"Perhaps…" muttered Edric as Ella pointed out that she'd have to hug him next term. Good thing his graduation was still a little over a year in the future, so he had aaaaaaall that time to prepare for… a hug. Blergh.

But then Ella was demanding to know why he teased her so much, reminding him of their original agreement.
"I never specified which bullies I'd be protecting you from," pointed out Edric with raised eyebrows, "So I never said that I'd be protecting you from this one." And he pointed to himself as he said that, flashing his tiny friend a troll!grin.

They were back on the subject of Edric's fictional faceless classmate, and as Ella asked with horror in her face if the student had died, Edric smirked to himself for a moment in an attempt to keep himself from laughing, before turning serious again. "No." He shook his head slightly. "What happened to him is even worse." Dun dun dunnn! "He's at St. Mungo's, being fed food and oxygen artificially through tubes. He's like a vegetable, he can't do anything without those tubes. He'll never be able to have a normal social life again. No love. No marriage. No kids…"

Edric was beginning to think he should start writing his own tragic books.

Perhaps? Psh! She'd totally be hugging him and maybe even crying too...though hopefully not. She figured Edric had seen enough Ella tears to last him a while.

The second year wasn't all that surprised by her big troll of a friend's response. It was true, he hadn't ever actually said which bullies he'd be watching out for so he was right...unfortunately. "You did that on purpose, didn't you?...That was actually pretty clever." As much as she hated to admit it, Edric's evilness was pretty inspired. She was often impressed by his little mean tricks.

O___O

Ella was completely horrified so she didn't noticed her friend smirking to himself. All she could think was: That poor kid with tubes pouring out of his face! EEK! And he'd be so lonely, without a wife or kids or anything! "But...surely his friends visit him?" Now she felt really sorry for the boy. Then she thought of something else. "Why can't they like...just use a spell to put it back on!"

"Hm." Edric smirked, looking pretty smug as Ella turned impressed by his evil, trolling ways. Heh heh heh. Yeah, he was good, wasn't he? "You should know by now, Ells, that your godfather is the most clever seventeen-year-old you'll ever meet."

"What friends? The only people he knew were the ones he'd seen before the incident, and all of them forgot about him and moved on," said Edric rather emotionlessly in response to Ella's first question. It's not that he was heartless, it's that the story wasn't true. So he couldn't exactly bring himself to sound very heartbroken by the tragedy of it. When Ella suggested they use a spell, Edric shook his head. "It's too risky. They could try, but they might end up putting his eyes were his mouth should be and his mouth on his forehead. Then it'd be worse…"

Ella rolled her eyes at the ogre Edric, regretting saying anything about him being clever. She'd never hear the end of it now. "Maybe I'd know better if you were around more.." Shrug. Take that, smarty pants. But because that felt a little mean she added, "And yeah, I guess you kinda are the most clever person I know...right now." So congratulations.

Ella was full on frowning now as she listened to Edric describe the poor boy without a face. And he didn't even have friends? That must be awful. Ella couldn't imagine life without friends. "T-they forgot about him? But friends don't do that...not real ones." Edric wasn't going to forget her would he O__O He'd better not! And EEK! Eyes were his mouth should be? Ella closed her eyes tight, trying not to picture it. "That's horrible." She said after a minute or two, opening her eyes slowly again. "What will happen to him?"

Edric's eyebrows furrowed just the slightest bit as Ella sneakily mentioned the fact that he, apparently, wasn't around more often.
That was… well, that was the first time Edric had gotten anything like that before. He was more used to being told to go away, not to be around more often. Huh. Who knew. Perhaps Ella really did look up to him after all, maybe she really did see in him some form of an older brother. After what happened with her mum, the boy could understand why she'd be a little worried to be left alone.

"Hey…" muttered the Gryffindor, giving his younger friend a small smile. "I haven't forgotten you, y'know. I've just been… a little busy with classes, but I'm finishing up all my big projects now. Don't worry, I'll be like gum in your shoe and you'll wish you could get a new pair of shoes." Yeah, the boy probably wasn't spending enough time with his fairy godchild. He would fix that, though.

And then Ella was pointing out that friends don't forget about their friends, asking what would happen to the faceless boy. Edric sighed. He was beginning to see now that this topic had interested Ella a little too much, and he just had to keep on building to the story. He'd have to get her distracted from it somehow now; and confessing was definitely not an option. The little girl would probably not talk to him again for the rest of the term. "Er… well, I heard not too long ago that some really rich wizard guy who lost his wife and kids in a terrible fire had decided to adopt him. The elves treat the boy like royalty and his adoptive father is funding research to find a counterspell to the problem. I heard they're close to finding a solution."

There.
Maybe a happy ending for Faceless Guy would alleviate Ella's heart.

When Edric said Hey, Ella turned to look at him with eyebrows raised. His small smile was alarming too, maybe because it was a bit nicer than his usual smirk. Uh-oh, did he have bad news to share or something? Blink-Blink. Out with it, Ogre. Ella could handle any bad news that he had to sh-GRIN. The second year tried not to let on how relieved she was to hear that Edric hadn't forgotten about her all term, even though it was proving to be quite hard. And he was going to be around more often now? Ella turned to the table and smiled down at her pumpkin juice. Beam. Beam. Beam. "I...well good then." She said when she looked back up at him, returning his original small smile with one of her own.

The poor faceless boy was really getting Ella down. How could anyone just abandon someone without a face?! I mean sure, he was probably horrifying to look at but...but they could just like...put a bag over his hear or something! At least then he'd have some proper company. She frowned, waiting eagerly to hear what kind of fate this disfigured kid faced. ^__^ A rich guy adopted him! D'awww. That was quite nice! And now the boy had friends in the elves. Plus, maybe his new dad's money could someday buy him a new face...or like a really awesome mask! That would be wicked! But oh! His dad was funding research on a counterspell! BEAM. He was going to be with a face again before he knew it! The little blonde let out a happy sigh and smiled at Edric. "I'm happy he's not gonna be miserable, lonely and faceless anymore." Mhm. That was something. "I'm sure just being faceless is hard enough." And she was none the wiser that her big evil fairy godfather had just made that entire thing up, lucky for him...

Edric watched with amusement and endearment as Ella beamed down at her pumpkin juice. Did it really make her that happy that he, of all people, would promise to be around more often? This actually meant quite a bit to the Scroogey boy too. He'd never felt so appreciated.

And again, that uncomfortable fuzzy feeling was taking over his stomach and Edric thought he might be sick. Ughh. He couldn't handle being nice; it literally messed with his health. He tried his best not to "accidentally" knock something over again.

"Yeah, yeah, it's quite a sweet story, isn't it?" muttered Edric, rolling his eyes. Gawsh, if Ella let other people's tragedies get her like this, he couldn't imagine how she must deal with her own problems. Actually, he'd witnessed that once. It wasn't very pretty. His fairy godchild needed to toughen up; to worry only about herself and not be affected by things around her.

Wisteria walked to the table awkwardly. She became distant. No familiar faces circled the table. Carrying her pumpkin pasty and juice she tried to find a place to sit. There seemed to be a place where what looks like some drink was spilled, but who was she to complain. She took a seat near what appeared to be a couple. She stared down at her juice her head resting on her arm flicking her wand changing the color of her drink.

Ella really didn't notice the sudden uncomfortable change in her big scary ogre bestie, though she knew he was probably feeling a bit awkward after speaking so nicely to her. It just wasn't really in his nature to do stuff like that. She appreciated it though, especially knowing how hard it was for him to be nice. At least he wasn't spilling anything on her or tussling her hair or pulling her cheeks. All things he did when he seemed to get uncomfortable. She appreciate that too.

The second year frowned at Edric when he rolled his eyes. Why was he so...well so mean. "Do you not care about anyone, Edric?" She asked quietly, turning to look at him with raised eyebrows. It seemed that way sometimes. "Well I mean...I think you care about me, and probably Evelyn, and your family...but like...you don't care about strangers and their feelings?" Cause Ella couldn't help but care, which was sometimes quite annoying. Another thing that she was wondering was, "And do you think I'm...dumb for caring?" Cause the way he rolled his eyes at her all the time made her feel that way.

Edric seemed a little taken aback by Ella's unexpected question: did he not care about anyone?
With eyebrows raised, the boy was just about to ask what made Ella ask him that, when the girl continued, listing out a few people she assumed he might care about - and he did - before asking if he cared about strangers and their feelings. "Well… honestly? Not really. Strangers don't care about me, so why should I care about them?" He shrugged. "I know it may sound cold to you, Ells, but if you spend your whole life worrying about everyone else's troubles and problems, you'll never be able to solve yours. You have to select a few people to worry about, and keep the list short. If not, you'll drive yourself mad."

But then the little girl was asking if she was dumb for caring. What?! What in the world was going on? Ella seemed to be thinking quite low of herself lately - oh no, was it his fault? Had he influenced her?! Despite his sudden bursts of arrogance, Edric didn't often think very highly of himself. The only difference here was that he didn't really care.

"You're not dumb for caring," the Gryffindor assured her. "It just means you're… considerate and kind-hearted," explained Edric. "Which is fine. I don't recommend being too much of that, but if it makes you happy then be as caring as you'd like."

Hmm. That was an interesting way to look at things. And yeah, Edric was probably right. Most strangers probably didn't care about him...but some did. Some people couldn't help but care about other people too much. It was what Ells tended to do. She couldn't help it. As for keeping the list short, that was another thing Ella would have trouble doing. "I don't think it's cold...well not really. I guess I sometimes I wish I didn't care so much." The second year said honestly with a shrug.

The small blonde gave Edric a weak smile when he assured her she wasn't dumb. It was nice to hear, especially because lately that's all she'd been feeling. Really dumb. "Thanks. I think maybe it'd make me happier if I could not worry so much about other people's feelings cause I guess I tend to...well I don't really consider my own." And she frowned a bit, thinking that this had caused quite a few problems in her life recently. "It's like I'm...stuck this way or something. It's not fair." Hmph. And Ella began picking at the leftovers on her plate, mostly just pushing things around. "Sorry I'm being such a whiner. I guess it's this growing up stuff. It's making me all...like depressing." Which she hated. "I don't feel much like me."

Wisteria couldn't help but overhear the conversation next her her. Flick after flick of her wand her juice was turning red, blue, then purple and all over again. Her eyes moved towards the the two but kept her head resting on her arm. She moved her wand toward one of their cups and started swirling a beautiful blue color through the liquid, "I care" she mumbled to herself. She caught herself eavesdropping and refocused herself to what was in front of her. She wasn't trying to be intrusive, she just missed being around people. She peeked through the corners of her eyes slightly embarrassed.

Wisteria really felt for these people, young yes, but she remembered too. When you care about other people's feelings you would think it would be mutual, but that's not always the case, Wisteria thought to herself. She really needed to stop. This isn't like me, she thought on. She mumbled incantations making the juice swirl on its own. She needed a walk... or someone to talk to.

Edric listened quietly and attentively as Ella explained her situation.
It was clear to the boy what was going on. How old was Ella again? Twelve? Thirteen? The newborn who'd just grown out of her diapers was still just a microscopic, growing thing. She was going through a rough phase.

"You'll learn not to care so much with time," said the Gryffindor, watching as little Ella began picking at her food unenthusiastically. "Hey c'mon, cheer up. It's gloomy enough with me around, you don't need to add on to it - are you trying to steal my job, Ells? Should I be worried?" asked the boy, wiggling his eyebrows at the little girl the way she often playfully did to him; though, of course, when she did it it looked cute and funny. When Edric did it, it was just plain creepy.

The Gryffindor placed a slice of pumpkin pie on a small bowl, then pulled out his wand and tapped the pie gently. Before the two kids, the pumpkin pie magically transformed into ice cream - pumpkin pie flavoured ice cream. "Here." The boy pushed the bowl aside, toward the little blonde girl. "This should help." Nothing to put a smile on someone's face like sweet ice cream. The boy himself wasn't a HUGE fan of it, but he was sure Ella would appreciate the cold sweetness of sugary ice cream.

Just as Edric had been giving the ice cream away to his Hufflepuff friend, he heard someone mutter something that sounded strangely relevant to their conversation. Mm? And just as the boy turned with furrowed brows, he caught sight of a girl looking in their direction, playing around with her juice absentmindedly.

Uhhh…

Edric wasn't sure he recognized her. Instead, he turned back to Ella and elbowed the girl gently, "Do you know her?" he asked, referring to the fellow Gryffindor who'd been watching them. Maybe she was another one of Ella's friends trying to catch her attention or something.

"Hope so." Ella said with a shrug, continuing to play with her food. Her mom would have hated that, the playing with the food thing. This made her smile a bit and she started mushing the leftovers into a big pile before stabbing the pile repeatedly with her fork. Take that, Mom. The second year was distracted from her violent attack on her food when Edric told her to cheer up. "You're not that gloomy, Edric." Ella said with a small smile. She didn't like it when he put himself down. She then burst into laughter as Edric accused her of stealing his job AND wiggled his eyebrows. Heh. That was her move! And he was terrible at it! Hehehe. "Edric!" She said, grinning at him. "You should never do that again...or let me teach you the right way to do it." And she started wiggling her own eyebrows at him, a small smile on her face. "See? Like that."

O____O

Had he just did what she thought he just did!?! EEP! Ice cream! She accepted the bowl with a look of disbelief on her face and grabbed a spoon. "I...Edric how did you do that?! Can you teach me! ...Please!" Pretty please with sugar on top!

Ella was going to continue pestering Edric when she heard someone talking nearby and then felt an elbow. She turned to Edric and shook her head. "I don't know her. I've actually never seen her before. I thought you might know her..." Which was silly really, considering Edric didn't like talking to people. "Do we like...invite her over or?" Big brother guidance, puh-lease.

Edric snorted as Ella began wiggling her eyebrows, trying his best not to end up spitting anything out again. Merlin. The girl had no mercy - she just couldn't go five minutes straight without making him laugh, could she? Even when she was all down and depressed, she found some way to make the grouchy Gryffindor do the unusual - laugh.

"I'm afraid this is top secret information," said Edric with a smirk as Ella demanded to know how he'd turned the pie into ice cream. "You might learn in your fifth year Transfiguration class, though." 'Cause that's where the boy had learned it. So poor Ells still had three years to go before she learned the trick - for the time being, he continued to be awesome and almighty by knowing the all-powerful secret. MWAHA.

Then Ella was confessing that she didn't actually know the girl. At this, Edric's eyebrows raised slightly in surprise. Huh. He was sure she'd be one of Ella's friends or something.
And now the Hufflepuff was leaving it up to him - me?! - to decide whether to invite the girl over or not. Edric looked a bit startled. Why did he have to choose?! Didn't Ella already know how much he hated socializing?

Edric opened his mouth to give his very predictable response, then closed it without a word, thinking twice about it. He was supposed to be a little friendlier this term - that's how he'd gotten to meet Evs and how he'd ended up being friends with Ella. And besides, what would they say of him if he acted unfriendly toward an innocent student?
Honestly. The power these two girls had over the Scrooge was something else. Here he was, actually worrying not to let them down.

"Sure…" Edric finally responded. "Invite her over."
He wasn't going to do it, though. Psh. If he even tried, the poor girl would probably just run off frightened, because Edric was just scary like that. It was best they left the friendly business to a more likable face, like Ella's.

Edric's snort was a clear indication that the second year still had the eye wiggling magic. Mwahaha. It was her one and only evil power and she totally enjoyed it. Not that making people laugh was evil, exactly. But it could make people spit out their drinks, which was actually pretty funny, especially if it was Edric! Tehehe.

Frown.Frown.Frown. Top secret? That was horrible! "Fifth year?!...But Edric! That's ages away. I need to know now!" She totally heard the might part too. MIGHT! That meant she might not learn it either, which was awful. She turned to Edric, puppy dog eyes on full display, and frowned. "Come on, Edric! Teach me. Pleaseee." And she batted her long eyelashes over her big puppy dog eyes just for added impact. Did the cuteness factor even work on ogres though?

O___O

Wait. HUH? Ella looked at Edric in surprise as he...agreed to invite another person to join them. Blink.Blink. "Who are you and what have you done with my friend Edric?" She asked, an amused smile forming quickly on her face. This was like...a miracle or something! Too bad she didn't have a camera to document this momentous occasion. And she'd also better take him up on the offer before he changed his mind.

Turning her body towards the girl who had been eavesdropping looking at them, Ella smiled her friendliest smile and sat up a little straighter. "Erm Hi, I'm Ella and this is Edric." Cue nod in the big ogre's direction. He better not be doing that scary-smile he did when he first met her! Shudder. "Would you like to sit with us?"

Wisteria was concentrating on her cup. Her pumpkin pasty not even touched. Her wand stopped when she heard a girl's voice inviting someone to join. They heard me, she thought. She took a couple of seconds before she turned her head in their direction. Both appeared to be looking at her in anticipating response.

Thoughts instantly raced through her mind. Should I go out of respect? Do they really want me there? I just eavesdropped on their conversation, they probably think I'm crazy or something. She opened her mouth as if to say something and closed like a fish breathing for water. She passed a friendly smile. The girl seemed sweet enough, but the boy had an interesting energy around him. Her smile faded and she began to speak, "Um, first I want to apologies because I did over-hear part of your conversation. I didn't mean to intrude it's just..." she looked over to where she was sitting, clearly sitting alone, "it's quiet and..." she stopped herself. Rambling isn't a good thing and she didn't want to annoy them, than they probably are. "You both look like you're enjoying each others company, it wouldn't seem right if jumped in." She picked up her pumpkin pasty, her favorite but she didn't have much of an appetite right now, "peace offering?"

"Patience, grasshopper. The secret shall reveal itself to you one day," teased Edric, poking Ella's nose and pushing her adorable little face away. If he had it near a second longer, he might just give in and tell her the charm. Which would NOT be cool 'cause then he'd spend the rest of his life in regret for having done something nice.

As the second year then teased the boy about his sudden unusual friendly nature, the Gryffindor rolled his eyes. Gawsh. He knew she wouldn't just let him get away with doing something nice.

And then Ella was inviting the Gryffindor girl to sit with them, but the girl seemed a little caught off-guard by the offer. First she was apologizing, then doubting the idea, and finally offering a pumpkin pasty. Edric tried not to drool. The Scrooge did love pumpkin, after all, in case that wasn't obvious already.

"You didn't tell us your name," pointed out the boy.

Psh! No fair! A) Ells was totes not a grasshopper! Grasshoppers were super wimpy. She was like...like a bee! Yeah a little bee! Bees were cool and dangerous. Mhm! and B) What if the secret never revealed itself and Ella was left feeling all sad and ice creamless forever?! O__O Frown.Frown.Frown. The second year pouted as even her puppy dog eyes failed her, arms crossed. "Fine. Maybe I'll just find another older friend to tell me...like Eve!" Grin! Eve would totally tell her. Mhm! And hehehe Eve was Edric's secret girlfriend, yeah?

The second year giggled as her scrooge of an evil fairy godfather rolled his eyes at her. He SO loved having her around.

Ella gave the Gryffindor girl a reassuring smile when she apologized for intruding. "Oh you weren't, honest and-" But the girl wasn't done. She then seemed to think that she couldn't join them, which wasn't true! Ella had just invited her. That was reason enough to come over, yeah? Her eyes traveled to the pasty as it was held out towards her and her ogre besty and she tried not to look too eager to take it. ...But she totally wanted to! And judging by the look on Edric's face, he did too. Oh! And Edric was talking to her? BEAM! Ella gave him an approving look before reaching out to accept the pasty with a smile. "Yeah, what is your name?...and year?" Just cause she was curious. "Oh...and thanks!" For the delicious pasty! Apology SO accepted.

Wisteria was taken off guard. She looked between the two wondering who to give the pasty to. Clearly this made up for things. The aura she sensed was changing, but quite unique. She placed the pasty between the two thinking they'll have to fight for it or share, either way she was happy they were pleased. She was really happy to have come across an accepting couple. "Oh right, Wisteria, Witsy, Hartly. Fourth year." She held out her hand for a more formal greeting.

Out of no where Wolfy, her grey cat, slams into her leg tripping her backwards. A very angry howler that was once hanging from her mouth now sits between Edric and Ella. Not sure what to do she just stares at it.

Anya nodded. "Yeah. Him." And he had a name Penelope. A really awesome name, thank you very much.

She thoughtfully stabbed a piece of fruit as Penelope asked her question. "He is my friend." No supposedly about it. It was just... maybe she watched a few too many of those romantic movies, but she always figured... it would have been him and her.

She then shrugged. "I just don't want him to think... that... I'm forgetting him or anything."

Because that would never happen. He was her Blakey. Her best friend of more than 10 years now.

Ahem.

Maybe they should talk about something else?

"So. What are you doing this summer? Any fun plans?"

Meh. It figured that one of her only best friends would be friends with one of the people she didn't like. And not just friends apparently. Best friends. Was he a better best friend than Penelope? Not that...she was entirely sure whether Anya thought of her as a best friend. Anya was definitely one of HERS, but it wasn't like she had that many friends to choose from. Anya probably did. So...

Meh.

Anyway.

"I don't see how he could think you're forgetting him because of this," Penelope replied. "It's not like you're replacing him as a friend or anything."

And then she ate a few more pieces...and realized those were her last ones. Hm. Maybe she should get more.

She reached for the fruit but paused when Anya asked about her summer plans. Fun plans. Pfft.

"I'd hardly call being stuck at my grandparents' place fun," she grumbled, frowning.

Anya shrugged a little. "I guess... I'm just nervous because he's always been... you know... the closest guy in my life." Since... well... pretty much forever. "Yeah. I'm not. I just hope he'd know that. Because I honestly don't think he'd say anything if it did bother him."

Not that much bothered that friend of hers. He was just... brilliant. With everything.

She tilted her head to the side. "Do you not like spending time with your grandparents?" she asked. She liked hers perfectly fine. Not that she saw too much of them anymore. It was getting progressively harder to be around non-magic people.

Oh, that was it? Well that made sense, Penelope supposed. She still didn't really understand, having never been a situation even slightly resembling Anya's, but it made sense sorta. It also meant she didn't have much advice to give, however. "But if you're friends, shouldn't he be honest and tell you if it was bothering him?" That was a part of being friends, wasn't it? Honesty? Penelope knew that much at least.

As for spending time with her grandparents? "Like" and "her grandparents" really shouldn't be in the same sentence. "No. I hate them." Penelope's eyes were down on her empty plate, her expression suddenly hard. "And they hate me. And I'd hardly even call it spending time with them. Most of the time they ignore me." Which was perfectly fine with her. The less she had to see or talk to them, the better. If only her idiot cousins Xerxes and Xadrian would do the same.

"Yeah. But... He's too nice. He won't say something if he thinks it'll hurt my feelings..."

Which, under normal conditions wasn't that bad.

But now. Now was when Anya needed to know exactly what Alec was feeling.

She was about to take another bit of fruit when what Penelope said stopped her in her tracks. Wait. What? Did she hear that right?

"Come stay some of the summer with me." she said immediately. "I mean. If you want to. I don't too many exciting things." But it was WAY better than being hated, right?