Furmgoat didn't know what all the Hogwarts persons were doing out on their grounds, but it had helped him to find the small person he was delivering the letter to. The tawny owl descended on the large table, a few supplies flying in the air as he landed beside the girl, wonky wings struggling to keep him righted.

When he finally had his balance, he held out one leg with letter attached, large owl eyes staaaaring down the young girl who the letter was for.

Anya blinked several times. "Are... are you alright Blakey?" she asked. Because he didn't seem alright. Last she checked sandwiches weren't a conversation topic. Nor did she really know what was on her sandwich. It just showed up on the plate and she ate it. Typical lunch-at-Hogwarts behavior.

She busied herself with cutting and tried to ignore Alec's cuteness oddness. "Yeah." she nodded holding up her completed kite cutout. "Now we just need to attach it to the kite... and decorate it. And we're good to go!"

Maybe once they got past sandwich talk things would be normal again.

It's like she missed a month of her life and suddenly everything is topsy turby.

"The frame ready for this?" she asked while closing the gap between herself and Alec.



Anya was interrupted from her kite designing by an owl. She ducked out of the way as a paint brush flew past her head. That was a rather clumsy owl, wasn't it? It certainly wasn't one she recognized either.

"For me?" she asked looking at the owl's outstretched leg. She untied the letter. She gave it a quick read through and let out a little squeal. A wedding?! She loved weddings.

She shoved the letter back in her pocket and looked around for something to give the owl for a job well done. "Erm... jelly bean?" she offered nodding toward the bowl of now half-spilled candies.

That's the best she could do. Maybe she should start carrying owl treats around?

Daisy smiled at the girl, trying to work out what year she was in as she shook the hand.
'I'm Daisy,' she grinned, 'I'm not a muggleborn,' she laughed, 'but my Muggle friends used to play with kites so I have a slight idea of what I'm doing. Not much, though.' She hadn't seen those friends for years. It was difficult when you had to make excuses about everything: where she'd been all year and why she'd changed so much. Then again, flying Muggle kites seemed a bit tame after spending a year at Hogwarts. Though magical ones would surely be different.
She grabbed some of the stuff and handed it to Chelle, smiling. 'We're nearly done, but then we can fly it.' She shot a look at some of the other kites; some still in the process of being made, some already soaring in the sky. They all looked so magical, which was obvious, but still amazing.

So she was right. They haven’t met before. But Gwen was almost sure she had seen the other girl at some classes. What was her name… something with P? Nono… definitely R. But, instead of just making guesses, the fourth year waited for the girl to introduce herself.

Hmmm.

Gwen had been unbelievably nice to the other girl. In her case, this was odd. And nooo. I’m not turning into a Hufflepuff, the fourth year told herself, actually frightened of that thought. ‘Nice to meet you too’, the Ravenclaw replied to the other girl, who immediately introduced herself. Nessie. All right. She would make an effort to keep in mind the name. Gwendolyn made a mental note of it, actually hoping she would avoid awkward situations if she remembered the name. Because it was odd when she confused people for someone they were not. Her thoughts were interrupted as the other girl extended her hand, in attempt to shake hers. After shaking hands, the fourth year returned to her work.

As she was back to her kite, the Ravenclaw could hear the other girl ask her something. ‘I don’t know. I was thinking about a simple black and white striped kite. But that could turn out too… simple’, Gwendolyn mused, still staring at the rhombus shape which lay on the table in front of her. ‘Or perhaps I could try making some sort of a pattern with more blue…What do you think?’

She spent a few more seconds looking at the unfinished kite, and then glimpsed back at Nessie. The girl didn’t seem to have already made a decision about her kite either. Or maybe had she? ‘What about you? Got any ideas for your kite?’ Because Gwen had too many. Hmph.

Chelle nodded at Daisy. She had had Muggle friends, then? That meant she must not have been a pureblood. Most purebloods Chelle knew at Hogwarts were out of touch with the real world- the Muggle world, that is. "Well, you must have had fun friends. I never flew kites, not even with my friends!" she told Daisy. How old was she? She looked a couple of years older than Chelle.

Chelle took the stuff that Daisy had handed her and examined it. It looked beautiful... so colourful, and so creative. And obviously, so magical. She had never seen such beautiful kites back home. She was actually excited to fly it, except that she didn't know how to. "Er, you're going to have to help me fly these," she announced, nervously. "My first year at Hogwarts, and I'm flying kites!" Then Chelle laughed. Jake would be amazed.

Nathan awkwardly looked down - he wasn't sure what to say. Was he suppose to comfort her? But she seemed very indifferent about it. And Nathan hardly knew her .. it was better if he just stayed quite.

He grinned at her next statement. "Just remember to breathe .." he said, noticing yet another blush.

He nodded, following what she was doing to his own kite. "I will try," he added, smiling. Yes. He wasn't that good at flying but he simply loved to go up, no matter how many times he had fallen down ..

OH. USA.

Far.

"No. I have always been here .. just traveled a little with Dad .. within England .. and a little on the outskirts."

Alec ruffled his hair slightly at Anya's question. Truth be told, he didn't even know if he was okay or not. None of this made any sense to him whatsoever. Why was he feeling so odd? And why was Anya making him so nervous? It was a different kind of nrevousness from Quidditch but... he was still nervous.

As for her question... "Yeah! Yeah, I'm fine! I mean..." He could tell her. He could tell her everything but... "I'm just a bit... erm... nervous. You know... we haven't made a kite in a long time..." Was that a good enough cover up? "Are you... okay?" He wasn't making her feel weird, was he?

Great. Simply... great.

"Hey, that looks perfect!" he said, looking from the cutout to the base and back again. Yeah, it looked like it would be a good size. That was important, wasn't it? Because if the cutout shape was wrong...the whole kite might look weird. And they couldn't have a weird kite! It was just... not allowed.

The frame? "Yeah! I think it'll be..." His voice trailed off as he turned to look at her. He knew that he shouldn't because it made him act really weirdly but... how could he not when she was coming closer towards him? What. Was going. On?! He gripped the frame tighter as she continued to come closer towards him. Any minute now... she was going to stop. Right? Because with the way his heart was beating faster with every step she took, it didn't seem like it could beat any faster right now. Breathe, Summers, breathe!

...

And then she stopped. Alec took a moment to catch his breath back before looking over at the... owl? He gave the bird a small smile saying 'thanks', even if the owl didn't really know what it had done. And Anya... she squealed! The Hufflepuff ruffled his hair again. That sounded nice... yeah...

... He needed help.

"Thank ya,'' Jory replied. "That's a good idea, you know. It was so exciting that we won our last match by such a big score. How come you're not on the team this year?'' He hadn't seen her play that match and he had thought she was sick or something.

The boy was amused at how Janice was repeating everything he told her about kites. "Yes, that'll do,'' he replied in to her suggestion on the string tying. He also began tying his string. First the left, then the center and finally the right. Lastly, Jory tied tied the three pieces together and then knotted it to the intersection of the sticks. "All done here,'' he told Janice.

Nope, he needn't comfort her... it was merely a fact of life for her. She had dealt with it long ago. That was that. She smiled shyly at him and went on making their kite. She didn't mind silence anyway. Heh.

Blinking a bit rapidly Addy looked up at him through her lashes and smiled once more. "Breathing is not the problem. I am a ging, so it seems all emotions show themselves in my cheeks," she said with a tinkling little giggle.

Nodding her head Addy began to glue the fabric to the kite as she chewed her bottom lip in concentration. Yep. She had to CONCENTRATE. Boy this Nathan was distracting her... Hehehehe. GIGGLES FOR LIFE. \

... and then she kind of FELT another pair of eyes on her. Glancing around she finally noticed another Ravenclaw BOY was looking at her. EEP! Scooting closer to Nathan she dropped her head immediately. WHY WERE BOYS TALKING TO HER AND LOOKING AT HER AND STUFF AND THINGS?! WHAAAAAAA!

BREATHE! Okay, so maybe Nathan was right. She had to remember to breathe a little bit. "Well that's no fun! My cousin, I just met her not long ago, lives in the Cyclades. Santorini, Greece, to be exact. I have visited her a fair bit recently. It's the most amazing place I have seen yet," she gushed as she attached the tail to the kite.

"Hmmm would you like to ... like... paint something on here or something? Make it pretty or something?"

Daisy smiled, wondering if the Muggle friends still remembered her. Probably not. She'd been very young and couldn't see them much, in case she accidentally started showing magic around them.
'It was years ago,' she replied, 'but it was pretty fun, especially in the countryside.' Just for a second Daisy wanted to be back there with the sun and the kites...
She frowned ever so slightly. Nolgastic? At this age? She'd better not be. Rather in Hogwarts making kites than having to go through everything again. She distanced herself from the thought, listening to Chelle.

'Aah, you just have to stick them on, I think,' she giggled, looking at Chelle. Now that she thought about it, she did look pretty young. A lot younger than Daisy, 'It's my fourth,' Daisy grinned, 'but are you enjoying it?'

Fourth year already, she swallowed. That meant OWLs were next year. Daisy nearly squeaked with fear. She wasn't ready. She would fail eeeeeverything
'You're lucky,' she nodded, 'I've got OWLs soon.'

Oakey's smile shied away a little when Merdog told him no name calling, but the Groundskeeper was right Jerk was to harsh a name to call someone who uses up half a glue bottle. So what should I call them? Nitwit, Dunderhead, Boogie-face? Oakey asked, half answering his own question.
Oakey still wasn't to fond of candy since last term. He avoided as many sweets as he could but was making some exceptions here and there. I don't like candy. He replied, this must of sounded hard to believe coming from some like him.
Oakey was putting on the final touched to his kite, then held it up for Merdog and anyone else to view his simple but elegant kite.

Chelle smiled wistfully as Daisy told her about her kite-flying days. "You miss it, don't you?" she asked Daisy, eyeing her teasingly. Then she looked down at her kite. Just stick them on? She fronwed. This was confusing, but Chelle decided it was going to be good fun. "Fourth? Wow. Been here quite long, I suppose?"

Chelle stopped smiling as Daisy's expression became worried. OWLs? Oh, right. Fifth year = OWLs. Chelle shuddered at the thought. She knew she wouldn't flunk, but she'd have to study pretty darn hard. "Don't worry, there's still time," she said, reassuringly.

"Second of February." West said proudly. It meant that he was awesome you know? And having lots of cool presents and everything only made it better. "When's yours?"

AWESOME they had a plan. West grabbed some paper and lay it out in front of him, then a couple of markers and with his tongue poking out just a little he began sketching out their kite.

Soooooooooooooooooooooo why didn't she.... get one of them professors to fix it? Maybe she liked having her hands stuck together maybe she... oh there. That was better. West gave a thumbs up and a fist pump back and then went back to his drawing.

He didn't fly away when she took the letter, Furmy was waiting for his treat. He'd get one, right? Lowering his leg, not at all bothered by all the items flying or looks he was recieving from students bothered by the projected items, he stared the Anya girl down as she searched and came up with...

It wasn't an owl treat, but Furmy wasn't picky. He was hesitant, however, and did examine the jelly bean before snatching it up (and maybe grazing her fingers in the process), he spread his wonky wings and took flight once more.

"Twenty-ninth of August." She said with a slight smile that looked more modest than it actually was. But she wasn't gonna steal his birthday talk, not this time at least. "You get anything good 'sides candy?"

Digging around in the candy bowl, she came up with a chocolate wand and leeeeaned over to see how good his drawing actually was. It was GOOD and gave her ideas for what she wanted to decorate the dragon kite with, so she started gathering her supplies.

Anya blinked. "You're nervous... about a kite?" Sure, kites were not something to be taken lightly... but being nervous about them? That was new.

Was she fine? She sat her stuff down and turned to face Alec. "I'm not the one acting weird here." she said with a little smirk.

And. Back to the kite. She smiled at his compliment. She set the material down on the table and motioned for Alec to go ahead and set the kite frame down.



Anya smiled as the owl examined the jelly bean. Aww. The owl was going to eat it! Fun! Except...

*flail*

It grazed her fingers. She snapped her hand back as the owl took off. "Watchitnexttime." she mumbled before sucking the side of her finger where she was nicked.

What the--

Oakey was missing the whole point. The whole entire point and Waylon gave him yet another look. Although, half those names did sound about right, but the boy was talking about him so no, he was not going to allow name calling. He was an adult anyway, he was supposed to enforce those types of things. "You don't call them anything. And boogie-face is disgusting, they only used half the glue." Also, Oakey could have looked at the bottle before he tried to use it. But he wasn't going to say that.

Still looking in the direction of the piñatas, Waylon slooooowly turned his head towards Oakey when he mentioned he doesn't like candy. Whaaat? Was the boy sick? Did he need to be taken to Healer Tillstorm? "You don't like candy." he repeated quietly before glancing at the Hufflepuffish kite. Oh hey, that was kind of awesome! "Nicely done, Oakey. Now to see if it flies."

Obviously not by the piñatas.

'Noooo,' Daisy giggled, knowing Chelle had seen her reminiscing, 'well, yeah, kind of, but it's way more fun here.' Daisy stuck a few more things to the kite, hoping it wouldn't be too heavy to fly when it did. But then again, that could easily be fixed with a spell. The part she'd been decorating was a mass of colour compared to pretty much everything else.
'Yeah, ages,' she laughed, 'It gets more stressful next year, but I love it here so it's worth it. Though I'd love to go through my first year again...'

'Thanks,' she smiled, trying to picture herself in the exam room next year. Scary thought, OWLs, but she could get through them, right? 'You've just got to remember EVERYTHING,' she winked.

He had about half the kite done, with the main structure and framework already set in place, all he needed was to finish sticking the rest of the colored fabrics in. In essence it was just like building a regular sled kite, but wider and the flares being tucked together to create more lift. He set the book between his work area and Stella's "If you want use this as reference too go ahead, its very helpful." he smiled, then returned to deftly work on his kite. Yes he knows what to do without the book now..

As most of his kite's main sail was white he had an idea with where and how to optimize the other colors he managed to get. Working from left to right he worked carefully to make sure they would look good and most importantly hold together when the kite was flying in the air. Finally the design on the main sail was complete, and Vickers started to tuck the flares along the sides and in the middle, attaching the kite line at key points on the kite and adding a few pins for safety measures and ease of steering. With something this wide he had to make sure it stayed stable-- and upright-- so decided to cut long strips of fabric for the tails, attaching them all along the lower half of the kite.

He stepped back and with a deep breath, gazed at his work. A smile crossed his feature. "Its finally done."

Alec gulped. With the way she was blinking... it was as if he had said something. Something bad. Oops. He hadn't meant to do that at all! ... Right. New plan. He was going to act cool and nice and just show Anya that he was a nice guy. A nice, cool guy. Yeah! Like Superman!

As for her question... "A... a bit?" That wasn't entirely the truth... and he felt bad about that. "I mean... if you didn't ride a bike for a long time and then you decided to ride it again one day, wouldn't you be nervous?" But... Anya was in Gryffindor; the house of the brave. And she was pretty brave herself so maybe it was just him. Yeah. Him and his weird moods.

BLINKBLINK. So she thought he was acting weird as well? Was this a good thing? Because... he liked her craziness. It was all good. Especially when they would hang out and she would come out with something random and crazy. Yeah... he liked that. "Well... erm..." What was he meant to say to that? "Are you... okay with... me?"

... He probably shouldn't have said anything.

She motioned to him... so that was his cue. Come on, Summers, you can do this! Alec took a deep breath and inched closer towards her and the kite material. He tried his hardest to concentrate on the kite material and the kite material only. Except... it was kind of hard when she was standing there looking more beautiful than any angel could ever look. Gulp. The Hufflepuff set the frame down as carefully and accurately as he could whilst his heart decided to thump faster than ever. "Is that okay?" he asked, turning to look at Anya who...

...

WHAT?! Watch it? What had he done?! And... why was she sucking on her finger? "Are you okay?" he asked, ignoring the kite frame and edging closer to her. If she was hurt...

Oooooooh. Name calling was bad in general. Right duh! Sorry Mr.Merdog. No name calling anymore. But, Boogie-face certainly fit the dastardly fiend who hogged the glue bottle. WHO EVER HE/SHE WAS?

He wasn't going to tell Merdog the time he was hexed into throwing up full pieces of candy by first year who hadn't even started their classes. Not yet anyways.Yeah candy's gross now, I can't bare to look at sometimes too. Healthy snacks are better anyways, like celery sticks or baby carrots. That's what should be in the piñatas delicious vegetables, Genius idea Oakey! Why not remedy that and head over to the piñatas with Mr.Merdog.

Thanks Mr.Merdog, I'm gonna go try it out now. Maybe I'll go to the Piñatas later. Oakey tucked his kite under his arm and wave to the Groundskeeper goodbye.

"Wow for reals? So you're ALMOST not old enough to be here!" West pointed out. Did she realise that? That definitely meant he was older and wiser and awesomer. She was SO lucky he didn't mind being her friend anyways. "And your birthday is in the summer! That's cool." It was! Floreans birthday!

"Yeah I got this hat." He pointed at it. "And I got some books and comics, and a miniature fire breathing dragon model thingy, and some new goggles for Quidditch and a Wizarding Chess set and a pocket watch and a journal and some quills and a new backpack and extendible ears and a shrunken head called Jonesy." West listed some of the choicer stuff.

"Are we ready to decorate?"

After securing his fabric to the frame, Spike paused and looked around the making area to see what everyone was up to. He was pleasantly surprised to see a vast array of styles, shapes and sizes of kite. Yay!

He grinned. A dinosaur kite? "That'd be awesome!" Spike said with a grin. Because anything dinosaur was epic and Spike should know...he had his own collection of dino-related stuffs. Even down to dinosaur pjs AND slippers. Oh yes!

"Thre's pinatas over there," Spike responded to the youngster's enquiry, gesturing in the general direction. "Or there's kite sledging on the lake over there... Up to you really. The sledges look awesome though." Yes, Spike was totally going over once everyone had finished up here.

Talking of sledding, another conversation caught his attention. "Not on it, persay," Spike said with a chuckle. "That'd just damage your beautiful kite. You use the wind to propell you along the ice and do tricks and stuff if you want." He nodded happily. He did want, yes indeed.
Spike grinned. "Looks great, Vickers!" he said to his fellow Claw. "Hope it flies as good as it looks..."


Poking his own demo kite, Spike decided it was dry enough to move on. "Okay, so the last bit is the bit we hold on to, and use to move and control our kite. Really important for the other activities you can go do after." He nodded, and found the end of the ball of string. "You need two short bits, about...this long," he said, cutting the lengths and holding them up for all to see, "And one really long bit." He picked up a thick piece of card at this point. "To ensure we don't get too tangled, I recommend you wrap the long bit straight onto your handle, securing the end tight. You'll need a good few metres if you want your kite to fly high." He wrapped, and wrapped, and wrapped some more.

"Okay, so now we take one short bit and tie it in the horizontal corners, and the other we tie to the vertical corners. You can glue over the top too, if you'r unsure about your knotwork." He tied his knots, and checked they were as tight as he could get them. "Now, see where these pieces cross in the middle? That's where we tie this long bit to, joining them together. You might want a friend to help here to get a good knot, as this is where the main strain will be." He completed the middle knot, before flipping the kite over. "And voila! One neat kite ready for flying. Anyone got any questions, or need some help?"

Looking over at Vickers' work, Stella could definitely tell the other Raveclaw knew what he was doing. Even having the book for reference, there needed to be skill to actually get a kite looking like that. Especially with all the other bits of colored fabric being incorporated and such. It was making her little pile of supplies, and her slowly-developing kite, look rather pathetic, but then at least she'd have a kite at the end. She could say she'd actually made something with her own two hands, even if it was turning out way more simple than she'd originally thought. The thought for bending the support pieces had, for the most part, been abandoned. She'd given her companion a smile as he'd officially given her permission to refer to his book, though. "Thank you. Honestly, I'd looked at it a little earlier, while you were occupied with other things," she admitted, for once not really embarrassed. At least it wasn't like dealing with Paulie going all bug-eyed in the portrait corridor over her promise ring. Vickers had given her permission to look at the book, it just turned out to be retroactive.

Even though her own kite had quickly taken on the most basic of appearances, she occasionally glanced over to see him adding one more thing or another to his own. It only made her wonder just how complicated a kite could be, which made her take a break from fitting a piece of her fabric to her frame in order to flip through the book again. Apparently they could be quite complicated, even more than Vickers', but she didn't even entertain the idea that she should start over and try to make anything like that. She was fine with her simple kite, although she did take one tip from the book. Namely, not actually gluing the fabric to the structure so there wasn't as much to weigh the kite down. Instead, she used a hemming charm to create a narrow hem all the way around her cut fabric kite shape, then sliced little pockets from her extra fabric to attach at the corners to fit her frame into. It left less to really stabilize things, but she hoped it would still hold up.

To be safe, however, she carefully threaded her string through the fabric of the kite before attaching it to the vertical support with a couple of secure knots. That way she could at least make sure the fabric didn't fly off if things went wrong, since basically it was tied to the kite. Then she used another bit of string to tie a long strip of fabric to the bottom corner as a tail before attaching the remaining spool of string to her first loop in order to actually be able to fly it, looking up as Vickers had announced he was finished. "That's amazing," she replied, setting her own kite down on the table again as she looked at his. "It's much better than mine, but you obviously just have more knowledge of kite-making than I do." It didn't bother her one bit, since she still had her pretty green kite in the end, even if it was really simple.

Chelle smiled, watching Daisy get embarrassed. But Daisy was right about it being much more fun here. It was true. Chelle missed Jake a lot, but she was having too much fun here. The Castle felt so homely, and everyone was like a biiiig family. That said, she couldn't wait to get back and see Jake. And a tiny part of her hoped that he had missed her more than she'd missed him. She didn't want to be the clingy one here. "So d'you have, like, a couple of tips for me? For the next few years? So that I don't get too stressed out by the OWLs?" Chelle asked Daisy.

Hmm. EVERYTHING. "Well, it is a creepy thought, I give you that," Chelle replied. "But it is kinda cool to be studying, too," the Ravenclaw added. She had always been the studious sort, anyway.