"Thanks, I hope so too." Ella said sincerely. "A best friend from birth..." Ella repeated with a smile. "That sounds awesome!" She nodded about the baby brother thing and then her mouth dropped open when Taylor told her about all her siblings. "Wow." Was all she could say for a moment, feeling a bit jealous her family wasn't bigger. She felt the corners of her mouth tugging upwards as Taylor offered her sisterly services. "Thanks Taylor, I might take you up on that!" She said, grinning at the older girl. Why hadn't Ella talked to her before? She was super nice! "You don't like arithmancy?" Ella asked curiously. "That is one of the subjects that makes the most sense to me, I guess because a lot of it is math and I seem to understand that well enough. If you ever need help, I'm around." She said smiling. "And I won't ask too much for my tutoring services." She said teasingly.

Tay nodded, "It is amazing though sometime annoying." She laughed, "Yeah there is a lot of us.... but we arent on good terms with each other." She smiled, "Any time, Ella." Taylor was happy that she met a really nice girl. "Yeah i dont like it... i hate math." Tay chuckled, "I might actually take you up on that... and dont worry i bet you wont ask too much." Taylor grinned at the younger girl.

Ella giggled, thinking about having a sister her own age. As much as she would love it, she could see how it could be annoying. She frowned a bit when Taylor told her she wasn't on good terms with her other siblings. "I'm sorry." She said lamely, not really knowing what else to say. The moment passed though and it was back to class talk. "Nope, I'll give you the friend rate." Ella said, a smile on her face. "So do you sing too?" Ella asked, remembering how they had all met up at the front gate in the first place. It seemed like everyone at Hogwarts had some kind of musical talent, which was pretty neat, since Ella loved music.

Tay smiled, "The friend rate?" She laughed. Taylor nodded, "Yeah i sing a little, but not as good as you two." She chuckled some, "I play the guitar mostly though i do play around with the piano and violin. Do you play any instruments or do you only sing?" Taylor smiled.

"Me...sing good?" She said, eyebrows raised. She didn't think she sounded good but it was nice to hear someone else say it. "I'll take your word for it." She said, giggling. "Wow, you sure play a lot of instruments. Logan actually started to teach me to play the guitar-well I kind of pushed him into it. My dad plays and I thought it would be a nice surprise if I knew how to play when I returned home for the summer." That way her and her dad could spend lots of time together playing and she could get to be as good as he was. "I only know a few songs right now but I try and practice a lot."

Tay laughed, "Yeah i did say you sing good." She smiled, "Yeah my nanny started me when i was 5 and when my mother finally came home after 11 years she taught me... That is good that Logan is teaching you." Her smile brighten, "He is a very good guitarist. I had the honor of hearing him play a few times." She laughed a little, "That is good that your dad plays and you want to surpise him with that." On the word Dad, her voice hitched and a stray of emotion came and went before she uttered the next word a second later. "With practice you will learn and get better." Taylor nodded and smiled.

Ella returned Taylor's smile. "You started at five? Wow. All I could do at five was...was...well I don't really know." She said with a shrug. She must have had some talent at that age but whatever it was escaped her at the moment. She nodded when Tay mentioned Logan teaching her. "It is good. He's talented isn't he? Not that he'd ever admit it..." She said with a smile. Ella looked at the older girl with concern when she heard her voice change when she said the word dad. "Does your dad play anything?" She asked curiously, wondering where the emotion Taylor had displayed was coming from. She agreed about the practicing thing. Her mom always said that, more times that Ella needed to hear actually. "Yup. I'm pretty focused when it comes to learning new things. I kind of like learning stuff I never knew about before. It's exciting!" She said, a smile forming on her lips.

"Yeah, father... He wanted Trin and I to be musical like my momma and so he made it the nanny's job to teach us.... though i'm not good despite what Logan and a few friends has said." Tay laughed. "Yes, Logan is pretty talented, though he often denies it." She shook her head smiling, "I could sit and listern to him play hours on end, if we had the time. He plays beautifully." Taylor chuckled some, "Father wasnt musicial inclined. He was too busy with politics and rarely had time to spend by playing anyways." Taylor looked away some. She thought about how much she loved her father and how she wasnt there on the last day before he died... Tay looked at Ella. "That is good that you are pretty focus.... it is much needed to learn something new." Taylor nodded at the younger girl with a half smile.

"I'm sure you're great." Ella said with an encouraging smile. People here were quite modest about their talents, something Ella found both endearing and frustrating at times. Especially when her friends didn't acknowledge how wonderful they were. "Perhaps we could all play sometime, it might be fun. I'm sure you and Logan could teach me a lot." It would be helpful to have some more tips from them since they had been playing for so long.

Ella listened to Taylor as she talked about nannies and politics and her father being busy. They had lived very different lives and it must have been hard having a dad who was in the spotlight. "Politics, wow. Your dad was very important then?" Not that Ella knew anything about politics, she found it to be quite boring. She smiled, agreeing with Taylor about staying focused. "You must be pretty focused too, being a ravenclaw and all..."

"Perhaps we can." Taylor smiled, "It would be lovely to play with both of you." Tay shrugged, "I guess you can say that, all i know is that he wasnt home much and when he was it was barely." She grimaced at the steorotype. "Umm.... i don't know..." Tay ruffled her hair a little, "I mean i think im just average focus level thing." She laughed.

Ella was hopeful that this guitar get together would happen. It would be nice, especially since the weather was getting warmer and they could potentially play outside in the sun. She smiled at the thought. She frowned when Taylor told her that he dad wasn't home much. She understood the feeling. "My mom travels a lot too for her work so I get what you mean." Ella chuckled when Tay said she had an average focus level. "Me too." She said, smiling.

Tay nodded, "So does my mom, she is an ambassador, what about your mom?" She smiled, "Yeah... go average focus levels!" Taylor did a mocked fist air pump with mocked excitement. Tay giggled.

"Your mom is an ambassador?" Ella asked, pretty impressed by Taylor's parents. "My mom is a photographer, she works for magazines and travels around taking pictures."

Ella giggled, watching Taylor fist pump in mock excitement. She smiled at her, thinking she was quite funny.

Tay shrugged, "Yeah she has Haven, Atlantis and i forgot what else. It really isnt interesting though." She laughed, "A photographer? That sounds amazing!" Taylor smiled at Ella. "That must be a fun job."

Ella smiled, nodding enthusiastically. "It is. She's quite good too. She taught me a lot about cameras and I love to take pictures around here. Mostly black and white prints but I like color as well." Ella loved photography, a passion she got from her mom, no doubt.

She was actually heading for the castle. Instead, Hailey found herself at the front gate. Did it really matter? No one was going to find her here, anyway.
The Gryffie leaned her head against the iron rails and bawled openly. You'd think one of her parents had died or something. But no. She was just upset that her boyfriend/best friend was going to tutor some freak she didn't like. And she didn't like to share him. Good thing he didn't have any other friends.

Hailey continued to sob, letting the tears fall into her hair. She grabbed the railings with her hands and looked between them. Passersby might have thought she was lunatic trying to get OUT. Her hair was all messy and wet, from the tears, and the curls were tangled. And her face...well, it was all blotchy and red.

Poor girl.

After storming off from the picnic, Hailey decided to just vanish. And now it was up to Mikey to look for her. Because if no him, then who? Her very own cousin was the one who sent him to go follow her. He decided to stay beind with his girlfriend at the site. Well, at least now there's enough food for both of them to eat with some space left for dessert. But he knew she wouldn't go anywhere that Mikey could easily find her in. For some odd reason, Mikey had a feeling he should held towards the gates. Seeing as Hailey didn't want to be around either of them, she might have wanted to go home.

The nerd bird ran for the gates, and thankfully found the vampire, crying her blue eyes out. "You know," he started, walking towards her. "Crying about everything won't make things better. Haven't I ever told you that before?" Because Mikey was sure he has. Not even his sister cried as much, nor his mom. But maybe Hailey was just a special case.

It's hard to hear people when you're crying your eyes out but being at a deserted gate solves that problem. Hailey jumped a little when she heard Mikey talking to her but really, she was comforted. Comforted that he had come after her, even though she probably didn't deserve it since she had acted like a complete lunatic.

She wiped away some of the tears to make it look like she wasn't crying that much but she couldn't do much about her face and hair. "No, you haven't," She replied with a sniffle. He probably had, a hundred times, but she wasn't likely to remember it.

"Hm, could've sworn I've had," Mikey said, leaning on the gates. Crossing his arms, he pondered on how to make Hailey feel better. Maybe telling her that he wasn't going to tutor Aria anymore would work. But he was still taking down some notes for her. "Well, in a bad attempt to make you feel better, I'm not tutoring Aria anymore. Seeing as you became all hysterical again like in Diagon Alley, I wouldn't want to be blamed for your soon to be mental illness," he said. But he still wanted a straight answer as to why she always started crying whenever he wanted to help someone.

"Answer me this and I want an actual answer. Why is it that you always cry and get hysterical when I try to help someone? Does it bother you that bad?" Because it sure annoyed him at times.

The weather was warm and the air smelled sweet. It was a beautiful April evening perfect for star gazing. Tonight Amelia had planned to look at a constellation that she had viewed before but wanted to see again.

Heading up to the front gate, she made sure to search for a nice level spot before starting to set up her telescope. By this point she had done this often enough that it was like second nature even with the sun down and no real natural light. Her wand always did the trick though.

Ursa Major, or 'the Big Bear' was to be the focus of her stargazing tonight. This was the constellation that The Big Dipper was a part of, and she wanted to see both Ursa Major and The Big Dipper, even if she had already viewed them in a telescope before.

Looking at her notebook, she got the coordinates that she needed:

Quote:

Right Ascension: 11 hours
Declination: 50 degrees
Visible between latitudes 90 and -30 degrees
Best seen in April (at 9:00 PM)

After entering the coordinates, she found the constellation that she was looking for. She knew that there were several different things to be seen in Ursa Major. Some of these included galaxies, and they were all very pretty as she looked at them through the telescope for minutes on end.

Finally, her attention was turned to the seven brightest stars in the constellation, located in the top left corner of it. This was the big dipper. Studying it carefully, she stood at her telescope for a while before turning away from it in order to take noted on what she had seen as well as do a sketch of it all.

Because he felt like walking today. That's why he found himself at the Front Gate. Plus, it was rather nice outside. Then again, April weather was all together nice. And Rufus seemed to like it as well, otherwise the pygmy marmoset wouldn't have agreed to tag along.

Treyen still didn't know what will be the future for this little creature. The only thing he knew was that he couldn't take him with him this summer, and he was at a lost as to whom should he give him to. Kurumi sounded like a great option...but he wasn't too sure about Walnut.

There was always the chance of leaving him with the Editor, surely Rufus wouldn't mind being on the Ravenclaw tower once again.

Maybe.

Anyway, he leaned against the gate, Rufus going from his shoulder to the gate...and staying there. Well, he better stay there and not get away...

Okay so THIS kind of weather wasn't so bad. Mo could stand to be outside in it anyway. Heh. With his little gecko buddy on his shoulder he had merely begun wandering about.

Not entirely sure where he was at this point... his attention was caught by... OH MERLIN! "Is that a monkey? YOU HAVE A MONKEY?" Mortimer called out to the boy he had briefly met once before. HOW FREAKING AWESOME WAS THAT MONKEY THOUGH?!

Moving a bit closer to the Head Boy he smiled at the itty bitty monkey and waited for the boy to maybe... let him play with it or something.

Granted, he'd been too into his thoughts that he failed to notice the person walking towards where he stood. Until this person practically yelled.

Oh! Speaking of the devil...

..."A monkey--?" Yes, Treyen was about to the answer to the Yearbook Editor...Mortimer, yes? Who'd rather be called Mo? That's the one. But he felt something around his neck. Rufus.

HOW DARE HE! A monkey! Pffft. He was more than a mere monkey. His eyes widened, though, as that boy yelled at him! At Rufus! Who was now degraded to a...monkey. And then he jumped from the fence to Treyen's shoulder and sort of got around his neck to the other side, away from the blue one that spent too much time in the office of his first care taker.

He also had that strange lizard. And had no gummy bears, like that Hufflepuff boy who feeded him gummy bears whenever he got the chance. He liked that kid. The one with gummy bears.

Oh?

"He's a pygmy marmoset, but yeah, you could say he's a monkey. His name is Rufus." He might as well tell Mo that the monkey had a name. Plus, it'll make Rufus feel a lot better, no?

Though, this pretty much answered his question about whether Rufus should go to the Editor or not...

Mo took a few quick steps back as the MARMOSET seemed to get angry with him. Well... he had no idea really. NO IDEA. Holding his hands up in surrender he chuckled nervously. "That is so awesome! A pygmy marmoset named Rufus. Who would have thought? And... he likes it here at Hogwarts were it gets so cold? I thought most... I thought marmoset's liked warmer climates?" DID HE HAVE A SWEATER HE WORE WHEN IT WAS COLD?! again!

Watching the marmoset carefully he then stepped closer... JUST a bit, though. "How has this term been going for you, Treyen?" Really, he was thinking COME HERE SO I CAN HOLD YOU, RUFUS! PLEASSSSSSE!

Oh, no. "He's not going to harm you, really." He quickly said, and then eyed Rufus. He's yet to bite anyone, so Mo was fine. Plus, the monkey probably got upset that he was called, well, a monkey, and the fact that Treyen often forgot to say his name, like that time in the dormitory, but other than that he was a pretty nice and fluffy pet. Very fluffy. More so than a Knarl, at least.

Fine. Fine. He'll be nice. When has he NOT been nice, anyway? That didn't mean he was letting the blue one touch him. Nor was he going to jump to his shoulder either. Hmph.

Hey, this kid was funny. Sort of. Shame Treyen didn't spend as much time as he used to back in the Yearbook office...which is where Mo usually was, yes? Because he's hardly seen the Ravenclaw boy around the school.

"He loves it here! Winter, spring, it doesn't matter. He loves Hogwarts. Actually, Rufus originally belonged to James, the Yearbook Editor before Lexi, and then to Lexi...who was the Editor before you." Now it kind of belonged to him...until another came along.

Oh, yes, Miss Lexi. She gave him away. But spoiled more than the Head Boy. He missed her. Plus, she was always around pretty girls.

This term? "Well, it's been alright. I guess. The last one was better in some ways." Less drama. Less study. He's been through a lot of things this term for him to like it too much. "Yours?" Hopefully well enough, since it was his first at Hogwarts.

No food, no shoulder, Mr. Blue. But...Treyen was being so nice to him...hmmm...