." Nope. If she could wink, she would have, but instead she only smiled as she shook her head. "Though, as a friend, rather than a competitor, I'll help you out." Nod.

So he'll cheer for her? Good......wait....wait...boo, Adam.

Oh, wait, no. Ellie grinned. "Well thank you." Adam was definitely one of those good peoples that stuck by you no matter what. She like him. Her bestfriend.

Adam chuckled when Ellie said she wasn't going to go easy on him. "I suppose that wouldn't really help me get much better, would it?" Adam said with a little smirk. Really it was only Quidditch so what were a few bumps and bruises? Besides, if it made Adam a better Quidditch player, then the bumps and bruises would be worth it. When Ellie fake gasped about teaching her his tricks Adam's eyebrows went up slightly before he gave her a smirk.

"I suppose it might be dangerous to be giving the enemy secrets, although I would keep all your tricks to myself," Adam said, mocking locking his lips and throwing the key away. "So...this is a random question but how did you get into playing Quidditch?" Adam asked. Ellie seemed pretty passionate about the sport...she was Ravenclaw's captain which obviously meant that she was passionate about it...but he wondered if she had just watched a game and enjoyed it, or if there was a person in her life that got her interested in it. Adam himself had just kind of stumbled into it at the suggestion of a friend, and that was about it.

"Exactly." Nod. That was precisely why she should not go easy on him. Plus, she could get a beneficial practice out of it as well.

Hah. What was he doing with his lips? Hahha. "I don't know, you Gryffindor's are fairly sneaky." Anyone could be sneaky, actually. Ellie would totally pass on any secrets that were given to her if it made the team better.

Grin. Very lovely question, Adam. "I've been playing since forever," she shrugged. Though, it seemed like a fond memory, even if she couldn't remember the day she'd gotten on a broom. "I had one of those toy broomsticks since I was really young." Probably since she could walk. "And then my dad, he played Quidditch here, and probably well before, as well. His dad played, too, see." It was a Stone thing, apparently. At least as far as the men in the family went.

And Ellie.

"So, once I could understand the rules, I've been playing with my dad, grandpa, and godfather in the backyard."

That was the long way of answering his question, she supposed. It was probably more information than he needed to know. But basically, it was instilled in her from a young age.

"What about you?" Being Muggleborn and all. "Did you just try it out your first term at school? Or second?"

"I can walk perfectly fine, thank YOU!" Ainsley furrowed her brow a bit, and completely shook off her gesture to help her up. No, she did not want to touch this girl in case she was a poisonous toad dressed up as a student. Struggling, the brunette finally got onto her feet, stood in a 'cool' stance and glared at the girl, up and down.

Hmm... Just in the hallways? That was unlikely because Ainsley rarely paid any attention to people who did not speak to her. OHWAIT. "No, I remember. We spoke at the freakshow... In Diagon Alley." Yeah, it was definitely her. Definitely.

"Nice to meet you," again... "I'm Ainsley Piper. Err, fifth year, Slytherin." Ouch, that was embarrassing. Ainsley was the Slytherin, yet she was not being the mean one in this conversation. Oh, Salazar... Forgive her and her lack of Slytherin traits. Then again, this girl looked much older than she did so there was her excuse. Anyway, anyway... "I wish I was a Gryffindor, you know!" She said with a big grin, in hopes to actually put the rocky start between the pair behind them. A friendship could be formed and Ainsley was all for friendships! "They's like.... well cool..."
>______<

Adam chuckled when Ellie commented that Gryffindors could be sneaky. "I suppose everyone is sneaky about certain things in their lives," Adam said with a mischievous smile. He listened intently as Ellie explained how she got started in playing Quidditch. Ahh...so it was pretty much a family affair. *que Sly and the Family Stone song* hehe. "That's awesome that your dad played here too! What spot did he play?" Adam asked, wondering if he was Captain too. "It must be nice having so many family members that you play and practice with. Not to mention it sounds like they're all incredibly talented, so I am sure there's a lot to learn from them!" Adam said with a smile.

How did he get started with Quidditch? "A friend dragged me to a game my second term my first year at magic school. He insisted that I would love the sport, and that beater would be my position since I liked playing tennis so much in the muggle world. Um...do you know what tennis is?" Adam asked, not sure if Ellie was familiar with muggle sports at all. "Unfortunately I didn't stay at the school long enough for me to be able to try out the next time they were offering them, but I made sure to try out at the next team I went to. We actually did pretty well, and I had a great group of people I was playing with, but unfortunately we ended up moving again right in the middle of the term. I felt so terrible about having to abandon my teammates like that, that I decided not to try out for the team anymore. I'd occasionally play with people I met at my different schools, but that was about it." Adam had gotten slightly downtrodden by the end of his explanation. He did love being a beater and he was bummed that he had had to leave his teammates like that. Although Adam was happy to be at Hogwarts...if he hadn't come here he wouldn't have friends like Louisa or Ellie or Paulie or Adam, and he wouldn't have met his girlfriend Rubiey.

Ellie smirked. Too true, that was. Everyone had to have some little secret, yeah? Even if it wasn't secret to all.

Adam was right about that, as well. It WAS awesome that her dad played. And it WAS nice having so many people - her family - to play with. Ellie greatly appreciated that. Them. She never took her family for granted, and even thinking about them, and how she'd get to see them soon at Christmas, made her smile. "Dad was Keeper. For Gryffindor. It is nice. And they have taught me a lot." Grin.

Tennis? "Uhm...I might? Maybe just not by name..." Ellie was quite limited as far as Muggle sport knowledge went. Though, chances were she's seen it or something related to it during a visit with her cousins, but wouldn't be able to identify it.

"That's neat, though." It kind of always amazed her how those ignorant to magic adjusted and became so involved in their world. Like Vashti was incredible on the Pitch, and she was Muggleborn. It was also kind of funny how people would think that being born into a Wizard family gave you an advantage, and how untrue that really was. "But you'll be staying here a while. You should definitely join the team next term. In the meantime, I'd love to play with you." They'd already been through that conversation, but it was true.

Jade laughed a bit and shook her head as the girl ignored her hand to help her up. Oh well, that was probably the nicest thing she would ever do for this girl anyways. Her loss, then.

Was that an insult? At the freakshow? Hmm, possibly or possibly not. "I'm not sure if that was an insult or not, but I was not even around the freakshow. You know, you are doing a poor job at stalking me." She said, not impressed. If this girl knew where she was, well then she should have not said that she was at the freakshow, because she would never visit there. Never.

WOAH. Wait a second, rewind, play that back. ---> Slytherin? "Are you sure you're in Slytherin?" Jade asked, an eyebrow raised. This girl had to be kidding, but as she looked at the badge on the shorter girl's robes she noticed it did have the emblem of the Slytherin house. Hmm, strange. And this girl was complimenting Gryffindors? Oh goodness, Hogwarts had messed up the houses this year or something. "Eh, yeah, Gryffindors are pretty cool." She nodded, a bit taken aback by the sudden difference in personality Ainsley had towards her. "You just...don't seem like you would be in Slytherin, to be honest." She shrugged.

What was this mockery? Now the girl was laughing right at her. Pffft... Ainsley scowled lightly. But she was going to keep an open mind, because she really wanted friends.

"Ohhh, no no no!" She held up her hands and waved them about in her face. Just to make herself clear, okay. "There was a freakshow at the Carnival thingy... We had a conversation!" Ainsley thought back carefully, and Jade was much nicer back then. Maybe she hangs around with too many Slytherins. "STALKING YOU?! Don't think so, love." The blonde snorted. Yea, she wasn't always a little sweetheart.

"You need the memory part of your brain checking." She muttered, barely even opening her mouth as she spoke.

o__________O
Ainsley looked down at her robes and squinted her eyes at the little logo stitched on them. "Yes, very much a Slytherin." She said proudly as she looked back up to the girl. Nodding, the second year thought about changing her mind about Gryffindors. With the way Jade was being, maybe people had got it all wrong as to who were the mean houses! And actually, she was going to throw cockiness straight back, "are you sure you're in Gryffindor?" Cos she was MEAAAANN. "What, you expect all Slytherins to be utter cows?" Well, sorry to burst your bubble, Jade, but Ainsley was a sweetheart.

Sometimes.

Well that was cool! Adam had heard that children weren't always put into the same houses as their parents were, but he was pretty sure Ellie was the first person he'd met that that was the case. Or at least she was the first person who he'd learned enough about her parents to know that she was in a different house than her father. "That's kinda cool that you and your dad were in different houses. I hear it happens a lot, but still, it's pretty neat." Adam was quite envious of Ellie. He found it hard to imagine that he'd be able to find people during the summer that he could practice quidditch with. It was after all quite challenging to practice those kinds of things when surrounded by muggles and alone.

"It's a really fun muggle sport," Adam said with a little nod. "I can teach you some time if you'd like, but of course we'd have to go to a muggle park or something since I don't really know of any wizards that play tennis for a living or anything like that," Adam said with a little chuckle. When Ellie commented that he'd be staying here for a while Adam nodded. "My intention is to finish the rest of my schooling here. Unless some unforeseen circumstances come up, I don't see that changing," Adam said with a small smile. He was happy about that too, and when Ellie said that she would love to play quidditch with him his smile widened. "That would be great! I hoping by shaking off the rust and doing some more practice I'll have a better chance at try outs next term."

"Really?" Adam thought it cool that her and her daddy were in different houses? "I think it would have been cool to be in the same house as him." Given that she was so close to her dad. "But I'm in my mum's house." It wasn't too bad, though.

Right. Well, she got that much. "I'd love to learn it!" Yup, yup. She liked some Muggle sports, and if tennis was likened to Beating, it would most likely be one of them. Finding a Muggle park was no problem. In the summertime, at least.

"I'll work the rust off." Ellie nodded. Just ask her team. She pushed hard.

Jade never remembered being at the freakshow. Was she there? Maybe, but she did not remember! She must have been under a spell or something, because there was no memory of her talking to this girl whatsoever. Eh, it's not like it really mattered though. "Do you remember what we talked about then? Because I have no recognition of talking to, honey." She said, looking around trying to distract herself from talking to this girl. She had better things to think about, that was for sure.

The brunette shrugged. "Maybe I'm not supposed to be in Gryffindor, but some part of me is, I guess." She answered. How was she supposed to know what specific quality that was anyhow? She wasn't psychic. "Sorry, maybe it's just a stereotype. It's just that all the Slytherins I've met so far are pretty mean and insulting. Except for two. One is my friend, Nikolas and I'm pretty sure the other is you." She nodded. She was sure Ainsley would take that as a compliment. For it didn't seem she really wanted to be a Slytherin anyhow.

Selina walked down the fifth floor corridor. She was pretty sure that she was lost. Hogwarts never failed to trip her up, confuse her. There was not one thing that she did not love about her school, but she would, on occasion, get lost and discover something new. It was daunting in that way. She thought that she had seen all of the castle on numerous occasions, but then she would fall into some new secret place and she would be wrong. Hogwarts was wonderful and annoying that way.

All Selina wanted to do was find the staircase so she could go back to the Common Room. She needed to find Kurumi. She was having trouble with arithmancy and she was not going to ask Gideon for help. As of late he had been a tickling fiend and she wanted to get work done. Kurumi would keep her on task and maybe she would actually learn something with Kurumi around. No distractions, just good hard work... sort of.

But she was lost and she was going to die in this hallway. No one would ever find her and she would die and be left for the ghosts to sigh and float over... sad really.

Kurumi was walking on cloud nine as she made her way through the corridors of the castle. Her red coat was in her left hand and she was waving it back and forth aimlessly - sort of like she were waving it around like a flag or banner. She was humming a bit as she walked and still had the purple scarf Jonathan had given her around her neck.

Stopping for a moment, Kurumi expected to find herself on the seventh floor, only to find that none of her surroundings seemed to be all that familiar. Nope, she wasn't on the seventh floor. Oops. She probably shouldn't have been zoning out while she was walking around.

"Selina?!" she squeaked when she saw her friend looking like a wandering zombie. "What are you doing?"

Selina looked up from her fetal position on the floor to see Kurumi standing there looking especially smiley. At the sight of her friend she lunged at her feet and kissed them, "Merlin, you found me! I thought I was going to die!" Then she stopped and looked up at Kurumi. She looked kind of foolish now that she was thinking about it. Kissing Kurumi's feet and all. So she stood up and wiped off of her pants.

"Right... well, erm, how are you...?" Then she got a good look at Kurumi and said, "Why are you all smiley?"