Maxwell opened his eyes to see her looking back into his eyes. He started to pet her hair a little and then stopped knowing she'd make a comment about it if he did too long.

,He smiled at Minnie, surprisingly able to ignore Taylor and Maxwell's little love fest. He followed what she had told him to do, somewhat surprisedthat when he lean backward be didn't fall off completely, "I'm up to do whatever you guys feel like doing." They didn't really have a 'thing's that they did everyday... Unless you counted arguing... they did that at least once a day.

Tay looked up at Min and Damon and nodded. "Wow, i actually agree with him...." She grimaced. "Sorry...."

Minerva watched Damon follow her instructions and she smiled. "Your doing great. See swinging is one of the easiest things to learn." She was finally feeling relaxed and very happy. There was no fighting and the four of them were near each other having fun. This is a step in the right direction Min thought. She slowed down her swing and came to a stop. "Now if you want to stop just either stop moving your legs and it will slow, or if you don't have patience for that like me, then just put your feet to the ground. Your shoes might get dirty, but it just brushes off." She twisted the swing to look at Damon and smiled she hoped to have more fun like this with him.




As she was watching Damon swing she caught a statement from Maxwell's mouth and a big grin crossed her face, but before she could answer she heard Taylor saying a death wish and she couldn't help but laugh. "Hey Taylor, that's actually my game.I played it last term when I got back from my family's services." she looked down a bit feeling kind of dumb for the explanation and shrugged smile still kind of on her face "I needed to something to push the hurt and sadness out and facing that tree was perfect. I only got hit once and never broke anything." she gave a bigger smile again.

Tay looked at Min, "Still sounds like a death wish." She laughed and smiled at her friend.

Jeez, since when Louisa actually cared about some stranger kid? "I'm not really into.. games like this. I mean I'm sure Mr. Murdoch didn't build this playground for people my age to play in." Ignore the Head Boy and the person playing with him, please. "Would you like us to.. errr... do something else?" OH OH OH! Louisa almost jumped in enthusiasm, "How about I let you play one of the games one of my best friends played with me once?" The big girl's eyes were sparkling now. For real.

She grabbed Brookie's hand and started heading away from the playground to a little slope to the side, "We're going to sock-slide down a small slope. I'll charm it to be sloppy, take our shoes off and slide down on it. It's different than those artificial slides, better even." And apparently the girl didn't get to choose. Louisa was passing her legendary adventure to the next generation, behold oh magnificent world!

Now. Sarah liked this girl. She could see her smiling at her silly little joke. The blonde girl was concerned about her well being. That's what I like. She also liked the way she recognised her. Sarah..and I nearly killed you. What an introduction. Sarah chuckled merrily but the pain turned it into something gross.

She waved her hand in protest about going to the hospital wing. Going to the hospital wing last term had been disastrous. "I think I can manage" she said, trying to get up. Sarah used her hand to support herself. She rose slowly and when her hip was an inch from the ground, her hands gave away and she landed with a thud again, on soft grass. Bless it.

"Help me will you?" she asked to Ella. Sarah had second thoughts. "Maybe going to the hospital wing IS a good idea" she said, smiling a bit. She wasn't even angry on the girl, as she used to be with Sidney. She didn't know why.

Maxwell laughed and looked from Taylor to Minerva. "Min and i are in a special club, the get hit by the willow and don't break a bone club!" He said rubbing the scar on his chin a little.

Minerva laughed and looked at Damon hoping he wouldn't freak out to much with her little game. "Well I don't even have a scar, so I think I'll be president of that club." She looked at Taylor and shrugged with a laugh. "You sound like Harvey now. He actually came to the Willow while I was playing one day. I thought he was going to have a heart attack. He thought I was trying to get her on purpose. It was kind of funny how worried he was about me." she remembered his face and laughed. "I did feel a bit bad that he didn't realize it was a game. Taylor you mean you don't want to play chicken?" she giggled.

Damon firmly planted his feet on the ground trying to listen to her... And fell forward. For once in his life he overbalanced. Ugh, so this is what it felt like to fall flat on your face, lovely. He stood up with a chuckled and brushed himself off, "I'm alright..." He shook his head, "Though I think I'm going to stay away from the swings for a while."

MEAN.

"But I am the queen." Blue pouted. "And obviously you're my servant because you came to help me up because I am ze queen." Obviously. Blue took the girl's hand and let her help her stand up. "You seem grouchy or something. Did someone upset you? Or take your cookies? I get mean and grouchy when meanie people take my cookies." 'Cause she liked cookies!!!!!!

"Maybe playing with me will cheer you up!" She pointed to a tower, BEEAMINGGGGG. "Everyone gets all happy like when they play with the queen!" And she was the queen.

Ergo (yup, she had just used that word 'cause it was her word of the day she was SUPER smart) the girl would be happy after playing with her.

'Cause she was the queen.

Of the castle.

Yup.

Minerva saw Damon go face forward and jumped off her swing. She was going to help him up, but he was already up brushing himself off. 'Well I'm glad your okay. I would have felt horrible if you would have gotten hurt when I was being your teacher." she gave him a little smile and a hug just to make sure he was ok. Everything was better after a hug as well, so that was an added bonus. "Oh, but you were doing so good at them." she laughed at the fun she was having. "Okay we will cross swings off our list of hangout things. So what other things should we add or cross out." she looked at the entire group.

What game ? She hadn't suggested playing any games yet, maybe Louisa was a mind reader :O Brooke stared at the girl in amazement before blinking remember she'd said something. OOHEY! "Oh, did he build it for people my age then ?" Do something else ? OOOHEY. She would like to do something, she enjoyed doing things. "I WOULD like to do something else!" She beamed, her tone of voice showing enthusiasm. "This sounds like a fun game! I WANNA PLAY!" she beamed, getting all excited once again.

Brooke almost fell as Louisa began pulling her somewhere, nuuuuu. They were going away from the playground. Brooke liked the playground! She liked it very much, but she also liked doing things so she was just gonna have to trust the older girl wasnt she. eep. They werent too far away though so it would be all okay. "THIS GAME SOUNDS LIKE FUN!" Brooke said, not waiting for Louisa to charm the slop before whiping off her shoes.

Louisa chuckled at Brooke who was now shoving her shoes off her feet even before the Ravenclaw announced they reached the suitable slope. This one... wasn't slope at all, just kind of a bent down ground. Heh. "Okay, but remember this game is only allowed when there's someone capable of charming the ground for you. Okay?" She didn't want the girl to bounce around the grounds and getting her feet injured somehow.

Following suit the Prefect took off her shoes and stood at the beginning of the soon-to-be slop. With her wand she 'Glisseo'ed the ground and grabbed Brooke's hand tightly. "On count of three, you just have to lean forward a bit and I'll lead." This was so a deja vu moment for Louisa but she focused on the mission at hand. Eyes looking forward again, she started counting "One.. two.. three," Aaaaaaand they were sliding forward, Louisa's hair instantly flew behind her as her grin started to widen. Her hand was clutching Brooke's really tight and she hoped the little girl's legs didn't flail around like Louisa's first time.

Ten or eight seconds was the maximum long of this slide, Louisa had to let go of Brooke's hand to balance herself when they hit the non-sloppy ground and she let herself waddle a few steps forward before coming to a stop and turning around to see whether the little girl fell or not.

... that'd be bad for her reputation if Brooke actually got hurt over Louisa's game.

Maxwell laughed. "Does that mean i get to be vice president of said club?" He asked smiling. "Ohh we need to make a club for American Hogwarts students"!

Taylor laughed and smiled at Minerva, "I think i would leave that to you and Maxwell." She leaned into Maxwell a little and whispered into his ear so that only he could hear, "Can i speak to you in private? I need to tell you something." She didnt want Damon to hear just in case he might get mad at her for telling but Tay didnt want to lie to her boyfriend about it...

Minerva smiled at both of them. "Well it's not that hard, you have to just keep your eye on every branch at the same time and hope to get out of the way in time." she knew it was reckless, but last term she really didn't care. Her suppose to be best friend was no where to be found, Justin was missing, and at that point she was even mad at Harvey for not even sending an owl to see if she had been kidnapped again or something. She didn't feel anyone cared about her, so no one would mind if she had gotten hurt, well until Harvey found her and freaked out. She came back from her thoughts and looked at Maxwell "Well of course you can be VP, I think we will be the only two in the club though, doesn't look like these two will be joining us." She smiled at Damon wondering what he thought about this game. She then turned to Maxwell "I like the idea of starting an American club.." she laughed a bit. "I know the perfect professor to be our advisor" She was thinking of her conversations with their muggle studies professor about America that could be fun.

Taylor laughed, "I will only try it once if you two insist." She smiled, "Our group is like half and half." Tay chuckled, "Half American and Half Scottish/ Irish." She crossed her eyes.

Maxwell laughed and nodded to Min. "Yeah, sounds good." To their American club. He looked back to Taylor and whispered. "Yeah, of course." To her hoping everything was okay.

Taylor stood up and held out her hand to help him up so that they can go talk in private for a few.

Maxwell stood and took Taylor's hand and walked a decent distance from the swing set. "What's up?" He asked her. He had assumed they were okay but he wasn't sure now and it made him a little worried.

Taylor pulled him into a kiss like the estate again. She looked into his eyes with guilt. "Maxwell, I'm sorry for not telling you the truth back there but Damon said it should be a secret so there werent any restrictions as we try to grow our friendship back...." She sighed, "I stupidly agreed to keep it from you and Minerva." Taylor grimaced, "Damon and I have been friends since a week after the feast..... only friends." She wanted to make sure so that he would know her and Damon didnt do anything like cheat on Maxwell and Minerva. Taylor searched his eyes, "I'm sorry i wasnt honest...." She looked down in shame.

Maxwell wasn't angry with her just hurt that she lied. "Taylor, I don't care if you're friends with Damon I just don't see why you had to lie about it? I mean if you thought i was going to be jealous why would lying make it better? why didn't you just come and talk to me about it?" He asked softly to show he wasn't angry and to hide how hurt he was, he knew she was hiding something but not this. "I'm not mad, I understand, okay?"

Taylor looked up, "Maxwell, he wanted to keep it a secret and i didnt want to get tuned out again. It hurted enough the first time he blocked me out." She frowned and sighed. "I didnt think you would be jealous but he didnt want you two to know because he was sure that you would put restrictions on it because of you being from America and he didnt know what Minerva would think...." Taylor gave his hand a slight squeeze. "I really am sorry for hiding and lieing about it, Maxwell."

He smiled at her, "It's good to fall off it?" He chuckled wrapping his hand in hers.