"Good." Ella repeated, smiling to herself. She then felt herself laughing at his reaction to what she had said. The first year shook her head, still looking at her knees. "I-I don't know. I just-can't. Maybe it's too h-handsome or something..." She said, still giggling. She then felt a finger helping her head up and her blush only intensified at the contact. She met Logan's eyes once again and raised her eyebrows, only to burst into laughter at his waggling eyebrows. "You know, you should see if there is some kind of job where you could do that professionally." She added, attempting to waggle her own brows unsuccessfully. A wide grin appeared on the young badger's face at being called a genius. "I know, I know...some of us are just born brilliant." She said, giggling.

Louisa pulled her knees closer to her chest wrapping her arms around them as Emrys lay down and talked about his sister, Amelia. "Her hero. That's very sweet." If only her brothers were that sweet to her and not the brats they were. Louisa was about to roll her eyes at that thought when it was her turn of sharing information.

"Two younger brothers, half-brothers. My mom remarried after my father, the wizard, left her." An intro that should make explanation easier. The story seemed a bit less emotional and more as a distant fiction story to her. "There is Daniel, he's twelve and very annoying." She chuckled at that, "And there's Johnny. He's nine and a very quiet and adorable. The only one who's intrigued by my 'special condition' as his father likes to call it." Louisa did roll her eyes at that. "We're not really that close, though. I don't live with them. I live with my stepfather's old sister, aunt Brown. When they're not in France, I visit there occasionally." Hopefully Emrys won't be confused by her life. Even her close friends have problems understanding it.

Lying down on her tummy so that she could look down at him, Louisa spoke smiling "I can see the sky on your glasses." And it was true. They were like two mini screens, his eyes were completely invisible. "I can't even see your eyes," she grinned rolling to her side and leaning her head on her left hand.

Logan laughed. "Okay." he said. "You're right, it is way too handsome." he said with a smirk. He then smiled as she burst out laughing and said he should see if there was a job where he could do it professionally. He chuckled. "Maybe there is...who knows." he said. "But you're the only person I want to do it to." he added with a frown. He didn't want to be staring at some weird old lady he didn't know...that would be...creepy.
Logan nodded. "Of course!" he said.

Ella just nodded. He was handsome. Probably the most handsome boy at Hogwarts in Ella's eyes. Then there was more talk about professional eyebrow waggling and Ella continued to laugh, amused by the topic. "Yeah, there could be. I'm sure you'd be great in muggle commercials or something!" Ella said cheerfully. It would be quite comical to see Logan on TV. He certainly had the personality for it.

She smiled widely at Logan when he said she was the only one he wanted to do that to. Truth be told, it made her feel kind of special. She ruffled his hair affectionately and gave him a hug. "Thanks." The first year said, blushing slightly. "I'm glad you don't go around doing that to just anyone."

She still couldn’t figure out what was best to say in this situation. Anyhow, Gwendolyn finally came to the conclusion that she should answer to his questions. And not just pretending to leave some of the topics like that. ‘Of course we can’, the third year said sincerely. Although, this came quite much in contradiction with what she’d said before. At least it sounded so.

Ack. She couldn’t have explained every thing she’d thought of. ‘Of course we are able to do and change anything, but some are harder to change than others’ Did this make sense? Pretty much… Well- it was pretty much like the difference between managing to control her fear of flight- changing her mind about that aaaand changing her first impressions about people. Those were hard to change.

Although she had planned to answer honestly all of Jory’s questions, she couldn’t. She got stuck at the one ending in ‘what do you think will happen then?’ Anything she could say would sound wrong. Sigh. Instead, she drew her attention back to the pond as she listened to the Hufflepuff talk.

Huh? That did make sense? Gwen gave a small smirk, but still didn’t look back at him. Hmm. She was really going to try being nice. But not to everyone, obviously. But to the people she cared about. No- scratch that- she was going to try. ‘You’re a good friend, Jory’, Gwendolyn said after a rather long moment of silence.

"Muggle commercials, eh?" Logan asked with a smile. "That'd be interesting!" he said chuckling.

Logan giggled a little as she ruffled his hair, and blushed a little as she hugged him. "You're welcome." he said, kissing her cheek. He then laughed. "Yeah." he said.

"It would be interesting. Maybe you could even sing in them." She suggested, eyebrows raised.

Ella smiled, noting Logan's blush and felt her own cheeks flush as he kissed her. Tilting her head to the side, Ella looked at him curiously, wondering if she should ask him what she'd been thinking about since it got warm. After a few seconds, she spoke softly, looking at the ground. "So Logan, it'll be summer soon and I know we said we would visit eachother's houses but I just wanted to make sure that you-well you still wanted to hang out." Ella finished, eying Logan nervously. She had been dreading the fact that the term would soon be ending and she needed to be sure Logan still wanted to hang out with her outside of Hogwarts.

"Sing in them?" Logan asked. "That'd be even more interesting..." he said thoughtfully with a smile.

Logan laughed. "Of course I still want to hang out!" he said. "That'd be real fun. I'd love that." he said.

Ella simply nodded. It would be very interesting. Plus it would be entertaining and that's the whole point, right? At his response to her question, she clapped her hands together excitedly, happy for a positive response. "Brilliant." She said, leaning forward to hug Logan. "My mom won't be there-at my house I mean-when I get home for the summer..." Ella said quietly, still hugging Logan.

Logan smiled as Ella hugged him. He put his arms around her and squeezed her a little. "She won't?" he asked. "Why not?"

Ella didn't let him go, she held on tightly, needing the close contact. She felt like her world was breaking apart though she had done a good job keeping it to herself until now. She started shaking slightly but no tears would fall, she had gotten good at stopping those. "She-she's in the states on some photography job on-only I don't-I don't think she-she'll come back." Ella said quietly, as if saying it too loud would make it more real somehow..

Avery sighed as she walked up to the edge of the duck pond, it was so peaceful in this part of Hogwarts and she liked it. It was so different from all the loud kids passing and knocking into you in the school halls. The school was made only slightly more bearable by the fact she now had Alec as a friend. She hoped she'd make more friends soon.

When Avery got to the duck pond, she sat down and slipped off her dainty shoes, then dipped her toes in the water. It was cold, but in a strangely refreshing way, she closed her eyes as she swayed her feet around in the water. All she could ask for now would be some company.

Not even a few minutes after the third seminar lesson, Daichi had literally ran over towards the duck pond. He had skipped going to the Great Hall to eat like he normally did because he had something important to do. It was for homework AND for his own.

Reaching the duck pond, Daichi moved towards the edge of the water and looked around. Now..where was she? His brown eyes were looking for one particular duck that he had tried to catch at the beginning of the term together with Thea. But as he remembered this he quickly looked around, there were no Prefects here this time right? Not seeing Kurumi or any of the others he smiled and went back to looking for that one special duck.

If Mr.Murdoch didn't let him take care of the duckies he would simply *befriend* them. And the spell in that seminar lesson was PERFECT for this!

But before he would try the spell on the duck he would practise first. Daichi took his wand out of it's holster and took a deep calming breath. Concentrating on it, he made a circle "Malin" and then flicked "Calin" ... Good thing he practised first because the purple smoke he was suppose to get was light pink.

Evelyn wandered down to the Duck Pond, with a book on her hand. She wanted to get some reading done but the common was noisy and crowded as usual and the library was..well, she didn't want to go to the library. The seventeen year old finally decided to visit the grounds. She'll be able to get some fresh air as well as get some studying done.

She settled down on a rock near the pond and opened her book when she noticed the girl from the Muggle Studies class sitting nearby. "Hey, Avery." The girl gave a small smile.

Avery was quite content here, nobody was bothering her that she didn't want to, so when Evelyn came up behind her she smiled, "Hey, Evelyn." she said, tucking her fringe behind her ear so she could see her better. Avery and Avelyn had met in Muggle Studies class and had gotten on nicely, so it was nice to see her again.

"How are you?" Avery asked and smiled at the older girl.

"Eve. You can call me Eve." Honestly, she didn't even know why she bothered telling people that her name was Evelyn, when she eventually told them to call her Eve. Her eyes shifted to the ducks in the pond and couldn't help but give a small smile. "Aren't they beautiful?" Evelyn asked, nodding towards the ducks.

"I'm alright. Busy with classes and such." Evelyn closed her book. Yeah, she knew that she wasn't going to get any reading..now that there was someone to talk to. "You?" Evelyn added, abruptly.

"Eve. Okay!" She said, making a mental note to actually remember her nickname this time, as she was pretty sure Eve had told to use it when they had first met. Avery looked over at the ducks that Eve was indicating to, they were swimming across the glistening pond. "Yeah, they are." She agreed, nodding her head slightly.

"Good. The classes are pretty hectic aren't they?" She said, watching as Eve closed the book she was about to read. "I'm good, thanks." Avery said, looking around the lake, that was gleaming in the sunlight.

Logan cocked his head a little as Ella held on to him tightly, and began shaking a little. He ran his hand through her hair as she spoke to him. He frowned. "Ella..." he began, not exactly knowing what to say. "I'm real sorry." he said, kissing the top of her head.. "Why don't you think she'll come back?" he asked.

Ella finally let Logan go, backing away because the tears were threatening to fall again and if she had to look him in the eye maybe she'd be able to hold it together. She frowned, shaking her head. "I just-they've been fighting, mom and dad. All she wants to do is get ahead in her work. Dad wants her home with us, to be a family. She always travels but it's different this time, Logan. Sh-she will be gone for th-the entire summer. She's never been away th-that long." Ella said, looking up at him with watery eyes. She swiped at them angrily, not wanting to cry. "What if she doesn't come home?" Ella asked softly, hugging her knees to her chest.

As Daichi waved the pink colored smoke away with his hand he saw that in the corner of his eyes the special white duck was waddling over the grass. He squealed at the sight as he fully turned his body towards it and it waddled away quickly again. The Slytherin's first instinct was to run behind it and try to grab.

WHICHHEHADNOTDONEBEFORE

But he could hold his urge to himself and continued to practise the spell in the air. Gripping his phoenix feather wand, Daichi circled and flicked it while saying "Malin Calin"

Purple smoke appeared before him and the thirteen...scratch that. FOURteen year old was now smirking at the smoke and after using the finite spell he turned and marched over to the special white duck.

HIS FRIEND~! or.. soon to be best friend..

Logan frowned at what she said. "Ella I'm soo sorry about that." he said quietly. He scooted over to her, pulling her close to him in his arms. He gave her a little squeeze. "Everything will be okay, Ella." he said quietly, running a hand through her hair. "And if you ever need someone to talk to, I'm always here for you. You can owl me anytime, and I'll be right over." he said, kissing her cheek. "I promise."

Evelyn nodded when she agreed to call her Eve. She folded her arms and looked at the pond, momentarily distracted. She still couldn't get over the fact that she earned back those twenty points..thanks to Scabby. Not that she liked him any better now. He was still too weird for words.

Um. "Yeah, they are. Very tiring actually." Evelyn nodded again. She turned to look at the ducks with a small smile on her face.

This was it! The moment of truth! Now he would see if all his practises in class and just now had payed off.

Daichi tiptoed closer and closer to the unaware cute little duck. As he accidentally stepped on a branch on the grass, it cracked under his foot and the Slytherin froze. The duck had seemed to notice his presence and was now waddling away quicker than normal. "Noooo! Floppy! Come back!"

Psh, he did not care if he was fourteen and was suppose to act his age right now. He wanted to befriend Floppy even if it is the last thing he would do! Clutching his wand tightly, Daichi waddled after the duck with his arms spread out. "Floppy, let's be friends!" he continued to shout , effectively scaring the poor duck even more.

Daichi had somehow chased the duck in to the bushes and as he entered the green area himself , Floppy had turned around and tried to waddle in between his legs and away again. The fourteen year old laughed at the action before shaking his head and waddled behind the creature again. He should try the spell now right? Right.

"Malin!" he circled his wand in the air as he continued to waddle behind the duck. "Calin!" he shouted to incantation and flicked his wand to point it at the duck in front of him. Purple smoke came out of the wand and hovered in the air for a second before it went over to the duck.

The purple smoke circled around the duck and the creature stood still on the grass. Almost as if it was spacing out and as the smoke disappeared Daichi sat down on his knees on the grass. "Floppy~ come!" He patted his upper legs to try and invite him to come over and as the Duck turned itself Daichi had to surpress a squeal which failed.

The duck was in reach with his hand and slowly he reached out his hand to pet it. The duck stayed still and didn't even waddle away anymore. "MY FRIEND!" Daichi shouted as his eyes began to tear.

His life time dream had come true! He had a duck friend!

Ella merely nodded. An apology was nice but at the moment she just wanted someone to hug her. As if on cue, Logan did just that. Ella let herself be squeezed and leaned her head on his shoulder, happy that Logan was there at this moment. He was helping her to keep it together somehow.

She wasn't sure how Logan knew things would be okay but she was in no position to argue. "I hope so." She managed to get out. A small smile appeared after his next words. "Thanks Logan, I could use somebody. I'm sure Dad will be busy caring for Caleb." She looked up at him and then without warning, she started to cry softly. It was no use trying to stop once the flow had started, she was long over due for a cry.

Logan smiled. "Anytime." he said quietly. Then he frowned as she began to cry softly. "It's okay Ella, I'm here." he said softly, patting her back and squeezing her a little more.