As Forrest answered Ella, Tobias' eyes narrowed slightly and he started to glance around towards the Sonea girl before deciding against it. His friend had just out and out said that she was a bully, and bullies were not okay. Though Toby knew not to take matters into his own hands, it didn't stop him from dwelling on the matter. Tobias wanted to make absolutely sure that Forrest was not singled out again.

Tobias thought vaguely about that time when they'd built the snowman, and Forrest had phrased a question with the term mudblood. Had THAT been the girl who'd said it, bearing in mind that she was the only bully... or had there been someone else?

Maybe, for now at least, they should just focus on the feast and the food and the prospect of the summer holidays.

He soon got something to think about anyway, because the Headmistress began the speech. It obviously wasn't a happy one, and Tobias decided to not pay attention when she spoke about sad stuff, focusing instead on the fact that he would no longer have to pay to enter his own common room or eat. So that was good, right?

And then there was skipping, and Tobias was confused, so he turned back to Forrest again, whose expression had changed somewhat since before the speech, and the twelve year old finally was able to respond.

"But yeah, that's awesome, right? We can totally hang out. I mean Diagon Alley is there all summer, if all else fails, you know? You should write to me and let me know what you're doing, and we can arrange something and it'll be brilliant, yeah?" Tobias nodded as he finished speaking, and made a mental note to write down his address for Forrest when they got back to the dormitory, just in case he had to use snail mail. Saudi Arabia was quite far, right? Even if Forrest DID have an owl.

And yeah, Ella had a brilliant idea too.

Tobias smiled. Like properly smiled. He was definitely starting to feel better.

"Yeah, yeah let's totally do that. It'd be well fun. And... actually," Tobias looked thoughtful for a moment and turned to look at Ella. She was a fifth year. OWL year. AND she was big on Quidditch, being captain and all. "Maybe you can help me out with something. Like advice with stuff?"

Slightly out of the blue but ohhhhhh well.

=====

Tobias nodded his head instantly. Yes. He knew it would be probably quite impossible to owl every day, and in any case it would soon eventually go down to every week... every month... maybe. Because they'd both be DOING stuff, y'know?

But that didn't stop him agreeing now. If he believed it, it would make the whole 7th-years-leaving thing less difficult.

The first year looked at Ness for a moment after she spoke, and didn't move. Didn't speak. But then, still not speaking, Toby got up and moved around to where Ness was, and sat and gave her a BIG hug.

A Tobias hug.

You know the one.

Kace, Ella, Tobias
 

Forrest was impressed with Kace's summer plans. It sounded as if KAce wouldn't sit down for a minute, whereas he would be stuck in Saudi Arabia. He had TONS of questions, but it would be rude to ask, so...

"My father works in Saudi Arabia, that's where I'll spend the most of the holiday," he said as he eyed a distant student distractedly. "Then we'll come to DA to shop... and that's it." He shrugged. "Cruise sounds so cool though!"

-----------

Forrest nodded at Ella shyly. He would rather deal with Sonea alone for man pride reasons, but he would keep that in mind. Ella was captain after all, and Sonea feared authority, he'd noted.

Meeting up as a group! That sounded fantastic! He beamed at them. "Yes, we should meet!" It didn't matter now whether they met or not. Ella did want to hang out with him, and that was all that mattered.


He busied himself with getting some food on his plate, because he wouldn't be able to bear to look into Tobias' eyes if he quit meeting.

But he didn't. Instead, he said if all else failed, they would certainly meet in DA. Forrest grinned then again, and lay his half-full plate down in front of him.

"Yes sure, I'll write to you. Or I'll phone--." But he was a pureblood, albeit from squibs. He wouldn't have a telephone. Forrest flushed and stuttered. "You--you don't have phone, do you? Do you know what it is?" Like, at least?

Phone calls! That was a much better idea.

Tobias gave a small good-natured chuckle at Forrest's question. "Yeah, we do have a phone," he said with a mini-grin. "'Cause I was raised muggle and stuff. And my parents can't communicate with magic." Toby had no idea what owls were like around them, but since they had phone calls and emails, he supposed owl post was never really necessary. It had totally surprised him when his grandfather told him about it. "I'll give you my home number after the feast. Won't it cost loads of money though?"

Food. That was what Tobias needed. Lots of food. And then tomorrow he could buy loads of sweets from the food trolley with all the money he had leftover from the coins he'd been sent to use with the turnstiles.

Oh, great! Tobias knew what a phone was. Forrest remembered he was raised like a muggle, but he didn't know to the extent of using muggle technology. He exhaled and smiled sheepishly.

"No, there are cards to call abroad cheaply. Plus I think they company's paying some of the telephone bill." He shrugged to show he didn't know well though. His parents'd just never told him to keep his phone-calls short when he called his muggle friends.

With everything settled, he leaned over his plate and began to eat more happily than ever.