you three ^^
 

Dylan played an instrument also? Nigel guessed he never asked or cared. Well it seemed that Mo was reinforcing his point about Ravenclaws being careful with our money and Garrick was taking care of the knuts. "Did not know that Dylan played." Not that it matter since he was leaving after this term. So the cess piece was from the set in the corner. Mystery solved.

He sat back down, picked up his guitar again, and watched Flamsteed continue to dig through the cushions. He was persistent to say the least. Or maybe he was lost his marble like Garrick said. The only way to prove that is through tests Nigel did not want to do.

You know who you are
 

All the talk about Wizard's Chess made Garrick squirm a bit and glance sidelong at Benjy. You know... for reasons. Garrick didn't much care for the game so he never played, but he knew that Benjy did. Had done? Sighs. We're here if you need us?

But he managed to turn his attention to Mo as he spoke... rather uncertainly. Hmmm. "Well I reckon Lotus... Um Lottie knows I fancy her so our... date was a date, right?" RIGHT? Maybe? He was unsure how this boy girl stuff worked really. He was rather new at it after all. Heh. "Mum has made me go to the ballet. I know. It's terrible."

And Benjy, really? REALLY. He got a snort in his general direction. Of COURSE he was normal. Of course! "If anything gets worse or if Mum says I need to come home I am gone. No questions, no arguments, no nothing. Just... gone." HMPH. He hated having that kind of rule made for him. He was quite beginning to like Hogwarts. Maybe it was based largely on Lotus, but whatever. Heh.

Then he reached into his pocket and dug around for a moment before holding his hand out toward Professor Flamsteed... There may have been some pocket lint, knuts, and a discarded candy wrapper there, but he was welcome to the knuts. He was an Ogden, after all. He had a few to spare. Seriously.

you guys! HAI
 

Anyone? :D
 

Terrible. That's how Garrick felt at the moment.

He had seen Lotus in the corridor, seen her smile, and turned to run in the opposite direction, not daring to look back to see her frown. He knew that she would be upset with him. Or would she? Who knew. She was likely already forgetting his very existence.

His dad had seemed to have. Yep. A birthday come and gone and not a THING from his dad. Not that he had expected a huge fuss from the cold man, but a card would have been nice, at the very least. And with all of his inner turmoil... he knew Lotus deserved better than his company. And well... he had really wanted her to be his girlfriend, but he just KNEW that she would say no and that would have just proven his dad right, wouldn't it?

Yeah. All of this was running through his head as he plopped onto the sofa near the fireplace. Brows knit together, frown deep on his pretty face.

He wasn't going to return to Hogwarts next year. This wasn't the place for him he didn't think. (Or more his dad thought and he was starting to believe the terrible things his dad thought about him)

"Bloody hell." He scooted down low on the sofa, a pathetic sight muttering to himself as such.

Dora came trudging out of the girls dormitory looking a tad bit tired, and lost in her own thoughts as usual when she was wondering around the common room. She'd managed to get some sleep, just enough for her to do some homework and maybe get some of her extra studies done. Maybe.

There were people here and she sometimes found them much more fascinating to watch than to do homework she was already ahead on. Picking a seat by the boy who didn't get any of her attention, she flopped down careless with her satchel in her lap, immediately going through it for her book.

Beezus scratched her head again. Merrrrrrrrlin.....thinking for a good plan on what to do for your boyfriend's upcoming birthday sure was hard work. She wanted it to be special because it was his last birthday while he's still at Hogwarts but she was starting to ran out of ideas, so instead of staying inside her dorm room, she went down to the Common Room in hope that something will suffice an idea to flicker in her brain.

Not even bothering to fix her messy hair, she descended unto the sofa next to Garrick - she barely noticed it was him - and just beside the seat Dora was occupying with a planning notebook in one hand, a quill on the other.

She brushed the quill's feather gently on her nose before letting out a deep sigh. She still didn't know what to dooooooooooooo.

Eh. She needed a break first. Yep. Beezus looked up and that's when she noticed her "companions" in front of the fire. "Oh. Hey guys."

RUDE.

That girl flopped onto HIS sofa. He had been sitting there brooding and here syhe was rustling through her bag digging for stuff. And being a girl. And SITTING THERE. All girl like. It was just rude at a time like this.

But he grunted a greeting of sorts, because he hadn't forgotten his manners, even if she had.

INTERNAL GROAN.

Beezus.

As if his day wasn't bad enough he had to deal with the patronizing, self important, pitiful Prefect. Could someone kill him now, please?

PLEASE.

But, again he had not forgotten his manners.

GRUNT.

Now no talking from you, please.

A grunt was ruder than not saying anything. Dora would have preferred if he'd just said nothing and not break the peaceful silence with his man grunts.

Pulling out a book on tropical fish from her bag, she moved her bag to the floor and sunk into the back of the couch. "Hey Bee." She said without looking at her prefect when she joined them, though she did raise a hand to wave before quickly returning to flipping the pages.

"This one doesn't speak. He just grunts." In case she didn't know.

Fish. Well that wasn't interesting AT ALL. Not that he cared what others read, but still. He found it to be dull. And yes, he only silently judged people. His raising taught him to politely keep those thoughts to himself. MHM.

He often wished more people behaved better.

And her comment made him furrow his brow a bit and look at her properly. She wasn't as pretty as Lotus. But she wasn't as dreadfully plain as the other girl in their midst.

"I speak," he said in a perfectly polite tone, though his face may have denoted his annoyance for once. "Sorry if my grunting offended you." Again, this was said nicely, in his posh accent. But really he cared not whether she was ever offended by his presence or not. Manners. He had them. SEE?

Unlike virtually all of her other books, this one had mostly pictures and facts on the anatomy of fish, so Dora had her eyes glued to a page that had a picture of a school of fish when the other boy had finally spoken with actual words and not grunts.

"So it seems." She studied each of the fish intently for a moment more before flipping the page, not bothering to waste time looking over at him. She had other things to focus on, okay? "It didn't offend me. I was just making an obvious statement about how you were communicating." She wasn't that easily offended by a stranger.

Especially one speaking so politely. Kind of weird, but again... she had other things on her mind.

Obvious statement blah blah blah. Whatever.

She was simply rude.

One should at least make eye contact briefly when speaking. It was a RULE. And she was clearly raised by heathens. HEATHENS. Or she was one of those progressive thinking teenagers who thought that flouting what her parents had taught her was the IN thing to do. Blah.

"Are you a fish enthusiast or have you run out of good books to read? I have plenty." Like she could borrow them. As long as she didn't get icky finger prints on his pages.

"I don't ever run out of good books." She was a Ravenclaw, in almost every sense of the word and stereotype that came along with their house. "I'm not a fish enthusiast either." Since he was asking all the questions, she was gonna answer them.

She flipped the page again, not loosing interest but slowly ready to give a fraction of her attention to him. "What books do you have?" Paaaaause. "I've never met you before. Who are you?"

"I have loads of books. And if I don't have it I can get it," he said with a small SMALL smile. It didn't quite reach his eyes. But it was a start from where he was a while ago.

And well DUH they had never met. He didn't spend much time in his common room... until VERY recently.

"I've never met you either." RUDE. The proper way to have that conversation would have been I don't believe we have been properly introduced, My name is ____ BUT NO. He kept the irritation off of his face at her rudeness.

"I'm Garrick Ogden, Fourth year. And you are?" He offered her a more genuine smile. Not that she was making eye contact the rude little heathen.

Beezus was now used to how Dora wasn't like the other typical super duper enthusiastic girls. So when the girl only gave her a short wave, she just smiled and shrugged in response. Garrick, however, was a different case. The brunette didn't know why but she could feel that somehow, this boy had something against her. Not only because of the grunt of a greeting but.....just because.....she could feel it.

She wasn't offended though. So that was all cool.

Speaking of being offended, she watched rather curiously as the two eagles with her converse. They were having an interesting dialogue and she didn't want to interrupt. Maybe she will....later.....or maybe now? When introductions are still running? She was particularly wondering about something. "She's Isidora Miroslava. Also a fourth year....Captain Biter's bestfriend, Chaser Theo Kinsley's girlfriend." Beam! "How come you two don't know each other when you're both in the same year level?" She supposed they attended the same classes, didn't they?

"I have loads of books too." She stated casually. It wasn't a big deal or anything, them having this in common cause again, they were Ravenclaws. Having lots of books and knowing how to get more was their THING. The girl was slowly approving of the boy though.

The name sounded slightly familiar to Dora, but only because they had classes together she was assuming, and not because they were in the same house. Which was weird and all but she wasn't concerned. "Garrick Ogden. I'm - " What? Dora's eyes cut over to Beezus instantly when she told all of that information. Why was she telling alllll of her business, hmm?

She would have got looks, but that was important information that everyone should know, so instead she finally set her eyes on the boy.

"Just call me Dora." Her full name was such a mouthful and only the daring used it, like Marcus Orion. "I don't spend a lot of time with everyone in my year, we're a large group and I'm a busy girl." Truth. He was probably busy too, or not well known in her small circle of friends.

Despite Garrick's typically good manners he actually shot Beezus a LOOK. Tilting his head to one side he smiled then. Sweet as can be and said, "Well I am not in the habit of butting into other people's business. Nor am I interested in knowing each and every student of Hogwarts, their relationship status, or what they eat for breakfast. But thanks so much for speaking for her. You're a huge help."

And yes. There was sarcasm oozing out of him on that last bit.

Then Dora spoke. A grin spread Garrick's face and he extended a hand toward her. "Well it's great to meet you. Fancy some sweets?" He reached into his robes and extracted a bag of Bott Beans. Maybe Blue would come along. He needed some cheering up. Perhaps they could place bets and she could kiss him better. Ya know. Because she would lose the bets.

Ha.

And no. He wasn't sharing with Beezus. He didn't care for her. And she was nosy. Pfft.

Blue had seriously gotten into this origami thing. And the best part was, she was getting good. Genuinely good enough to possibly start charming her little paper roses selling them to muggles. Muggles loved that kinda thing. At least, her dad did and Dad was a very typical kind of muggle. No offense to him of course. Although, till they were good enough to start selling, she'd just keep leaving her magical creatures around for Dora to find. After all, it was thanks to Dora she was supremely talented now.

Blue sat cross legged on the floor, in a corner, folding over parchment. She'd been folding for what, an HOUR? But it was worth it. Because as soon as this was finished, she'd probably cry with pride and relief. It actually looked like it did on the page. She sat back and pulled out her wand, reciting the spell she'd been practicing for around a month now. Her squeal of delight could probably be heard from the Hufflepuff Common Room. The house elf head blinked it's paper eyes and rolled to the side. Scooping it up, she made a beeline for the three heads sitting on the couch.

"Beatrice," beam for you. "Garrick!" Nod for you. "DORA." Squeal for you. "LOOK." And she thrust the rather creepy and slightly misshapen house elf head into her friend's face. "It's not as good as my hippogriff. But it can clean up after us." Till the spell wears off, at least.

What? Beezus only grinned at Dora before nodding at their other companion. "Oh. You're welcome, Garrick." Beezus wasn't stupid...she could smell the boy's sarcasm from miles away. But she was trying to hold up a better reputation here....especially to those people who didn't know her well enough. She wasn't offended or anything. Nor was her patience running with how Garrick talked to her. Instead, she felt encouraged to know the younger Ravenclaw more.....he seemed to be going through something, she could tell. Plus, his level of sarcasm was almost close to her boyfriend's. That was always worth the interest.

And and, he was giving out Bertie Botts? Could she possibly have some too?

She could've asked.......but Blue suddenly popped out of nowhere.

"Hello, Hazel!" She beamed back at the girl and patted the seat next to her. Come to Mamaaaaa. But what was with all the squealing? The what? O____o What in Merlin's beard was that thing Blue giving to Dora?

*MELLOW*

Eeeeeeek! "WHAT IS THAT? She squeaked out. Blinkblinkblink.

Blue.

Garrick liked her. She was... He felt his cheeks blush a little bit and he gave her a great big smile in greeting. A true GARRICK smile. Indeed. He completely ignored the pain in the butt Prefect and looked at the origami thing Blue was shoving at Dora.

"You charmed it to clean? That's rather impressive spell work, Blue." Not that he needed an origami elf to help him clean, but it was pretty awesome. Then he shook his bag of Bott Beans at her and gave her a wink. "Fancy another challenge?"

And no. Beezus couldn't have any. She patted him like a toddler once and he still disliked her heavily due to that. Oh and the nosy self important thing. That irked him as well.

He was sarcastic. Dora found it a bit amusing as she listened to him speak to Beezus. She squished her book between her and the edge of the couch when he offered a hand and gave it a good shake while nodding her head. "Sure, I'll take a few." Not too many though, she wasn't the biggest fan of candy that had terrible flavors.

And then there was a Blue finally coming out of seclusion. Dora smiled properly at her squealing friend and leeeeaned back a bit to see just what was being thrust into her face. Squint. Oh. She grinned and plucked it carefully out of Blue's fingers to inspect. "This is awesome, Blue. Better than the hippogriff." She looked up at her dorm mate. "Cause it can clean up after us."

Obviously that was better.

"It's a house elf," She answered Beezus, unsure why she was acting so terrified of the paper creature. It was just made of paper after all. Handing it back to Blue, she commented idly. "We should make a whole army of house elves."

Elise made a beeline for the squishy chair in front of the fireplace, seeing it unoccupied. Actually, the whole common room was pretty deserted. Maybe it was normal for them not to be up this late but Elise had only just finished some mad History of Magic studying. Who knew that Goblins could be so rebellious... and violent? Now pretty convinced that she could rattle the subject off the top of her head, she curled into the armchair with a nice novel and began to read.

It hardly mattered that the book was well-thumbed and that she probably knew it inside out by then. It was one of her favourites, a cheesy romance novel that her sister would probably toss right into the garbage had she known Elise was reading it. Elise had learnt not to care, though. She loved Nicholas Sparks almost as much as she loved Quidditch.