"Yeah, I was just at the Hufflepuff table with her this morning. Right when you left, I was going to say hi but I guess it was too late." He said smiling a little. "Advice?" he asked, cocking his head a little. "Like, what kind of advice?" he asked.

Ella looked up at Logan, wondering how she was going to get out of this one. "I- I wanted some advice about how to-how to figure out my feelings for someone..." She looked away pretending to take interest in a nearby duck.

"Oh..." Logan said. "Feelings for who?" he asked, taking a nearby stone and fiddling with it between his hands.

Gustav chuckled at Aaron notion of Durmstrang Institute been situated near the north pole. He shook his head," No..not the Northpole...not even close to that...yet it is very snowy there,"he said and kept it that way. He didn't mean to sound secretive but Durmstrang Institute location was unplottable by other schools, he wasn't a spy or anything but the school liked to conceal its whereabouts so the other schools could not steal their secrets. He came here due to intention of keeping himself safe here and study whatever that needs to be learn before he could go back home to Romania.

Aaron didn't seem to like studying at all but he doesn't look like a type to be working under the ministry. Perhaps he had other aspirations? He could be an artist for all he knew. He shook his head once more when he asked whether Durmstrang and Hogwarts had the same subjects taught in both school
"Only certain subjects... muggle studies are just one of the few subjects the students are not taught in Durmstrang...we mostly study Defense against the dark arts and Ancient ruins," he replied. Even with the state of equality the wizarding world has projected, there was still hostility in Durmstrang directed towards muggle-borns and half-bloods even after the school had already made a ultimate decision to allow anyone to attend. Gustav and his family were one of the remaining few purebloods left but he wasn't raised to despise them. He didn't care what bloodties they were from, he could make friends with anyone. One of the reason he was constantly bullied back in school.

" Where are you from?"he asked.
"I'm from Romania...you know where they keep dragons..." he added and smiled.

Ella was panicking. She wasn't ready to tell Logan that she was pretty sure she liked him as more than a friend. Guess I'll beat around the bush... Ella glanced at Logan who was fiddling with a stone and turned her attention back to the ducks. "I have this friend and we've been hanging out quite a lot and we get along great and I-I don't have much experience in the boy department-" Ella was blushing now, she could feel her ears burning. "-and I wasn't sure if I should just come out and say I like him or just wait it out...I don't want to hurt our friendship." Ella stopped, not sure if she should continue or not.

Logan listened to Ella, feeling a weird feeling she was talking about him but not really. If she wasn't talking about him, he was quite jealous of this boy she liked....he looked at her as she blushed. He smiled slightly. "Well, tell him. I'm sure it won't hurt your friendship at all. And, I'm sure he probably likes you back...because who wouldn't like you? You're funny, sweet, amazing, cute, and very pretty. I'm sure there's a lot of boys out there who like you...i-including me..." he said, giving the stone his attention again, his face red.

Amelia nodded, content to agree with Isaac about night being more romantic in a way. Besides, even if scary things could hide in the dark sometimes they were much scarier when you could actually see them during the day. Besides night meant that one could stargaze, and she did so love to do that. "Maybe on top of a trip to the greenhouses we could stargaze at some point?" Amelia asked. Because even though they could get in trouble for being out after hours stargazing didn't technically need to be done during term time. Especially if they were able to see each other over the breaks.

"That's true. I guess I'm just lucky that I tend to be okay at night and don't let it bother me overly much," because she'd already admitted that at times it got to be too much, and there were times when the dark just made everything worse but on a general level she was fine at night.

"Perhaps. Although I'm sure that you're family would like to see you for longer than just a few hours. And if it was okay for me to go with you as long as I woke in the actual morning I should be good," which was a little white lie, because even if she did wake in the morning she was probably likely to freak before she remembered where she was. That had already happened the first night of school and she'd been afraid that she would panic again and make a bad impression on his folks.

"Sometimes having to rub the cream in makes it feel worse than it would have if you left it," Amelia added, pulling a face of displeasure at the remembrance of bruise cream. That being said she wouldn't object to Isaac touching her hand because she found it nice, especially when he was being so careful not to hurt her hand more than it already was.

"He is pretty special...I think we're pretty lucky to have found him the way that we did," Adam said with a little smile.

Adam noticed as Louisa explained the spider situation. He could understand that. After all even though he wouldn't go out of his way to kill a spider or any other bug really, that didn't mean that he was okay with the little buggers crawling all over him. As Louisa began to describe what they were wearing Adam couldn't help but form a visual, a little smile playing across his lips as he imagined Louisa standing in a huge shirt that probably smelled horrible, completely unhappy to be there, while Paulie merely joked about the situation, referring to good old Robin Hood. Of course Adam could understand why Louisa wouldn't take too kindly to being called Little John. "Yeah...perhaps he could have nicknamed you after one of the female characters," Adam said with a small smile. He was about to say the queen that Robin Hood falls in love with, but considering why they had gotten into detention in the first place, he had a feeling that would have only made their situation worse. He shook his head slightly as Louisa referred to getting used to his childish behavior. Well that wasn't exactly the word that he would have used, but he figured he'd let it go and just be happy that the two of them had found a common ground to get along on.

"Thanks Louisa," Adam said, clearing his throat again to try and keep back the hurt in his voice. He let Louisa hold onto him arm, looking out at the ducks before letting out a sigh. "It doesn't stop it from hurting though, you know? I just...I really wanted us to work, but I guess it wasn't meant to be." Oh disappointment. Adam was just far too familiar with it.

Funny? Sweet? Amazing? Cute? Very pretty? Ella looked up at Logan with wide eyes. She knew she was red faced but couldn't look away at the moment. Then he said the words that she was not expecting. "You-you l-like me?" Usually she would make a lame joke when talking about feelings but she felt like she should just come out with it and tell Logan what she had wanted to tell him for a while now. "I-I like you too...that boy I was talking about-well it was obviously y-you." She was trembling a little as she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. She had never been so bold with a boy before and she was feeling out of sorts. "I-I think I have to g-go now..." She began to run back to the castle, her head spinning all the while. What if I blew it? What if he didn't want me to kiss him? What if I just r-ruined everything? Ella had never felt so out of control before. Minnie was right, boys sure complicated things.

Nicknamed her after one of the female characters? Pffft, puh-leease. She did not want anymore nicknames, "I already have Helen and self-righteous Sally. No more names for me, thank you." She chuckled at this and moved away from him when she saw that he wasn't done talking. Better to be the listener in those situations, right?

Nodding her head sympathetically, "I know. I mean, no, I don't but I can imagine." It was not meant to be? HEH. Of course not. Adam was prohibited from dating girls that Louisa didn't approve. Well. Kind of. "She's not the only one, though. You gotta try at those things over and over again." No? She had nothing else to say to a sad person in this situation but this. Somehow, talking to Ellie was a completely different story.

Speaking of whom, "It's really weird how quickly everything's falling down this term." Bringing her knees to her chest, she looked out at the pond too and continued softly, "Did you know that Dallin and Ellie break up, too?" They were way deeper in that relationship than Adam and Rubiey were, Louisa thought. Which made it worse. Maybe Adam would feel... not alone by hearing this? Hmm?

"No, I didn't mention either of you at all. And Tate said he'd give me some time to write around to see if I have any other family I didn't know about," Nate said, still mad at himself. He really should never have gone up to see the Headmaster. But he still had an escape plan. "It doesn't, sadly, but it does involve Kieran, and the fact that he and Lex have a house..." he hinted. Jez was clever enough to put things together. Still, Nate was going to explain it anyway. "We can write him to see if he will pop up as a long-lost uncle, who was disowned from my father's family because of his magical ability. I had never been able to meet him, but when I wrote home to see if any of my neighbors knew of my extended family, then he came up and can claim me. What do you think? Will he do it?"

Adam couldn't help but chuckle. That was true...at the rate Paulie was giving Louisa nicknames, by the end of the term Louisa was going to have so many that Adam wasn't going to be able to keep track anymore. "Well I think Paulie holds the rights to both of those, so I'll just go ahead and keep calling you Louisa," Adam said with a little smile. After all Adam wasn't really creative enough to come up with nicknames and things like that.

"Other fish in the ocean..." Adam mumbled, contributing to Louisa's advice that he had to keep trying. "In all honesty I think I might be trying anymore...or at least not intentionally going out of my way to try and find someone. If something happens, then it happens," Adam said with a small shrug. And then Louisa told him that Dallin and Ellie broke up.

"They broke up?!" Adam said, the shock ringing through every word as he spoke. "When did this happen, and why? I mean...I thought they were soulmates or something along those lines considering how close they've been all this time." Poor Dallin and poor Ellie. Adam was trying to prevent himself from feeling everything his body wanted him to feel about his breakup, and Rubiey and him hadn't been together for nearly as long as Dallin and Ellie. Adam let out a sigh. Well...maybe Louisa's relationship was going better than theirs. "So...how are things with Joao? It seems like you two are the ones staying strong this term," Adam said with a little smile.

Jez rubbed behind her ear, looking thoughtful. "It's a great idea if we can pull it off. I think Kieran will do it." She looked Nate up and down, mentally comparing him with her uncle. "You guys don't look much alike, but we'll work around that. At least you've both got blue eyes." That would make their family ties more believable. In fact, the more Jez thought about it, she became more convinced that the plan would work. She smiled. "So you have got a brain under that fluff," she teased, ruffling Nate's hair.

Nate chuckled a bit, and happily allowed Jez to ruffle his hair. She had gone from being mad at him to joking just like that, and he wasn't about to risk her going back to mad. "By the way, I got most of my looks from my mom. The light hair, the small stature, the slightly darker skin tone... Kieran actually sort of resembles my dad, see?" he said, pulling out one of Pam's pictures--one of his parents with their arms around each other. Nothing much, but one could feel the love between them just by looking at the picture. "This will work, but we need to write him right away. Accio Elijah!"

Okay, that was probably rude to summon his owl, but it was the quickest way. With the little messenger now at the ready, Nate took up some parchment and a quill and set them down on the grass between him and Jez. "Here goes nothing..."

"Oh, yes, please. He's brainwashing me I guess. I'm afraid by the end of this term, I'm going to be confused about who I really am." She chuckled slightly at this. It wasn't funny at the detention, though. Or at the library when he was trying to get her to think about Adam again.

... wait. Did he already know about Rubiey breaking up with Adam? She had to investigate about this subtly. Later.

"I think it's the best way to find someone you really like, yeah," she agreed, giving him a small smile. Ahem. Well. She fell awkwardly silent after this. Basically because she was having a deja vu of their awkward relationship last term.

Phew. Thanks for the change of topic. Really. Focusing on Dallin and Ellie seemed like a great plan. "A month ago, I guess. Or two weeks, I don't know. They didn't really tell everyone right off." She sighed along with him, "The reason is complicated, I mean I talked to Ellie a lot but I still don't know why she'd broken up with him. She keeps saying that she didn't want to hurt him anymore and blah blah blah. I don't believe her." Louisa did learn the real reason last night but it was... top secret. She couldn't go on saying it without a permission from Ellie first because the Ravenclaw might be a mean girl but she was not a backstabbing gossiper.

Joao and herself? Oh. Louisa gave a nervous smile. Well, they didn't see each other ever since the argument at the library's corridor but.. well. She didn't feel comfortable about telling Adam this. "I wouldn't say 'strong' really. We're.. still together... I guess.." Her smile faltered quickly as she furrowed her eyebrows. They were still a boyfriend and a girlfriend, right? Just an angry couple. Yep. She'd like to think so. It was soothing.

So it was cold. But not North Pole cold. But that was probably a good thing, they didn't need polar bears disturbing classes.
Aaron grinned, he'd want to see that happen.
'We get snow here too, you knowwww?' You know, maybe he'd miss the snow.

Well... Durmstrang would be very confusing to him. Aaron would stay put at Hogwarts. 'Muggle Studies is fun.' Aaron said, they did cool stuff. And it was supposed to be easy for him.
He yawned and lay back on the ground while eating some more cookies.
'Why did you come here?' Not that Aaron wanted Gustav gone, he seemed very nice.

Aaron gasped, DRAGONS?! They were like... MAGIC! 'YOU HAVE YOUR OWN DRAGON?!' He sat bolt upright, if Gustav did, Aaron had to come and see this dragon. Merliiiiin!
'I'm from Silverton. But we moved up to Coldstream in Scotland, that's why I was late this year.' He frowned, stupid divorce. He actually enjoyed boring quiet Silverton.
Also, he would probably never be able to live in another house where he'd hung from a ceiling lamp and jumped through a window. But at least he'd get to see his cousins more often, all of his mum's family lived around there, they were the awesome ones.

Jez looked at the photo of Nate's parents, suddenly realising she'd only met them briefly during the holidays. They had been really nice people. Jez swallowed hard, glad of a distraction in the form of Elijah the extremely cute owl. She scratched his head absently, looking at the parchment on the grass. "D'you want me to write it?" she asked. She was hoping Kieran would take more kindly to the idea if it was presented to him by his niece and not a complete stranger.

Adam chuckled. "I guess we'll just have to reign in Paulie's creativity and limit him to two to three nicknames at most at a time," Adam said with a small shake of the head.

Adam noticed how awkward Louisa was looking after her words of...err...encouragement? Support? He wasn't really sure what the right word was, but before they started stepping into the same dangerous territory that had caused them issues last term, Adam figured that a change of subject was in order. Thankfully, Louisa picked up on the cue and started going into great depths about the whole Ellie/Dallin situation, why had happened, why she broke up with him, etc. After Louisa had finished Adam sat there for a moment, staring out at the water curiously. "She wanted to stop hurting him?" Adam said, more to himself than to Louisa, but he figured that she'd comment on his question anyway. In Adam's opinion that was quite a bit confusing considering the fact that Dallin seemed quite happy with her, and just about as far removed from hurt as humanly possible. He had suspicions, like Louisa, that there was definitely more to the story, but really it wasn't his place to say anything. "Well...maybe they'll be able to work something out," Adam said with a feeble attempt at a hopeful smile. Maybe that was why Rubiey had ended things with him. Maybe she felt like she was hurting him by never talking to him or being around, and wanted to give him the opportunity to find someone that could be there. Adam let out another sigh. There he went again trying to understand the complexities of women, especially after it had gone so well with Louisa. Cough. "Why do you think she's lying?" Adam asked, just out of curiosity.

Louisa's hesitation to define her and Joao's relationship status as well as her denying it being strong surprised Adam. Had he missed something? He knew things were a bit hairy between Joao and Adam, but he didn't want that to prevent her from sharing her feelings if she needed to. "Oh," Adam said, rather lamely. "I'm sorry to hear that...but...uh...if you need to talk at all, you know I'm here," Adam offered, trying to keep things from getting awkward again.

They'll work something out? Yeah, right. Louisa scoffed. "Our dear Dallin is on a spree of kissing the first girl he sees to make Ellie jealous though." This wasn't a secret, right? Oh well. She'd already said it. Also Adam wasn't the one with a big mouth. So.. no worries.

When he asked about Ellie lying, though, Louisa shrugged one shoulder. "I don't know. Maybe because she is the one to mess up? Considering her defensive attitude and vague hints, I'd say she is guilty." Sounded too serious? Heh. It was Louisa's way of analyzing a situation. Resting her chin on her knees again and staring at the ducks, she started in a softer tone, "It's really sad to think that something that seemed so strong would end so lamely." If Dallin and Ellie were done with each other, then Joao and herself didn't even have a chance at longevity of their relationship.

Speaking of longevity, Louisa tilted her head to the side to look at her friend, "Adam? Would you make a promise to someone no matter how hard it was to keep it?" Were all boys too coward to promise things or was it just Joao?

His reassurance about being there for here was very nice and sincere but she didn't reply to that. She just nodded with a touched smile on her face.

Adam raised his eyebrows slightly at that tid bit of info about Dallin. He had to admit he was a bit surprised, since Dallin didn't really strike him as the type to do something like that, but then again at all the times when Adam and Dallin had spoken, Dallin was deeply in love with Ellie and struggling to maintain his friendship with Louisa. People did do uncharacteristic things when they were hurting, and he could certainly attest to that. "He is probably hurting," Adam said, not to provide an excuse for Dallin's behavior, but to offer up some kind of explanation. "People will do things that don't make sense when they're heartbroken, which I assume he would be considering how in love he and Ellie were." Perhaps if Adam ran into Dallin at some point he would see how he was doing. Although maybe that would be a bit odd since really Dallin and him only ever spoke because Dallin thought he could help him understand Louisa.

Adam gave a small nod at Louisa's comment about things ending lamely. He had to at least somewhat agree with her, since he had not in a hundred years imagined that their relationship was going to end that way. "Yeah...and it doesn't leave much hope for the rest of us does it?" Adam said with a small chuckle that was more depressing than lighthearted. After all Ellie and Dallin were two of the most in-love people he had ever met in his life and if they couldn't make things work than what hope did the rest of them have? Adam had been staring out into the pond himself, not really letting his mind think about anything in particular when Louisa started to ask him a question. He turned to look at her, processing the question slowly. It seemed somewhat random, but perhaps not all that random considering they were talking about relationships, commitments, and things along that line.

Adam thought for a moment before he answered her question. He had no idea why she was asking, but since it seemed important he wanted to make sure he gave her a true and thoughtful answer. "If the person was someone that I truly cared about and was important to me in my life, then yes without a doubt. I think promises are hard since they can be incredibly hard to keep and some uncontrollable circumstances can happen, but I think if the person matters it is worth at least trying your hardest to keep the promise, you know? I guess some people hate making promises that they can't keep because they feel like by breaking them they are becoming a bad person or someone who people can't rely on, but...I don't know. I still think if the thing the person is asking you to promise is important and they're important to you, then that's all that matters." There went Adam rambling on nonsense that Louisa probably didn't want to hear. Perhaps a yes or no would have sufficed.

Despite all that had happened, it was still a beautiful day outside, and Nate couldn't help but succumb to it. He lie down on his stomach in the grass, pulling Jez beside him with an arm around her shoulders and Elijah snuggled between them. "I'd appreciate it if you did, I'm not even sure how to ask for that beside saying that it will probably save my life for the time being..." he said, looking over the parchment and quill. He didn't even know whose they were, he had just grabbed the nearest supplies...

"Hmm, okay." Jez chewed on the end of her plait, then realised what she was doing and released it, looking sheepish. She covered it by taking the quill and an inkpot from her pocket. She set the ink on the grass and leant on her elbows to write the letter, careful not to dislodge Nate's arm from around her shoulders. It felt nice.
Within a few minutes, Jez was carefully blotting the last words of her letter. "All done," she smiled, showing it to Nate for assessment.
"He's like my sister, he always people's full names," explained Jez. "Blacks are people who respond well to reminders of loyalty, so don't be afraid to remind Kieran of his debt to me if you meet him. Probably stop him trying to rip you off for a fake Invisibility Cloak." Not that Kieran wasn't nice or anything ... he was just a sneaking, lying conman. Then again, Jez was a thief, so she got on well with her family. She pushed the thought away.

"Oh I know, I heard really good things about Hogwarts because they have so many events here we can go to, Hogwarts always have the warmest Christmas season, that was what my uncle said to me...you just don't want to leave Hogwarts,"Gustav chuckled.

When Aaron asked why did he come here to study, he fell silent for a moment but he quickly hid his frown. "I'm here because my parents send me here, I be living with my uncle and aunt ever since last summer,"he replied," my family thinks Durmstrang isn't the right school for me...thought I will be more...how you say..accepted in Hogwarts...I guess..."he shrugged, he was telling Aaron part of the reason why he came here but not the whole truth of it. Atleast he had something to share about his past, it was much better compared to three years ago.

Gustav was a social outcast to most, he once been thrown out by his so-called 'friends' because he had befriended a muggle-born. He realised with disdain, they only did that because they were being told to do it. "Be nice to zat 'rich-boy'". He winced at the thought for remembering those words came out from their mouths. He swore he wouldn't be that naive ever again after that incident.

"Of course NOT! Dragons are fearsome creatures...you don't want to have them as pets, do you? "he laughed." I mean they will probably burn everything you have before you can even touch them..."he said.
"What kind of dragons do you like?"he asked because Aaron seemed to be really interested in fire-breathing dragons.

"What do you mean you were late this year?"Gustav wondered.

Was he defending Dallin? Louisa thought so. It wasn't bad, though- to defend Dal but it was... unvomforting considering the act he did. He kissed VASHTI! It was horribly wrong. To Louisa. "That's what I told Ellie. I think he's trying to get her jealous or something. He was feeling really bad at the beginning." Her voice was soft. She ached for him to be in a depressed state but she felt sorry for Ellie too for being wrecked out because of that kiss. Talk about being torn between two awesome books.

Hope for the rest of them? Not at all. She shook her head, agreeing with him, and chuckled. "I think we should let them know how important their relationship is to our faith in love." Mmm. That might make them consider going back to each other, right?

His answer to the promise question on the other hand was... satisfying. And great. Louisa's smile faltered though. Why couldn't Joao say all this instead of simply refusing to promise her anything? It would've saved them a lot of trouble and nonsense. She sighed eventually, "Right. I'm glad you think that. Some people just run away from promises instead of trying to figure a way out to fulfill them." Added that last bit rather bitterly. She'd say it was 'Joao' but that indicated Adam to be right and Louisa to be wrong. The Ravenclaw wouldn't appreciate the hint.

Adam gave a nod at Louisa's suggestion that Dallin was trying to get Ellie jealous. "That could have something to do with it. Maybe he's trying to make her feel as hurt as he is, although from what you've told me it doesn't really sound like it's all that necessary," Adam said, running his hand through his hair. He chuckled when Louisa recommended telling them how much faith people have in their love. "I wonder if they're aware that pretty much a huge majority of the school has already determined that if their love can't last than no one's will," Adam said with a grin. Well...maybe not that many people thought about their relationship that way, but enough did to make it seem like a valuable reason for the two of them to try and work things out. "Do...uh...do you know who Dallin kissed?" Adam asked, wondering more out of curiosity than anything else. "Of course I understand if that's not information that you can share." He supposed in some ways who it was was kind of a moot point.

Adam gave a small nod when Louisa agreed with his thoughts on promises. He noticed the bitterness in her voice at the end of her statement, and his thoughts made him feel like she was probably referring to Joao. Well...things were definitely not going well in that department then. "Fear of commitment can sometimes prevent people from making promises," Adam offered with a small shrug of the shoulder. "You know sometimes the possibility of rejection in the future, or investing so much of yourself into someone can seem frightening. I mean, making promises is like giving a piece of yourself to someone, and that person suddenly has all this power and privilege that they can use against you. I think for some people that's kind of a weakness and makes them vulnerable."