"I'm walking on sunshine , wooah
I'm walking on sunshine, woooah
I'm walking on sunshine, woooah
and don't it feel good!!" Lilly sang as she skidded along the corridor. One of the many childish things she did was skidding. That catogory also including jumping in the lake and screaming about how great it was to be back to Hogwarts. The girl would NEVER grow up. Ever. The reason for the screaming was because it WAS great to be back. BRILLIANT, in fact. Hogwarts was home, better than anywhere else and where she'd, for the first time, made real friends. They were like family. Harvey, Minnie, (even though she wasn't exactly Rose's) Justin, Ronnie (even though she'd left) and loads of others (like Ame and Daisy who she didn't really see much.)

Great to be back huh? I'm only a first year so hopefully I can sing that next year

"Hello," she smiled at the ickle firstie. "The best feeling, actually. I'm Lilly, second-year Gryffindor. And you are?" she introduced herself. "Muggle songs, ya know. Kind of...catchy," she grinned at the girl, feet still tapping on the floor.

"Oh, I'm Jen. Nice to meet you. I haven't heard much juggle songs. But the ones I have heard, are the ones that you might as well bang your head against the wall.

Arabella-Marie walked out of the common room and smiled she was glad to be back at school and she hoped that she would meet somebody new soon she looked about the empty corridor and leaned against the wall

"I'm a muggle-born. I hear them a lot," Lilly nodded. Oh yeah, she wasn't exactly a muggle-born anymore. Her mother had died and her world was slowly falling to bits. A tear glistened in her blue eye. " What hose are you in? Really?"

Auggie and Taryn had walked all the way up to the Gryffindor Common Room after stopping at the Slytherin one so that she could drop off her cat, Clara. They were now on their way to the owlery with the parchment he had picked out to send a letter to Tori Bunbury at Beuxbatons.

August had decided to grab her hand in his own when he returned through the Portrait hole by the way.

"So what are you going to write about?" he asked curiously as they moved around the corridor.

"I'm not really sure." Taryn admitted. "I'm hoping it'll just come to me. Maybe I'll copy off of yours." She was trying not to look at his hand and trying to think of what to write in her letter and trying to remember how to walk without tripping over herself all at the same time.

"Have you... uh.." Taryn was distracted for a moment, but then she shook her head and blushed a little bit. "Sorry." Eek. Hehe. "Um, have you talked to Paulie recently?" She was just doing that BFF thing, you know, checking up on the boyfriend like she'd promised.

Ari was constantly running to and from her common room these days, since it seemed she always forgot to get something, whether it was a quill to write with in class or a Chocolate Frog to munch on in between meals. When had she become so distracted anyway?

This time, the girl was returning from one of her classes to leave a heavy book back in her dormitory, but she got sidetracked when she saw one of her housemates, who was only vaguely familiar to her, leaning against the wall. OOOH! Maybe it was a magical wall or something, maybe you could pass right through it, like the one on platform 9 3/4. Deciding that this needed further investigation, Ariadne approached the other girl. 'Hey, what are you doing?' she asked with curiosity.

"You can't copy mine." he said with a small laugh. "Tori would obviously know and I'm sure she's expecting you to be all girly." August didn't know what he was going to write yet but he was sure it wouldn't be anything considered girly.

The Gryffindor looked at Taryn a little out of the corner of his eye as she lost her train of thought and then his expression turned into one of confusion. "Paulie? No why?" He had never really been friends with the boy and had hung out with him only a few times because of Tori dating him. They had seen each other a lot in the Common Room and dorms but that was about it.

Taryn SIGHED, "Why not? I'm sure you can write something to sound like it was from me, right?" Hehe. She giggled. She'd just keep it short and sweet, she was still planning on writing a second letter with all of the INTERESTING stuff in it. Stuff that she didn't want Auggie to see.

"Well, Tori kind of wanted me to keep an eye on him a little. Make sure he's okay and stuff..." You know? Did he understand, or was that a girly thing? "I'm not a Gryffindor, in case you haven't noticed." She grinned at him. HEHE. "So I don't often get a chance to see him."

SO. She'd thought maybe Auggie would know?

Arabella-Marie smiled at her fellow lion and said "Hey i was just time wasting till my next class and i was people watching"

"Let's not try and figure out." Auggie said with a smile. He had turned to look at her as she spoke about Paulie and they were nearing the end of the corridor that would lead them to the Owlery.

Make sure he's ok? "You and Tori know that he's older than I am, I'm pretty sure he knows how to take care of himself." The Gryffindor had no idea what his girlfriend and friend were thinking having him look after a sixth year but then it sort of dawned on him. "Oh, no no that's not too girly. I can watch after him for you and Tori. I will start talking to him more...since you're not a Gryffindor." he said with a joking look.

"I didn't notice that before, you know. I just thought you wanted to stay outside and chat with the Fat Lady." he was teasing her now.

"I think..." Taryn cast a glance around them, as if Tori would suddenly jump out from behind a corner and catch her, "I think she's mostly worried about him getting a new girlfriend." The blonde admitted with a sad frown.

It was something that she viewed to be inevitable, though. Tori would obviously meet other boys at Beauxbatons, and Paulie would obviously meet other girls here at Hogwarts... they were practically in different worlds now, right? Absence was supposed to make the heart grow fonder, but... sometimes it broke things too.

Taryn was NOT looking forward to dealing with that part.

All the sad thoughts about breaking up and changes made her grip on his hand just a little tighter. "Yes." She agreed, her sad frown turning back to a bit of a slow grin, "What a lovely woman."

Ah. So no magical wall. Pity. But people-watching sounded fun too. 'In that case, have you seen anyone interesting?' Ariadne asked, grinning. If she had enough time on her hands, Ari would sit somewhere like...the courtyard, and watch everyone go by, judging them silently.

'I'm Ariadne, by the way. Ariadne Marchbanks.' she introduced herself, forgetting all about her previous hurry to get to their Common Room. Things could wait when talking to a housemate.

Today was...kind of an important day, wasn't it?

He hadn't thought much about the importance of it when he became of age, but now that Ellie was joining him being of age as well, it certainly made him see things a bit differently. This time he was incredibly happy about it.

And she must be excited about turning seventeen, no?

Then, if he was happy...why was he slightly nervous, all of the sudden?

Either way, Treyen was waiting for the birthday girl, sitting in the same stairs they'd once been sitting on almost two years ago. Good memories, for sure. The best of memories, in all fairness.

Happy biiiiiiiirthday, dear Ellieeeeeee.....!!!

Yes, she was VERY excited. She was OF AGE today. OF AGE. It was only the most important, exciting birthday of her entire LIFE. And as if all the fun things that came with being of age wasn't exciting enough for her, she got to spend it with her BOYFRIEND. Which....don't tell her daddy, was better than spending it at home, really.

She skipped down from her dorm to see him....right there. Right there.

She continued down the stairs to the floor of the seventh floor and turned to Treyen. "HI!!!" Heehee.

And here she was.

The Head Boy had no idea just how much he'd missed his girlfriend until now, until the moment he saw her coming down those last steps and stand in front of him.

So, she seemed pretty excited, didn't she? And, actually, that energy was incredibly contagious and he couldn't help but smile at her, widely, and he immediately stood up.

The corridor was scanned with his eyes rather quickly. Apparently, Scabior had made him paranoid now, and the last thing he wanted was for Ellie to lose points today. And why would she be losing points? Because he took one of her hands as he replied to her greeting, "Hi, Captain," and his other hand went to her neck before he kissed her lips, gently. Once his eyes were open again, the same look towards the corridor was given.

"Happy birthday." His tone...pretty soft, which may have clashed with the excitement of becoming of age...but...this was more of a private moment, okay?

Ellie was looking at Treyen so she totally noticed the looking around thing. Her eyes even followed the second time. She didn't see anyone. It was a pretty secluded area, where the stairwell was. "Since when do you care who sees us?" Note that she really didn't care if he did and was merely teasing him. She liked privacy, too.

Actually, the birthday girl wouldn't even mind if Treyen neglected to answer at all because....SHE WAS THE BIRTHDAY GIRL!!! "Thank you!" BEAM "Guess what?!" she demanded of him. Her free hand rested on the arm that held her neck.

Oh, so she did notice. His smile changed to one of embarrassment, "Since Scabior...," he started to say, but never truly finished, it kind of didn't matter yes? Having a conversation about losing points was NOT the best one to have right now. "Doesn't matter." The smile just widened.

It didn't matter because she was here with him.

Yes, see, she was happy, so he was happy. That's how it worked. And now he was beaming as well...only not as much as she was. But...guesses? There were a million things that could be guessed, and he was horrible at it. Terrible. So, "You're of age?" instead of being super boring and ask her for what it was...he actually took an obvious guess. Because she was of age.

Wait...he actually had a reason?

But "Nope!" No, it did not matter. It didn't matter in the slightest. If he did so again, it might matter, but NOW, not at all. Not. At. All.

....That wasn't what she was going for, but it was TRUE, so Ellie's smile stayed. "Yes! But guess what that MEANS?!" But, no. Treyen wasn't going to be given time to guess, because his last was horribly obvious and NOT what she was looking for and she just wanted to TELL him rather than sit here ALL day WAITING for him to guess correctly. "I can do MAGIC!"

Which was only slightly disappointing given the fact that her birthday was during the school year...at the very beginning of the school year...when she could do magic anyway and she had to wait FOREVER until she was out of school and have Trace-less fun. But it was STILL exciting! And she could drink Firewhiskey, if that meant anything.

OH! "And APPARATE!" SO. EXCITING.

See. Didn't matter. All was...forgotten. But he'll keep an eye out, just in case.

Her smile. That was one of the reasons why he loved her. And...what did it mean that she was of age? It meant a lot of things, actually, and he had no idea where she was going with this either! At least he was almost on the right track, which kind of surprised him.

Yet she spoke soon after that, and he was glad she had done so, he would've never guessed...wait, what? Sorry, but this was incredibly amusing, which is why he burst out laughing, dropping the hand that held her neck. That was...the most hilarious thing she could've possibly said. "Haven't you been doing that most of your life?" Seriously, it was as if a five year-old was suddenly impressed of it.

Now, the laughter subsided just a little. And then she mentioned Apparition...well, he could point out that she had to pass her Apparition exam first...but..., "You can!" he matched her excitement...because...Apparition was simply awesome. Enough said. "Like me." Wink.

Ellie. Rolled. Her. Eyes. And stuck out her tongue.

EYEROLL. Hehe.

"You know what I mean." Treyen knew what she meant. She grabbed his hand and bounced. She was THAT excited. "I can do it at home. Real spells and you know what the BEST part is?" Again, she wasn't going to let him guess because...she was certain he wouldn't guess it. She was also pretty sure he wouldn't like it, but it was her SEVENTEENTH BIRTHDAY and she could get away with whatever, right? Right. "Little Professor can teach me how to do a Patronus this summer! Maybe I'll even be able to do a corporeal one!"

Her lip was immediately between her teeth when that last sentence came out. Her eyes flashed with something beyond excitement. What could her Patronus BE? What would it BEEEE?!

And apparition! Yes! "Just like you!" Ellie raised herself onto her toes as she said this, as if trying to match Treyen's height so she could truly be JUST like him.

Bonus, he winked. She loved his winks.

Well, that only made him laugh even more. And he'd thank Ellie for that...if only she'd known what the start of the school year was like. At the moment, he was only enjoying the laughter.

"Yes, that's very mature of you, Miss 'I can do MAGIC'," he said, so completely mocking her, and also...kissed her cheek. She looked mighty adorable, by the way. And, yes, he knew what she meant, that didn't stop him from thinking how hilarious it had been.

Treyen wasn't so sure if he wanted to hear what the BEST part of it all was, because after the 'I can do MAGIC' bit, well, nothing could top that.

And he was right about not wanting to know...but for a different reason. One reason that made his ever-widely smile fall a little bit, or a lot, "That's...," yeah, no, he still didn't understand what the whole deal with Jared was, it was all too ridiculous to him, honestly, she should've kept Nolan instead, Treyen liked Nolan, but no, it had to be Jared, "...Dallin is a good professor, you know." This was probably the first good thing he'd said about Dallin, though, "He helped me with my Patronus." Helped, because he didn't exactly teach him. Treyen had known the theory, Dallin just helped with the practice.

He couldn't deny that the Apparition part was exciting, after all, getting his license had been...THE BEST, considering Kaika never got it at first try.

But...heeey, what was she doing? He instantly felt like he was a fourth year again! Which he sort of missed, but he wasn't admitting that. He broke free of one of her hands only to push her down by her shoulder ever-so-gently, "Eh, no. I still get to be taller." Unless she decided to wear heels.