Lilly went into the courtyard, sitting cross-legged on the floor with her guitar and began to play, her long hair flying around her. She was wearing her favorite converse boots as she played her favorite song. Lilly was in the mood for that particular song on that day. Her mum's death had really effected her recently and she didn't feel very well, even in her favorite boots. Lilly felt a tiny tear trickle down her cheek. She needed to talk to someone. Rose would be good. Or Violet. Or someone who knew how she felt.

Sure. Totally. Yes?, the girl repeated in her head and grinned. ‘All right’, the young Ravenclaw nodded and waited for Lewis to show her how the spell worked. Noticing that he dropped his wand Gwendolyn bit her lip. I.MUST.NOT.LAUGH. *cough-cough* The girl tried masking her laughter, but she was almost sure it was quite obvious. ‘G-go on’, the third year said, with her voice still trembling. ‘Umm… here’, she gave him the newspaper. It was pretty useless, why couldn’t he demonstrate on that? ‘If it goes wrong… can you use Finite?’ What? Just saying…

As she tried to focus on what he was saying about the spell, Gwen could only imagine how it would work out when she'll need to try it. I’ll manage to cast it in no time. Psh. Simple incantation… simple wand movement. How hard could it be?, she asked herself, not even thinking how wrong she was about that.

‘Heh… great’, she said as she stood up quickly from the bench. Truth be told, she hadn’t expected him to like the idea of building the snowman… After twirling the snowball for a while in her hand, waiting for Lewis to get his gloves, the third year started rolling it on the snowy ground.

She smiled and gave him a sweet quick kiss. Then rested her head on his shoulders, thinking. As long as Ryan was here, nothing could go wrong in her mind.
Once she lifted her head she then bent down to pick up Ryan's guitar. As she held it she gave it a quick strum "You did say you would teach me" she smiled.

Amelia usually did her stargazing inside where it was warmer, but today she had decided that she needed to get some fresh air because she had felt stuffy. So with her notes and textbook in one hand and her telescope in the other she made her way to the courtyard. She looked for a nice spot that was on even ground because she needed her reading to be as accurate as possible.

Today, she was planning to do her stargazing on the constellation of Taurus. She hadn't known too much about this constellation, but she had done some reading. Obviously she knew that it shared the same name and symbol with one of the zodiac signs. She also knew now that the sun passed through the constellation between mid-May and late June; so this was the best time of year for her to find it.

Taurus apparently contains a red star, alpha Tau (called ALDEBARAN) which represents the eye of the bull, and a white star, beta Tau (called ALNATH) which represents pushing horn. The leading star in this constellation is alpha Tau. The head of the bull is formed by the open cluster of Hyades. This cluster appears to surround alpha Tau even though it's actually much farther away. It also is in the shape of a V and contains about 200 stars.

Once she had the perfect spot for her telescope, she started to carefully set it up. She knew that she had a lot of time to gaze at the stars, so she was in no rush to get everything done. When she was finished putting it together, she made sure to adjust the lens so that it would be at the correct focus.

Now it was time for her to look at her notes and find the correct coordinates. It took a few minutes of looking through her notes, but finally she got them:

Quote:

Right Ascension: 4 hours
Declination: 15 degrees
Visible between latitudes 90 and -65 degrees
Best seen in January (at 9:00 PM)

Adjusting her telescope to the coordinates, she looked through the night sky until she finally made out the form of alpha Tau. She knew that it was one of the bright stars in the sky, so it wasn't too hard to locate. Then she noticed the cluster of stars that was surrounding it. She found it hard to believe that they seemed so close together when in actuality alpha Tau was a lot closer to the earth.

She drew what she saw in the sky and wrote a few notes on it before she started to pack her stuff up in order to go back to the castle.

She made herself comfortable on the bench, hands tucked comfortably in her pockets as she looked at him. "They got knocked into during the match. They're both fine now though." Nothing to worry about... now. Next match she would be sure to pick out a seat that wouldn't have any run-ins with quidditch players. Which would mean she would have to arrive early. Hm.

"What have you been up to lately?" Besides quidditch of course.

Glenn wandered into the courtyard, lugging her over the shoulder leather bag that carried her journal and muggle book.

She settled herself on the edge of the fountain, burying herself in her novel and pulling her coat tighter around herself. She had come out here to get away from all of the noise in the common room. The cold was manageable out here. She just needed to settle her head after all of the news from her mother in Hogsmeade.

Her blonde hair was still straightened from Hogsmeade but she had changed into some non soaked in snow clothing when she got back to the castle.

As Angelina made her way into the courtyard to relax she planned to just wander around tell she spotted her friend Glenn over at the fountain. Smiling she walked up to her. "Hey," she hoped she didn't disturb her with her book, she knew how people didn't like that.

Glenn looked up and smiled at Angelina, "Hey." She slipped her book back into her bag and banished the thoughts about her mum from her mind, "How's your day going so far?" You know, in the hours after they had got back from Hogsmeade .

Angelina smiled and sat next to Glenn. "Its been going pretty good, finally finished all the homework, so I got a free day. What about you?" She then remember they haven't tried their treats from Honeydukes yet.

Glenn bit her lip, "Hmm. Kinda." She said, giggling and pulling out a Butterbeer from her bag, "Want one?" She asked, taking a sip of hers and offering another to Angelina. "I have a bunch of chocolate frogs too but they're still up in my dormitory."

Angelina bugged her eyes out a bit when Glenn pulled out a Butterbeer. "Sure! I'd love one." She would take Butterbeer whenever she could. Angelina shrugged her sholders and said, "Its alright, I ate half mine anyways." She looked in her bag and found on of the Every Flavour Beans still sitting there. Pulling them out and showing them to Glenn she said, "I got these."

Lewis was way too focused on doing this spell right to notice how Gwen was trying to hold back her laughter. Well, he probably wouldn't have noticed it even if he wasn't trying to remember what was important for this spell to work. He was just oblivious to things like that. Which to be honest had its advantages and disadvantages.

He DID however notice the slight tremble in her voice when she told him to go on. Was it anticipation? "You okay?" Lewis asked, frowning at her, a little worried that there was something wrong. When she handed him the newspaper he continued to eye her for a moment before finally reaching for it and putting it on his lap. Before he got to start however she still had another question. "Sure." Or had that been one of those rhetorical questions? He never knew how they were different than normal questions.

Anyway. "Right. So you just point your wand at the object." He did exactly that, pointing it at the newspaper. "And then think really really hard about the color you want it to be-" Lewis furrowed his brow and even pursed his lips a little, he was concentrating SO HARD on the color yellow. "-and then say the incantation. Multicorfors!" And with that the newspaper turned a light shade of yellow. Hmm. It must've been Gwen's fault. She was distracting him.

After having pulled on his gloves Lewis got up from the bench as well...and just watched Gwen, rocking back and forth on his heels a little awkwardly. He just wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. It wasn't like he had never built a snowman or anything but who knew what SHE wanted him to do. He didn't want to upset her or anything after all.

... Did he say something rude? Zack seemed to have that look that Alec usually had on his face whenever someone said something rude or mean. Or confusing. Or just something he didn't quite understand at first. Either way, Alec will probably have to tell Zack that he didn't mean it like that.

Alec grinned. Zack seemed to really know how to compete with people, didn't he? They were going to get along really well, then. "That's a good point," he said, looking from Zack, to the snow and back again, "But what if the person doesn't see the snowball coming?" The person will still get hit! And with a good snowball!

Alec watched as Zack made his own perfect snowball. The boy was pretty good at this. "I think you're a snowball champion, Zack," he said right before...

BOOF!

... He should have been paying attention to the actual snowball. Alec brushed the rest of the snow off his sleeve as he grinned at Zack. "That was good!"

Alec grinned back at Zack. Yeah, it was good to have more guy friends now. Not that he didn't mind girl company... guys just understood him better. And Anya, of course. "Erm, yeah," he said, "Do you know Anya? Anya Phillips? She's a first year as well." And she was his bestest friend in the entire world.

Oh. Well. He was the one playing, no wonder he never knew of this. Still, he saw Professor Hadley hours after the match and she neither mentioned she'd been hurt or anything else. So, they were fine. Good.

"I'm sure Bentley has been through something similar before. When she played." BUT Hadley. Poor Head of House. "Good to know they're fine." Though he knew Hadley was fine that same day.

Mmmm. Him? "You know, the usual. Practices, NEWTs, losing 20 points thanks to Williamson and his overreactive self," yeah, THAT was usual, "And, also, arguing with Ellie about...," yes? About what? "...about something that I can't remember." Odd. Yet it must've been something involving Quidditch.

OH. Of course! Her idea of practicing inside the stands. There was a slight chance that his girlfriend should've been sorted into Gryffindor for proposing said idea.

Logan decided to visit the courtyard today. He was rather bored and wanted something to do. With his guitar slung over his shoulder, he made his way to the courtyard and when he got there, he noticed someone playing a guitar and singing a song. He turned to see it was Lilly, and he made his way up to her and sat down next to her, smiling. But after seeing a tear trickle down her cheek, his smile faded and he cocked his head. "You okay, Lilly?" he asked, taking his guitar off his shoulder and putting it off to the side gingerly. He then turned back to Lilly with concern. What was wrong?

"Plus she works with magical plants," She nodded in agreement. Those plants in the greenhouses attacked BACK sometimes, it was a dangerous job in that beautifully scented sort of way. Or smelly depending on what she was working with.

Her eyes widened a bit as he spoke, brow knitting together in confusion. "How did you lose 20 points?" Seriously. Arya was never one for the house cup, or caring about points in general, but as long as she'd known Treyen he'd never lost any points, at least not that many. Twenty was a LOT. Had to have been something serious.

"So nothing serious then?" Heh. Those kinds of disagreements, the ones that ended up forgotten, never were. At least not for her they weren't.

Lilly looked up, put her guitar to the side and beconed for Logan to sit down. He might be too fussy to sit on the floor, but if he was, he could just stand. His loss. She quickly wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her jacket, coughing quietly. "Yeah, I'm fine," Lilly said, a little too quickly and croakily. Logan was all she needed right now. (*Sarcasm*) "I like your shoes," she said, trying to grin and change the subject. "I'm more of a converse girl, myself."

Logan sat down and looked at her. "I uh...okay. Are you sure?" He asked. She didn't look fine to him. "Because if you want someone to talk to...I know you barely know me but still...I'm here to listen." he said.

Then he looked at his shoes and nodded slowly. "Oh...thanks..." he said. "Converse are pretty cool." he replied.

"Well, I do, but..." Lilly muttered, trailing off. Logan was kind of sweet, but whether she wanted to tell him everything that was on her mind. At that moment in time it was a lot. And like he said, they barely knew each other. "You know my mum died last year? If you didn't, then there it is. It's really been getting to me lately. It's like I've only just realised that it's happened." Lilly was shaking. Literally. Her eyes were red and she remembered the year before when she'd been crying in the dormitory and Ronnie came and cheered her up. Yeah, she missed Ronnie.

Logan looked at her as she trailed off, frowning. Then he felt his heart drop a little as she said her mum died. "Oh..." he began, reaching out and taking her hand without really thinking. He felt so bad for her, but didn'tknow what to say. "I'm so sorry, Lilly. I-I didn't know.." he said finally, and with his other arm he put it around her shoulders and gave her a little squeeze. "It'll be okay. I...er...well sort of know how you feel." he said, smiling reassuringly at her. All he wanted was to cheer her up, he hated seeing anyone-friend or not-sad.

Dangerous magical plants. That Miss Ivy could suffocate him to death if the plant so wished to do so. GRANTED, he got along just fiiine with Miss Ivy, and Little Bush was good to go.

Hopefully. Actually...he didn't know if Little Bush had survived.

Either way, he nodded. Arya was right. When was she not? But when it came to those twenty points he lost...if he asked her to guess...she'll be wrong every time she tries to guess. "Long story short...," it was best that way, "...Williamson is crazy." She didn't need to know the details, correct? Even if the details meant EVERYTHING in this case.

Treyen wasn't that mean, he'll tell the long story part of it, "Basically, we were going to take the lobalug back to Scabior...if it really belonged to him, but Williamson was there." So, they were caught. Enough said.

Then Arya asked what was probably the most important question ever. At least right now. "Well, not exactly. I convinced her not to do what she wanted to do...but...," that wasn't what mattered, really, "...she loves Quidditch." He got sidetracked, and also made it sound that Ellie liking Quidditch was a bad thing. "More than anything." Of that he was certain, that's why she'd be able to focus if they played together.

He sighed. And he was sighing a lot lately, it was probably something he picked up from Lexi. Besides Rufus, WHO he should go and try to get away from the YB office as soon as possible.

"Have you seen her smile after winning?" That one smile was worth all the worry in the world. "The thing is...," right, he should get back on track, "...I want to be as supportive as possible, but at the same time I kind of wish she would spend less time at the Pitch, pursue something else than a Snitch...," yet he still loved to see her happy.

Treyen should make up his mind.

Williamson is crazy.

Right, well.... she couldn't really agree with that statement, but then again she didn't know the professor THAT well. Just the visits to play with the cutest cruppie EVER. And even then she didn't pay WWW any real attention.

So for all she knew, he really could be crazy.

But she'd wait for the rest of his explanation, and gave him a look that said just that. And when he did, she listened intently and... they all sounded wrong in the entire situation. But... "You'll get the points back easy." Fact. Next point, "I don't get why Scabior had you go get the lobalug. If it was really his, why didn't he just go get it?" Where he and Professor Williamson at odds or something? Shrug.

The prefect listened to her best friend talk of his girlfriend, a small smile forming on her lips. Yeah, she knew how much Ellie loved quidditch. It was the girl's drug. "I agree, she spends too much time out there, even for a captain." Didn't they like, do other things? "She didn't even start going to defense lessons until she started to tag along with me..." It was a play of words, but she got her point across she thought. "You should try to get her in the library more, or the study in the prefect lounge. Bet she'd go if you were with her."

"Ohh! Yes!" Glenn took a sweet from the box and popped it in her mouth. She didn't even pause to see what the bean looked like. vPretty soon, she started gagging, spitting the sweet out into her outstretched palm. "Eugh! Pencil shavings." Glenn wrapped the sweet in a handkerchief and placed it into her pocket. "I'm game to try another one. Maybe I'll get a chocolate next."

Oh, you know what?

He knew he could get the points back, that truly didn't concern him. He'd worked to get those five points back to. GRANTED, twenty points were not the same as five, but still. Hiring a crazy CoMC Professor was something to be concerned about, though. Nod, nod.

"Simple. He said he wasn't allowed on Williamson's territory." And THAT wasn't his first clue to say 'No' to Scabior? Perhaps the Head Boy was just as crazy as WWW was.

Of course, "They don't see eye to eye. Apparently." No kidding. That was a fact.

Now, Ellie.

Oh, so he wasn't the only one who felt that way? Yet it was obvious Arya was taking his side, she still got worried over Quidditch, and her nerves wouldn't survive at that Luxembourg Quidditch Academy the other part of the trio went to school. Still, Ellie must have something else that interests her, right? Besides Quidditch. She probably did, she just wasn't aware of it.

HE LAUGHED, softly.

"She'll kill me." And he'll die a horrible and slow death. "Ellie hates book. Actually, she doesn't hate them, she fears them. I wouldn't dare getting her close to a Library, never mind how small." There was something else he tried last year..., "We've studied in the grounds before...to no avail." they'd ended up fighting...and he'd asked her to be his girlfriend.

Come to think of it...the day didn't turn out so bad.

But still, he wasn't letting Ellie get close to any book.

Zack grinned back at Alec trying to explain his point this time. "Yeah, right!" he said and looked back at the snow. He wasn't really going to say anything else at the topic. He felt like Alec was really getting into it.

"Yeah Bro...i think i am" he said when he heard Alec commit on his skill and laughed aloud. "Thanks though"

He laughed even lauder when the snowball actually hit him. "There! Thanks for the idea. I think i might use it every time now." he said and just went on laughing looking at Alec's face.

Zack gave it a thought about the Anya as Alec mentioned. Yeah, Zack knew Anya, they both were in the same house of course. He met her in quidditch practice sand also in the grounds.

He finally spoke again "Yeah, of course i know Anya. She's in the quiddtich team with me" he said smiling.