Ronnie giggled, nodding. Hmm...Super duper cutieputtie. She'd never heard that one before, but she liked it! She'd have to say that more often. It was fun to say. "Yeah, they're adorableee!" she said, tossing more bread in the water. D'awww, the duckies were SO CUTE.

She cocked her head as Taylor said it was horrible. Horrible? Well, that wasn't good. "I'm sorry it didn't go too good, Tay." she said. Frown. That wasn't good. "Of course, I totally understand." she said with a small nod.

Taylor laughed and smiled. She nodded, "They are absolutely adorable." Tay giggled and twirled around some more. Taylor shrugged and looked at her, "Eh, I am used to it... I never have a good summer since my father died..." She looked away and her curls fell to cover her face.

Ronnie put a hand to her mouth as Taylor mentioned her father dying. She never knew about this! She instantly put her arm around Taylor and gave her a small, comforting squeeze. Poor girl! "I'm so sorry to hear about that, Taylor." she whispered with a frown.

Taylor sighed and returned the squeeze. "It has been 4 or 5 years since he died..." She looked down with tears in her eyes. "I know that I probably should be over i but I aint... I cant..." Tay started to shake and tears started to rapidly fall, trailing down her cheeks. Her happiness from earlier had vaporized and now a gloom hung over her.

Ronnie frowned, looking at the girl. That was terrible. She then shook her head. "No, no Taylor. It's totally fine to be crying, crying is good. It's good to just let it out." she said softly, patting her friends back. "And you can't just get over it right away. It isn't easy and it's okay to still be sad about it at times." she said. "Things just take time."

Taylor looked at her friend then buried her head in Ronnie's shoulder. Her curls covered her face again and the tears kept flowing. "Re-re-re-really?" Her voice was shaking and the tears kept getting faster and faster. "Ev-ev-ev-ev-ev" She paused and took a deep breath and tried again, "Everyone... seems... to... think... that... I... should... just..." She paused again and took another breath. Her shaking slowed down. "shut up... about it... and be... happy again. They dont... seem to... get it..." The tears were slowly starting to stop and the shaking was completely gone now. Her voice started to get stronger and she finished, "But it is so hard to get over it... I mean he was the only constant in my life and now he is gone and I am just so confused..." Tay let a small whimper out then closed her eyes and reburied her head into Ronnie's shoulder.

Yummy? YUMMY?! "HEY! Don't you dare think they're food! They're my family!" the Slytherin flailed when he heard those words. Seriously! If he tried to do anything with them he had found himself his first enemy if he didn't had one already. Plus HE wore a Prefect Badge so he HAD to listen to him, right?

The Slytherin sat upright as he now looked vigilant but when the other guy did not attack the ducks he relaxed...but not completely. "Eh, you mean a mess? No, its actually a pretty clean place and we never had to pay in order to get in to our common room" this whole situation was new for him too and he had been here seven years. "The Headmistress said that the house elves took of on their own but to be honest, i don't think so..." no, something far worse was going on. It was NEVER this simple!

"You said you were a transfer student, which school did you transfer from?" he was forgetting something...oh! He forgot to introduce himself! "My name is Daichi by the way, Slytherin Prefect" ugh he loved saying that~

Forrest hesitated between being fully honest and a Pollyanna. Eh, she must have noticed his hesitation, so better to be honest. That's how you made friends anyway, wasn't it?

"It's a little scary, actually," he started, holding her gaze in the process to see whether she thought he was a freak. "I mean... there are so many things I've never heard of, and... I miss my old life-style." The TV, following Tottenham's matches, the video games and hanging out with his friends in the city and cinemas and all... Not that he did all these every week--he was lucky if he'd gone out once in a month, but still... it was much more apalling than being stuck in a dirty and broken castle.

"But I'll get used to it," he quickly added, because that kinda sounded like he was comparing his life-syle with hers and that was rude.

Forrest was impressed. Even though he didn't know whether Luxembourg Academy was good, he assumed it was, by the way she put it.

It was time for his eyes to return their normal size, thank you.

"I--uh, no," he muttered, mind still hazy for having met the sister of a professional Quidditch player. "I don't even know what it exactly is." He grinned sheepishly. "But if you make it into team, I'll watch your games."

Nat/Bliss
 

Bliss, with her hair still tied in two pigtails down her back, made her way away from the Quidditch pitch. It had been a long, LONG tryout and a very busy one at that. With Minnie AND Nash trying for the position of Beater, she'd thought it better to go and try for Chaser. That, and the fact that with three bats of the field, the likely hood that someone would get hurt was quite high. MELLOW. So, yeah, she felt that she'd made the right choice.

After having dropped off her broom, she ran down to the duck pond for some fresh air. It was a nice, so the ducks would be happy. Obviously. That and sh-- OH, LOOK. She froze, mid-walk when she noticed him. Nashville. She could be really mean now. Well, not mean, but jokey and stuff. It that made ANY sense at all. Anywayyyyyyyy, Bliss formed a plan in her head and put it into action.

CREEP, CREEP, CREEP FORWARD. Phase one, complete.

Phase two, wrap her arms around him, covering his eyes.

COMPLETE.

Phase three. "Guess who!?"

Nashville shook his head. He had to wipe all of the negative Quidditch tryout thoughts out of his mind but then what would he think about...oh I don't know....his girlfriend. Christmas...she was lovely but...but she did ask him out on the first day or well the whole hour of conversation. If he said no to her then he would have sounded very mean and she just so nice and he didn't want to make her feel all sad and stuff. Maybe it was just the shock of him being asked out because he always did the asking out part and every single time he always got turned down. It's not that he didn't like Christmas, it's just she seemed to be more interested in talking about her problems that her and him and everyone else was having and that was money problems. Nashville understood that but it was to the point where he couldn't get a word in and where he just wanted to state his opinion and well...just have her listen. Nashville sighed.

Nashville jumped. What was that? Hands? Nashville put his hands over the hands that were over his eyes. he thought for a moment. Not Christmas because that didn't seem like her kind of thing and they really haven't touched yet.

"BLISSYBOOOBEAR?! Right?"

A soft smile crossed the girl's face as she nodded when he said that he thought it was scary - making her kind of empathize with that entire thing... and she could definitely imagine that he'd miss the way he used to live... after all this was pretty much an entirely different world, which she could kind of understand.

"I guess I sort of understand... I found Hogwarts scary at first because I didn't know what to expect but that's nothing compared to all of it being new" she mused aloud, turning away for a moment as she thought before she turned back towards Forrest. "So what kind of stuff did you do?" she asked, cocking her head to the side in curiosity as she asked, finding it all interesting because there were those times where she'd had... a taste test of muggle life. "I know when I'm with Amy she takes me shopping sometimes, or we just watch a movie on the... tv?" she ended almost with a question as she wondered if it was even called a tv... if she was wrong he'd probably understand though, with so much stuff that he'd had to learn about her world. "Amy's a muggle" she quickly clarified, thinking about how that probably sounded weird.

The irish girl giggled slightly at how his eyes widened, a larger smile forming on her face as she shook her head mockingly that he didn't know about Quidditch though she made sure it was clear she wasn't serious. "Hmm... I might not get on considering there are heaps of good players" she admitted with a shrug before thinking. "But if I'm not on the team I might drag you to at least one game" she continued to tease before getting slightly more serious, though the smile still on her face.

"So how much do you know about Quidditch?" yes, how much? Because that was a very important thing to know he definitely had to be taught

Well...ducks are yummy. If ducks aren't for eating, then what are they for? They serve ducks at Hogwarts, don't they? "Okay. Okay. I won't think of them as food then.." said Ky quickly, after seeing an unexpected reaction from the Slytherin. It's the first time Ky had seen anyone so attached to ducks. It would have been acceptable if someone was defensive of their pets, but he didn't own the ducks...

Ky stared at the swimming ducks for a while. When they're not making loud noises, they aren't so bad. "That's...strange." said Ky aftering listening to the Slytherin's explaination of Hogwarts' current situation. "How can the house elves just leave? I mean...they can't leave until they've been freed, right?" Ky pondered curiously. It's the first time he heard of such strange thing. "I heard the school's out of money too." How in the world could all these unfortunes happen to this school, just when he transferred here?

'School for Inter-universal Wandering Aliens' was what Ky originally wanted to reply, because he was doing that for the past few days now. But after hearing that the duck-obsessed-guy was the Slytherin Prefect, Ky immediately answered: "SIWA - Seoul International Wizarding Acadamy." Ooh..maybe it wasn't such a good idea to have said ducks are yummy. "I'm Ky...and...ducks are actually quite adorable when they wag their tails." It's not too late, right?

"Good!" the Snake said and smiled a little now. Although his arms were still crossed and he still eyed the Gryffindor warily. No one should think of the ducks as food, they were HIS family and HIS friends hmpf!

"I know it's strange" he nodded and plucked some grass with his fingers. "I heard only one house elf stayed and that the Professors take turn making dinner for us." Hence why it was so disgusting at the feast. Merlin, he hoped Professor Botros wasn't going to make anything. That man was old and would probably serve them...old stuff...

When the guy spoke about it being weird that the house elves just left, the Prefect nodded his head enthusiastically. "Exactly! That's why it's so weird... who set them free? and why?" ooooh it would be so exciting if he could solve this mystery for his final year~!

Having a daydreaming look on his face, Daichi stared up to the sky that was turning a bit grey and when one of the ducks quacked loudly he turned back to earth.

"....school's out of money?" he repeated. "Must have missed that...how?" Another mystery it seemed.

SIWA? Daichi had never heard of that school before. But... "Seoul?" he asked and stared at the water. "My..my mom is..was from South Korea, Incheon actually" His eyes watered for a moment at the thought of her but he blinked his eyes rapidly. "So you are from South Korea? or did you just study there?" he grinned.

Ky was glad their discussions were getting out of the duck zone. He didn't like the way the Slytherin was eyeing him.

"...the professors? They cooked the food?" No wonder the food at the Great Hall were so unappetizing. Even Ky could cook better than that, not mentioning his terrible kitchen skills. "They better hire better chiefs or the house elves better return."

Hmm...why did they bother to continue the existance of this school at all if the conditions were so bad? Could it be a prewarning of something bad about to happen at this school? Is that the reason why the house elves left in advance? Questions are bombarding his mind. He was just as curious as everyone else.

Ky nodded in agreement. "The question is: did they leave on their own or did someone set them free?" Staring absentmindedly at the waddling ducks, Ky thought about the mystery. "Hey~" He nudged the Slytherin with his elbow. "If it was someone that set the house elves free, do you think however catches the person will get rewarded?" Where did Ky get this thought from? Even Ky himself doesn't even know how his mind wondered there.

"I don't know...but why else would we have to pay everytime we go somewhere." Also, if the school wasn't broke, then at least they could hire decent chiefs, right?

The Gryffindor pretended not to notice Daichi's gloomy expression. "Technically, I'm American." Ky replied. "But yeah...my parents are from South Korean and I grew up there." He responded in the shortest way possible, because he really didn't want to recite his whole childhood history.

Susan sat down near the duck pond with her gargoyle. She should really start to work on her transfiguration homework but she just wasn't feeling up to it right now. Susan knew something was going on with Min but she wasn't talking to her. She knew it has to have something to do with Ethan by the way he acted when she mentioned Min. But she just wasn't sure anymore.

Susan sighed and pulled her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around her legs. Why wouldn't anybody tell her what was going on? Did no one want her to be around anymore. She loves Min so much and she just wanted to make her feel better but Min wasn't letting her in. She just kept pulling away. And talking to Ethan was a total waste of time. Neither one of them wanted to tell her what was going on.

Maybe they both were just really worried about Quidditch. Or maybe they are both upset that it is Ethan's last term. Susan sighed and put her head on her knees. She just really didn't know, and that was the worst part. She can't help if she doesn't know what was going on. She stared at her gargoyle trying to sort out her feelings and thoughts.

Miks
 

Kaiden was doing his thing and minding his own business when someone suddenly appeared on the ground beside him. By falling. Grabbing Toad, he turned to see who it was, he was surprised to see Mika. "Miks, you okay?" he asked, moving to make sure she hadn't hit her head or anything.

Transfiguration homework post 1
 

Forrest raised his eyebrows in surprise upon her being scared as well. So it wasn't a bad thing to be scared... it was relieving to know that, especially considering he still cried some nights thinking about his family.

Ahem.

"Yeah, tv--as in television," he said, smiling. "That's cool that you have a muggle friend. Now you also have me." She DID consider him as a friend, yes?! He didn't force her into being friends with him, did he? Because that'd be horrible and... his heart sank at the thought, so he quickly went on.

"I watch TV, movies, play video games on computer... and I go to matches. Football." His face shone brighter than the Sun when he pronounced the name 'football'. "Well, that was before we moved to Saudi Arabia... football there is bad." He paused for a moment, oblivious to the possibility that she'd never heard these names before, because he was sad all of a sudden for remembering AGAIN that there was no TV in this world. No bloody TV, and that meant no Premier League. It DEPRESSED him to think that, so he was silent for a while, thinking, until she mentioned Quidditch.

And yeah. There was that. A sport that could never be as exciting as football.

He did try to get his old excitement back though, because it was a passion for her and he didn't want to be rude or lose his only friend so far.

"I wish you good luck nevertheless," he said with a smile, still struggling to forget about Premier League.

"I know that it's on brooms and there are chasers to score and a seeker is to catch something to end the game..." He paused for a moment to see whether he forgot something, but he didn't. "And that's it."

Minerva headed to the duck pond, she was feeling so much better about things. As she walked happily with Fluffy on her shoulder she noticed her cousin sitting near the Duck Pond. Wow there weren't many ducks left, were there. This made Min frown a bit, but shaking her head she still headed near Susan.

"Hey Susie" she smiled at the second year as she took fluffy off her shoulder and placed her on Susan's head. Laughing she sat down next to the girl in the grass. Seeing the gargoyle Min laughed, "Not still trying to kick the statue are you?" She knew Susan had gotten the spell down, but wasn't going to stop a chance to tease her cousin either.

She frowned for a second and then turned, "Hey sorry about recently, I had a fight with Ethan when you caught me earlier and I just wasn't up for talking about it. I hope you aren't mad at me."

jumped a little at first not expecting it. Then she crabbed fluffy off her head and starting petting her. ”Hey Min.” Susan gave Min a weak smile she still didn’t understand what was going on. Although Min looked a lot happier than when she last saw her.

”Hahaha, no, I can do the spell now thanks to you. So no more pretending I actually did it.” Susan smiled at Min. ”Of course I’m not mad at you, I was just worried. Thank you for telling me, I wasn’t sure what was going on.” Susan looked out at the ducks and noticed there weren’t as many as last year.

Susan decided if she needed to know Min would tell her. Susan needed to learn that not everything Min did was her business. Especially when it came to Ethan, they weren’t always going to get along, but Susan was worried about Min. She didn’t like seeing her unhappy. Susan looked over at Min and noticed how much happier she seemed now. ”You look really happy Min. It’s great to see that way. So should I make my gargoyle dance the Macarena?”

He just blinked at her. She was insane. "Riiight. You know, clouds tend to look like clouds" Kaiden picked up the toad, and dropped him onto the girl's stomach. "Yeah, that, and letting him get some exercise."

So yeah... now what? He looked over at the pond... "We... haven't talked much lately." Yep, just stating a fact.