The Tower Patch
 

The sixteen year old frowned upon seeing the state of the tower patch, last term and this term everything had changed drastically! She settled down in front of the plants, wand out. She started to eye one of the dead leaves rather carefully. She'd need to be precise as not to damage any of the alive plants, yeah? Narrowing her eyes slightly, she swished and said, "Flipnsnipwitit!" Grin. Dead leaves fell slowly from the plant on to the dry soil. After falling Nerida picked them up and went onto the next dead leaved/sticked plant.

"Flipnsnipwitit!" And the dead leaves fell. "This looks better." She whispered to herself. She continued to trim the dead leaves and sticks picking each of the fallen dead plant parts and placing them into her left hand. After finishing with some of the trimming...And when her hand was starting to overflow, Nerida stood up and went to go get rid of some of the dead leaves and sticks.

Ella headed up to the tower patch, dragonhide gloves and a bucket in her hands. She wanted some fresh air and figured she might as well do something useful while she was getting it. Besides, her talk with Professor Botros had inspired her to try and find more work to do around the castle. Today's mission, pruning the severely uneven hedges.

The blonde frowned when she saw the conditions of the flowers and plants scattered around the garden, wondering again why the house elves had chosen to resign. She had so many questions but she'd decided to just accept things and help when and where she could instead. That seemed like the best plan at the moment.

Pulling on her gloves, the blonde approached the hedges and removed her wand. She was eyeing the branches that looked to be old, damaged, or growing at odd angles. Those would be the ones to go, she figured. She also decided the severing charm would work best considering the branches were on the large side.

Placing down the bucket, the blonde then removed her wand and pointed it at the hedge in front of her. She concentrated and said clearly, "Diffindo!" A large branch that had been drooping quite badly lay in front of her and she smiled a little. One down, several more to go.

...

The sixteen year old worked for about an hour or so, picking and choosing which branches to take so that she didn't thin out the hedges too badly. That wouldn't be good. When she'd finished, she broke up the branches into smaller pieces and placed them in the bucket. She could bring these to the compost, yeah? Professor Bentley might appreciate that.

Astronomy #4
 

The patch didn't look exactly like a patch. There were plants dried and scattered around. Messy walk path, dusty seats, trimmed leaves on the floor.

Conclusion: very unclean.

She levitated the vacuum cleaner to the tower patch. She'd got bored carrying it around, not to mention it got heavier with every step for her. She gently laid it down and tapped it with her wand.

"VACAVUS!"

"C'mon Dojo boy" Yeah, she named it. Dojo. Where did she get the name? Never mind, it sounds cool. She trained the cleaner on the little weedy stuff and trimmed leaves. The floor was becoming cleaner by the minute, smoothly, until...

GRRRR! GRRRR! GRRRR!

"What?" She looked down at the cleaner. It was buzzing like a maniac. She kneeled down and examined the machine. "Uh-oh.." she sighed as she spotted some leaves jammed at the suction end. Thinking of potions and cup-cakes she'd missed out the huge leaves and stems going inside the cleaner. Okay, not in yet. STUCK.

She put her hand on the suction end and, WHACK. She removed the lid out and tried to pull the large plants. They were fastened to the cleaner very firmly. "Tricky things" she muttered as she got a little cut from the thorny plant. It clearly wasn't working well.

She took out her wand. What was the spell mom taught? "Diffindo!" She heard some noises, but nothing was altered. BAAH! "DIFFINDO!" she cast again. The plant let it loose with a grumble.

DEFEAT! She pulled out the rest with ease and continued with her cleaning.

For anyone XD
 

Did the girl just use a spell? What was that spell anyway?

FlipswapWAGAWAGA...HUH?

She'd seen the Claw before..ah yes, start of term feast. That was the one that offered her a cup cake, wasn't it? She moved towards the girl cautiously. Well, she was older than her, had her wand out and could just say seriously mis-spelt spells with perfection. Caution needed.

"Hey..." she called, as she neared. "What--what spell did you just use?"

It was one thing to maintain the Student Garden, some couple stairscases and a long walk away from her Common Room and quite another thing to take care of the Tower Patch that really wasn't all that much of a far walk. Not nearly as far as the student garden.

This time Felix insisted on tagging along (so she might have yanked him off the bed and said they were going for a walk but hey, she needed company).

"I don't suppose we'll be getting a lot done today because I've forgotten my gloves back in the dorm and you're not going to pull an extra knut out of your fur so I can go back and get it." Logic, she was a straight thinker, meaning they wouldn't be doing anything that would particularly require the gloves in the first place. "So I guess we can just grab some ice-cream when we're done." Not that it mattered to him. He didn't seem the fancy the ice-cream the way she did.

Looking around, she knew what she'd get to first. The plants were looking a little dry.

Felix backed up the moment he saw her raise her wand at them, he knew what would be coming next. "Aguamenti!" Water began gushing from her wand causing the kneazle to step back even further. She rolled her eyes but smiled. "You know I'd never get you soaked, stop being a whimp." But the kneazle wasn't listening. It'd gone and taken a seat on the fountain.

After watering the plants she went to get him and found the fountain...not nearly as clean as it should be...

Mmm...

"Up boy, this needs some work too." Quite lazily the feline rose and walked to her feet. Now then. "Scourgify!" And just like that the edges of the fountain were pristine. Just...she didn't know what to do about the bottom in the water. She couldn't exactly empty it, water kept flowing and she hadn't the foggiest how to turn it off. SIGH. She'd have to speak to the Professor about this, but for now, she was done.

Ice-cream time.

Ed/Ama - Astronomy #2
 

Angie/Ezra - Astronomy HW #1
 

Edita laughed surprised slightly that she didn't have to pretend to be completely amused by Ezra's usually flat attempts at humor. She crinkled her nose and patted her belly, quite pleased with her progress in this sorta-friendship-thing. Her Mum would be extra pleased and things were clearly on the right track, even if they had to do a spot of cleaning for homework.

The way Eddie saw it, cleaning had never hurt anyone, at least that's what her Mum would always say.

"I think it is okay!" said Edita smiling at the less than impressive tower patch. "It could be worse, of course. Isn't that a good thing?" It was a stellar thing. Stellar! Like the stars because they were doing Astronomy homework. She chuckled by herself and was caught off slightly by having Felix shoved at her. Eddie grabbed it as best as she could, preventing the cat from falling but not from having him dig his claws into her arms at least twice. "Ow! Good thing you're cute!" she scolded with a grin.

Silver lining!

"Do you think the worm is happy?" she asked and figured perhaps it was since it went in with some leaves. "Maybe you should vacuum up more dirt for it." Eddie side-hopped to avoid her own floating vacuum as it attempted for the second time on their trek up here to suck up her hair. Eddie picked up Felix and tried situating him on one shoulder. "Stay there, Felix, like a good cat-parrot while I help Ezra out. I'm such a good friend."

Never mind that it was homework. It was like double duty! She was becoming both a good student and a good sorta-friend just by sucking up some twigs.

#3
 

A trimming spell? "Boy..and I spent like half an hour trimming manually in the garden" she said with a sigh. They'd met before but they hadn't had the time to exchange names. "Uhm.. Amara" she said, giving the girl a little bow. SMILE.

"Would you really?" she asked, her eyes wide. This girl was really going to help her? That was very nice of her. She glance at the bush Mika pointed. "Ah..yep, that one is a mess"

She withdrew her wand and pointed it at the bush. "Uhm..a swish..like this?" she asked, as she did a SWISSH and...

"Flip-in-swip-with-it!" She didn't see any significant change in the bushes. Infact, there was NO change in it. WHoops!

"That wasn't exactly the spell, was it?" SHEEPISH GRIN.

Mika was encouraging and she liked her for that. Amara returned her smile and listened to her carefully. And she watched, awed as the girl casted the spell again. "Cool" she muttered as she saw the weed get trimmed by itself.

Okay. "flip-n-snip-witty" she said aloud. No, that wasn't it. "Fli-n-snip-wit-it" she pronounced it carefully. She wanted to get the incantation thing right. Mika said her movement was fine...so thats the spell.

She pointed her wand towards the next bush. "Flipnsnipwitit!" A bit from the edge trimmed itself. Just a teeny bit and then it stopped.

"Did you see that?" she asked the girl, excited. IT WORKED! A bit, that was.

For TakemetotheBurrow
 

“Pff, why has Hogwarts no lift?” Muttered Sonea now that she had climbed all the stairs up to the Tower Patch. But, even now that she was out of breath and that she was tired now that she had climbed all the stairs, she was not sulky, she wanted to be here, she had heard a few story's about a professor who had been murdered! Sonea had been surprised when she had heard that story and wanted to know if the story was true and that there was really a garden on the rooftop, as a memory for the murdered professor.

And… Sonea was a little surprised, but also sad, because she saw that it was true. She was sad because she now knew that the poor woman had really been murdered! Sonea stood still in the garden and wondered what had happened with the woman.

Back to the Tower Patch.

Ella had been writing her Gran for tips on how to spruce the place up and after reading the bazillion page letter, the blonde felt motivated to go on up and try out some of the tips. Yup, she was ready to do some sprucing.

The blonde stopped short when she noticed a younger student she didn't immediately recognize. The girl looked a bit sad and Ella frowned slightly before approaching. "Um..everything okay?"

"Oh, I'm okay" said Sonea a little surprised when she heard how somebody talked to her. She had been so fascinated with the garden and the meaning behind it that she even didn’t had heard how the much older girl had walked toward her! "I just was curious if there was really a garden here, dedicated to a murdered professor" said Sonea slowly and smiled at the older girl. "I'm Sonea Duvessa, and this is my rat Little princess" Sonea pointed at her rat who sat on her shoulder and smiled again at the older girl, "who are you and what are you doing here?" Sonea sounded curious, she had thought that she was the only one here.

Having wanted to see the supposed memorial to deceased professors in the north tower, Erik finally ventured there one day. He had been doing a lot of walking around the castle but had forgotten that he was wearing a certain carolina blue silk tie on this day, and this venture...

Oh well, he wasn't too concerned. The Astronomy professor didn't look like the brightest star in the Big Dipper and Erik merely wanted to stroll around the tower patch. So that is precisely what he did, hands tucked into his pockets, blue eyes on the unkempt hedges. Hmm hm had they really relied on the house elves that much here? Fascinating.

Erik wasn't sure where the plaques were but he wasn't finding them. No hurry though, he was enjoying his stroll. Then he heard the unmistakable voice of the Astronomy professor behind him, and that was the end of that.

"Professor," he reluctantly returned the man's greeting with a nod. "Same to you and your..." Erik stared at the object in his hand, "..pup?"

He took a step closer to the man to study the odd-shaped object, only realising a moment too late that Flamsteed had noticed the tie. "Mhm, yes, it is. Is vhat a pup?" If it were, he felt sorry for the thing. It was rather unnatural-looking, like an ugly runt. Or a rock, really, if Flamsteed were the sort to glue puppet accessories to a bit of stone.

But no, surely it was a pup?

Amara grinned. She loved learning new and cool stuff. Now she really liked this Claw girl a lot. She nodded as she looked at the fountain in question. It looked like it needed a very good wash. "OH, I know the scourgify charm!" said the excited little girl. And they'd just learnt the polishing one from the Knocks professor. HEH. "And poliotus..." Was the incantation right? "..we learnt it from Professor Knocks"

But she didn't know this getting rid of goo charm. And she really didn't want to use her hands for the noble task. Blearrrgh. "Would you show me the other one...uhm.." What did she say it was? "...skurge?"

Astro hw 1, post 3
 

From her dormitory it was not hard to get up to the Tower Patch. Also Sarah wanted to do some more outdoor work. After all Autumn had passed and it had left carpets of of leaves behind. She also heard that the towerpatch needed work so Sarah decided to kill two birds with one stone.

Sarah put her vacuum cleaner down and glanced around. Scenes from that fateful class here came back to her and Sarah tried to flush it out. She had to think happy thoughts. This place was a perfect distraction for her though as it looked like it needed a lot of work.

She tapped the vacuum with her wand and said ""Vacavus". The thing began to suck. Sarah then began to travel around the patch sucking up the golden leaves as her mind went back to the rocket making they had done back then in her second year. She remembered the teacher of course, Sarah liked it when her teachers had character.

Soon Sarah had made a circut of the patch and looked around. What else could she do?

Stellar choice. Ha ha, very punny, Mr. Astronomy. Erik tsked mildly in response and continued his stroll, certain the astro nut would try to keep pace with him. "Shame, vhat." And that was all he had to say about the tie he was now rather attached to.

And so the not-a-pup had a name. "Is it a rock?" Erik still tried to be polite as he stared more closely at the thing. Funny how Flamsteed thought a rock required minimal care and was quiet. A toddler could have told him that. "Perhaps vhe Muggles who sold you vhat vere playing a prank on you, Mr. Flamsteed." Not a very good one, though. What a waste of money and energy for him, lugging a rock around.

A murdered professor. Ella shuddered a little, nodding her head. "Sad isn't it?" And it unnerved Ella somewhat that this child was speaking so candidly about this and smiling too. She supposed death could be fascinating for some, though. Then introductions happened and Ella's eyes flickered from the younger girl to the rat and back again. "It's nice to meet you Sonea, you too Little Princess." Then there were questions and the blonde Hufflepuff raised her eyebrows a little. "I'm Ella Bishop and I'm going to do some work up here. Tidying up and such. Would you like to help?" Hmm?

Great Odin's Raven! So it was a rock. Erik had no idea what to say about that, so he shook his head as they rounded one of the hedges. "Muggles," he muttered quietly under his breath. Erik himself was a Muggleborn but had been around wizards so long he almost didn't understand his roots anymore.

But enough of that, he needed to find these plaques. "Indeed," Erik agreed with the Astronomy professor, coming to a stop near the first plaque in his path. This one was...dedicated to Burbage, the other victim of the man-eating plant. "You haff some students vorking hard here though," Erik pointed out, even as he was frowning at the sight of the rust on the plaque. "Who put these in here?" he wondered aloud. Same person ought to be maintaining them, no, regardless of whether or not they had an elven slave at their beck and call?

She nodded to the older girl and smiled. “It’s nice to meet you to” said Sonea friendly and looked at Little princes before she said that Little princess also did like it to meet her! “Come Little princess, I need to put you back inside my pocket, I don’t want you to get sicker than you already are” said Sonea concerned while she helped her pink rat to go back into her warm pocket.

“Oh, hello Ella!” Sonea looked again at the older girl and wondered how old she was, she probably was from the same age as her friend Daichi, maybe a year younger, but she was not sure. “Okay, sure I want to help you, what can I do?” Sonea didn’t hoped that helping Elle concerned working with her hands and getting dirty…

Good Odin was Erik going to have to cast Silencio on this man to get some peace and quiet up here? He should have checked the class schedules before coming up here, so he could have visited the tower when the man had class in session. "Yes, I haff used a vacuum," Erik answered shortly, rolling his eyes up toward the heavens as though checking for rain. Or...he was rolling his eyes in other words.

Now was he humming? Vot? Erik glanced back down toward the plaques quickly. "But vhere is vhe plaque for vhe other professor?" he continued, lifting a bit of vine out of the way near the two that were certainly prevalent near the fountain. "Burbage vas not vhe only professor who made the ultimate sacrifice at Hogwarts..."

Tristan was just 'the Ancient Runes professor' to this man? Just? Erik eyed him sharply, he couldn't help it, with his brilliant blue eyes drilling a hole through the man's forehead. Like a comet streaking through the atmosphere, so intense was his stare.

"Tristan Christensen," he corrected quietly, "vas his name. So no one has really asked for a plaque for him."

No one? Not even the Headmistress, whose fault it was that he had died in the first place, had put a tribute to Christensen in the school? Anywhere at all? The blonde man's disappointment was evident in the slump of his shoulders.

Botros...the Runes professor...yes, maybe someone had spoken to him. Erik bit the corner of his lip and turned away from the plaques. Unfortunately, he seemed to be turning straight into the Astronomy man, who was.....wrapping his arms around him.....embracing him....patting his shoulder.....noooo no no no no no, Erik thought, but it was all too late.

He had just been hugged by another man. As though adding insult to injury, the Astronomy professor then suggested that they go ask the Headmistress about the lack of memorial plaque over ice cream. Hell no.

"I vink I vill pass on vhat, Professor," the blonde man answered quite stiffly, and with a quite wide side step away from him. The hug. Ughhhhh. It was still making him shudder. Erik disliked human contact except from for a few certain people that much. He shook his head and took a deep breath, heading straight for the stairs to exit this terrible garden now.

Her pet was sick? Ella frowned slightly as she watched the younger girl interact with Little Princess, a thoughtful expression on her face. "Is she ill?" And if so, maybe Sonea should take her to Professor Barlow? That might be helpful.

She wanted to help? Grin. "Well...today I was going to water the flowers. Are you up for helping with that?" And the blonde took out her wand, motioning her head towards the nearest flower bed. Sonea was following, yeah?

Just when she had put her rat in her pocket where it was safe and warm for Little princess to sleep she heard the question from the older girl. “Yes, I think that she is ill, but I don’t know what it wrong with her, she is suddenly so fat and she isn’t eating much more than usual. It all happened after the day I had lost Little princess, she had run away to play with another rat…” The young girl took a deep breath and tried to hide her concern for Little princess and smiled at the other girl. “I have a appointment with professor Barlow, so I’m sure that she will okay soon” said Sonea and hoped that she was right.

The young girl was happy that the girl started to talk about something else, she was already worried enough and didn’t liked it to talk about her sick rat anymore and helping the other girl was a good distraction! “Sure, I can do that” said the young girl, even now that she had no idea why the older girl wanted to water the flowers…

She imitated the older girl and pointed her wand at the flowers, just as Ella and waited for the girl for more instructions, she had never used this spell before, so she had no idea what to do and how she needed to do it.

Nerida walked along with her cat on her heels, wondering were to go. She had just decided to take a walk and Sky decided to follow her, she made note not to go near the astronomy tower but after chasing Sky up around that area she hoped Professor Flamsteed was not around there.

She followed Sky up to the Tower Patch, since she as here she could do a bit of work. The Ravenclaw bent down and picked up her blue cat and stroked it gently, where to start first? She hadn't looked around for the Professor but it would be funny if he was there...Though she did remember the last time Sky and the Professor met last term. Not a pretty memory it was easy to see the Professor did not like cats at all!

Laura had never been up here before but now here she was ready to get some extra work in she knew that the Professor was really busy and so she was going to do some cleaning for them, then she had another idea, what about the other professor's they were busy as well but they were okay right? Well she would ask the headmistress the next time she saw her.

Laura continued to look around, she saw that the fountain was looking a bit dirty and so she decided that would be the first thing that she cleaned, she knew that it was going to take a-while to do a few thing but best start with that. ""Scourgify!" Laura smiled using her wand to make the fountain clean, she just wished that she could do the spell without speaking but that was hard.

Jory finally had some time to head up to the Tower Patch. He had meant to go earlier but there had been so much things to do. Of course, he had seen the notice on the Common Room board, so he was here ready to take care of those plants.

Right now, he was just strolling around, looking at the others. Most of them were working. And he spotted Professors Flamsteed and Vinteren off in the distance though it look like the History of Magic Professor was leaving.

Jory paused in front of a clutter of pinkish flowering plants. He decided they could do with a trim. The stems were all branching out too far and as a result it looked as if there was a clump of wild flowers. He pointed his wand to the left side of the plant. "Flipnsnipwitit!" Little pieces of the plant fell away. "Flipnsnipwitit!" the badger said again and more pieces fell away. "Flipnsnipwitit!" He repeated the charm until the plant was looking a lot neater.

Deep in thought, Ethan had been wandering the castle, not really paying a whole lot of attention to where he was going. He had a lot on his mind lately.. busy with Prefect stuff, Quidditch, studying for NEWTs, Uni application, spending time with his girlfriend, and just making time for fun.. but now something else was weighing heavy on his mind.

Something weird was going on and even though he was tried to be convinced to the contrary, he knew better. Everyone knew you weren't sorted into Ravenclaw for being stupid.. and he was going to try to figure things out. He just needed to find a place to clear his head and think things through.

The Prefect found himself at the top of the North Tower at the Tower Patch. Orienting himself with his surroundings, his eyes immediately drifted to the last place he saw Professor Burbage and the night of that lesson come filtering through his mind. Pushing those thoughts away, he glanced around at the greenery. Much like everything else in the school, it seemed to have suffered. Shame really.. he loved his plants, they typically brightened the environment.. until they weren't taken care of.

He glanced around at some of the other students there and headed over to a bench away from some of the others. He gave them a glance before setting down his messenger bag and rifling through it. Nice to see some of the others trying to take care of the environment.. and after he did some of his work he figured he'd help out a little too. But for now he pulled out a journal from his bag. The Herbology one Minerva had gotten him at the end of summer.. He glided his fingers over the front of it and opened up. What he was doing wasn't exactly Herbology-related, he thought as he opened it and skimmed past his notes and sketches until he found some blank pages in the back, but it would do for now.

Wade had been enjoying his free-time exploring around the castle. It had mainly been around the grounds, so a trip up to one of the highest areas seemed like another good spot to loiter at. So here he was.

Wade saw the few tending to the Tower Patch, that was nice. After taking in the scene he looked for a bench to sit at, and recognized this guy sitting at one. Hmm.. Sure, it was a while ago when his bludger hit him, but, hopefully he didn't mind Wade sitting by him. He was dating Minnie, after all, so he should be cool.

"Hi," Seeing that he was into some book, he was going to ask what he was reading. "So what are you-" Though the page he was on looked blank from where he was at. "doing?"

Quill poised above his journal, the wheels in Ethan's mind began spinning faster as he tried to organize his thoughts. Sudden mood changes - near hyperactivity.. extreme happiness and excitement over even mundane things.. giddiness and giggling.. making up nonsense and passing it off as real.. no regard for consequence.. seeming obsession with ice cream.. There were at least three people he could think of off the top of his head that all of a sudden fit those traits that hadn't before. Could he think of anyone else? Maybe that would help him piece this together. What about Flamsteed? Ethan wasn't sure as the guy seemed overly excited all of the time from the day he met him last year, so.. He didn't seem to have a drastic, sudden mood change. But as for anyone else, he'd have to keep an eye out.. And what was the connection?

The Prefect was so consumed with his own thoughts that he didn't notice someone sitting next to him until he heard a voice. Pausing his quill in mid-word, he looked up to see a remotely familiar looking guy beside him. "Oh, hey.. Wade, isn't it?" he said after a brief moment's thought. He made it his business to know members of the opposing Quidditch teams. Besides, he spent plenty of time watching Minerva practice, so he had familiarized himself rather well with the Hufflepuff team. "I'm Ethan, by the way," he added as an afterthought, just in case the other boy wasn't as observant as he was, having never formally met the bloke before.

Hmm? Ethan looked at Wade curiously before glancing down at his journal with one half-written word on the page. "Well.. I'm trying to figure something out, I guess," he started, eyeing the bloke carefully. He was probably a smart guy, maybe he could help a brother out? "Have you noticed anything.. uh, strange going on lately?"

Well, there wasn't a lot Wade knew of Ethan beforehand. Today though he was picking up on what kind of guy he was, and one of Ethan's traits was shared with Wade. He was a deep thinker, since he took his time to finish jotting whatever he needed down before addressing him.

"Yeah," Wade nodded as he held out his hand to shake. "Nice meeting you, Ethan." Getting the formalities out of the way now that they were finally acquainted. "You're a pretty good Keeper, you know." He could only imagine how that burden of saving carried along with his own Prefecting duties. Heh.

One of Wade's brow rose at the reason for his documenting(?). "Oh? Like what?" Curious, since he wanted to know what he was trying to find out. "Strange?" Blinking at the question just then, "Like when- Oh." Furrowing his brows as he thought back not too long ago. "Well, there was that Unicorn that came out of the forest during Ancient Runes.. if that's the kind of strange you mean." Now Wade tilted his head slightly at Ethan, careful not to glimpse at his writing in case it had personal stuff. "Have you found anything strange?" You know, just for reassurance since they both clearly weren't crazy.

Ethan grasped Wade's outstretched hand and gave it a firm shake. "Good to meet you as well, Wade," he said with a small, but friendly smile. The smile on his face might have normally been more broad, but it was certainly nothing against the Hufflepuff.. Ethan just had a lot of concerning things on his mind at the moment. Wade seemed like a decent bloke and he was mildly impressed with his good manners concerning cordiality.

He tilted his head slightly at the compliment, not helping but to smile a bit modestly. "You think so? I'm not so sure.." he said with a shrug. "I'm still trying to get used to the position change, I think. I much preferred Chasing.." He hated this insecurity he felt with playing Keeper. He usually did rather well in practice, but after the last game he wasn't so sure he was suited for the position. "I noticed you changed positions, too," he grinned, subconsciously rubbing his arm. He remembered once being on the wrong end of a bludger courtesy of the former beater sitting next to him.. but he had no hard feelings about it. He knew it was a part of the game. "So, do you like Chasing? I've seen your practices.. you're quite good." He had seen most of the Hufflepuff practices so he knew what he was talking about. "You know, we'll be opposing each other very soon.." he added with a chuckle.. as in direct competition. Ethan would be doing his best to block Wade's shots when Ravenclaw played Hufflepuff.. but he loved a little friendly competition.

Ethan glanced down at his journal before looking back up at the other boy at his questioning. He thought over how best to respond when he heard Wade's response.. or the start of one. Maybe he did have something to add and he could piece this together. He listened for a moment, then thought over what he had to say. "The unicorn.. right.. I had almost forgotten about that." Probably because he hadn't thought it that strange since they had been close to the forest, but.. "They don't often get that close to humans, do they? Especially boys.." he mused aloud. And that one had seemed rather frightened but it could just be for the fact that it was so close to people. He decided to add that in his notes. Maybe it would connect to the other stuff somehow.

He took a deep breath, thinking over how best to proceed when the question was turned back to him. Yes.. he did notice something quite strange going on lately.. he just hoped Wade wouldn't think he was completely mental once he said it out loud. But he knew there was a problem and maybe if he talked things through with someone, he could work out just what it was. "Well, I was meaning more like strange behavior. Have you noticed anyone acting weird lately? I mean, like extremely excited and happy.. um, almost bouncing off the walls with hyperness. And an obsession with ice cream.." He looked at Wade carefully, waiting for him to think it over.. and hoping he could confirm his observations.

So Ethan was somewhat modest too, it looked like. Wade wondered if compliments came rare for him as well. "Yeah? You seem to be pretty good so far." From the few times Wade had awaken from his napping to see some teams practicing, he was sure of recognizing the players. Oh, yeah, so Ethan did remember that bludger of his. "Oh.. yeah, sorry about that." Letting his hand rub the back of his hair sheepishly, smiling at the compliment though. Sure, it had been part of the game but harming someone wasn't a favorite thing for Wade. "Thanks, being a beater was nice, but it's been awesome being able to look out for my other Chaser mates as well playing as one too." Heh. Right, they wouldn't know for sure until their upcoming game how their skills are matched this year."Well, I guess I'll have to step up my game then." Smirking from Wade.

Wade merely shrugged, guess that wasn't the kind of strange Ethan was thinking of from his tone. Pity indeed that guys aren't automatically trustworthy to the Unicorns. "Yeah, it's a shame certain people had to ruin us guys' chances from getting to know them better." Oh well.

Wade listened as Ethan carefully explained what strange thing he noticed. He titled his head slightly. Huh.. It wasn't the kind of answer Wade was expecting, really. He was concerned about someone and not just the whole in school in general.. or so it seemed. Wade had to make sure. "Kind of sounds like a good number of people here." Like his house.. quidditch team.. Hmm..Tilting his head slightly, he was beginning to have some clue on who he could be refering to as he thought of every member of his house team. "Was there.. a certain someone you had in mind?"

Nigel had come here to get away from a certain crazy hufflepuff. He did not like getting petted on the head and was caught during the practice. It was like she was hyped on an sugar the entire time. Just crazy. Bumping Oakey into the stands would ever have happened. If someone did not pet him on the head. That is why Nigel came here to relax a bit with writing and playing some music on his guitar. He could not sing. But could play guitar. You win some. You lose some.

This place was really nice though. Nigel thought hiding behind some green hedges with his legs sticking out. Not many people was up here and it was really peaceful. It was then that he noticed the knuts in the fountain. Nigel laid his notebook and guitar on a bench and walked over. He peeked in and wondered if a charm was not it He got a little closer to see if they were stuck.

Hope nobody pushes him in.

Today he was gonna bother Glitter Trousers. That Professor was TOO energetic and in his face for his liking. Ascanius liked a little concept called personal space, yeah? And the Astronomy Professor was a dolt, so he supposed he didn't quite understand that concept. Pfft. So with drum sticks in hand, he made his way up to the Astronomy Tower, AVOIDING LOOKING DOWN, and smirked all the way.

He was a-coming, Glitter Trous-

Smirk. Well, well, well. WHAT was this here? An idiot. That was what.

And Ascanius always pitied the idiots of the world. They had to be instructed how to live their lives and learn. So lesson time? Absolutely.

Lifting his foot, he lined it up with the dumb lug's bum and kicked him... straight in the fountain.

Well it did appear to be stuck to the fountain. Wonder what charm it was?

"MER-MERLIN'S PA-PANTS"

Nigel was suddenly in the fountain. It was COLD. Who, How, Why? These were the question going through Nigel's mind. But first. Nigel tried to grab a knut and was unsuccessful. It was the Permanent Sticking Charm. That explained it. Now on to the more important thing as the why Nigel was wet, cold, and in the fountain.

The Wet Claw turned around. "Y-you". Even though Nigel had really no idea who he was other than seeing him in classes. Nigel flung some water back at him bfore saying him. "What in Merlin's right mind possessed you to push someone in a fountain?"

Other than it being hilarious and funny. But still.

"Me," Ascanius mused with his arms crossed contently over his chest. Wet dog. That was what he was gonna call him now because, well, that was how he looked. Heh. And also, what a stupid question. Who did it? Him obviously, keep up.

He looked at wet dog and just sort blinked a few times. Was he seriously asking this question? HAHA. No, seriously, he couldn't help but laugh at this guy, so he was laughing right in his face. Through his laugh, he managed to say, "You're daft." Why?

Really, He said a total of three words. Not counting You are as two. Well Nigel can play this game. With the Slytherin's arm still crossed Nigel whipped out his wand and cast "Aguamenti" right at him.

Ha. Now Nigel was not the only wet person here.

"Wet Dog"

See. Now Nigel had said three words. This was fun. Though Nigel was still cold and wet. He still did not know this Slytherin's name. Not that he cared. But at least his notebook and guitar were dry in his little corner.

Ascanius was mid-laugh when finally he was covered in water from head to toe.

Yeah, okay. See, nope. He set his jaw and unfolded his arms. It wasn't funny anymore. It was only funny when HE was covered head to toe in water and not the other way around, yeah? This guy needed to pick up on that fast or else they were gonna have a-

Too late, the wet dog thing pretty much did it.

Spitting some water out of his mouth, Ascanius nodded and rolled his sleeves up and stuck drumsticks in his back pocket, "So, right. The way I see this...you either just let me punch your face ONE time nice and good...or else...I'll do it MY way." And he was from Essex, his way wasn't nice.

Now they were both wet. Pretty slow for a Slytherin. What did he think Nigel was going to do. Cry and complain. Please he was no hufflepuff.

Well, Now they were getting somewhere. Nigel had taken the smirk off his face. But now he was serious. To Bad. All Nigel wanted to do was play and write some music. Now he was either going to have to get punched, get taken care of in some mysterious way, or fight. None of those option appealed to Nigel.

It was pretty funny the more mad he got. The stronger his accent became. But now was not the time to laugh. Nigel got out of the fountain, put his wand away, and looked he dead in the eye.

"I'll take the punch."

As Ascanius rolled up his sleeve to his elbows and make them look all nice, even though he wasn't sure why because he was soaking wet, he tried not to show how surprised he was that, well, Nigel was gonna take the punch like a man. Respect. He wouldn't have made it a DAY with his people, but he respected his grit. So he lifted his head to look at him from the sleeves and said it, "Respect."

Then, he stood up to his full stature, which was coming up to six feet now, heh. What? He was charming, good looking AND tall. Deal.

Flexing his arm, he proposed, "You have a preferred side?" What? Ascanius was not an animal. He was going to always ask for a preferred side. He'd have to live with the bruise, not him. 'Sides, when he clocked Marcus in the face he had asked too. Ascanius was going to lend Nigel the same courtesy.

Eh, It was only one punch. Not like it was five punches that could dealt out at anytime or anything. That would cause some anxiety. Think it was called a Slap Bet or something. Must have been something Nigel read. Nigel put his hands behind is back and stood to his full 5'9 height. Still shorter than Ascanius. But he did not want to slow cowardice or try to block the punch.

Nigel nodded to Ascanius question. About if he had a preferred side. It only took a moment and Nigel answered

"Left"

You never want a bruise on your dominant side. It did not make you look handsome or tough. Though at least he was not touching his awesome hair. Nobody touches that. Now it was up to Nigel not the fall over when punched or fall back into the fountain. He was wet enough as is.

Cool, at least he wasn't fighting this whole punching thing. Always made Ascanius' job easier because he just didn't want to wail into come one consistently. He could but, sigh, so much effort. And he was already wet.

The fourth year continued to flex his hand so that it didn't cramp, important stuff, this was his hand holding hand, and then smirked at him, "Left works for me." He was ambidextrous, there was no need to really sweat about anything because he was awesome. Legit.

Lifting his fist, he nodded at him, "Alright, don't flinch." That was downright girl stuff. Take it like a man. And then he pulled back his fist and collided it with the left side of his face...hard.

OUCH

Merlin what a punch. You would have to assume he was ambidextrous from that. Nigel's head cocked to the right. Thank Merlin he did not fall over, fall back into the fountain, or flinch. Flinching was a sign of a coward and was not awesome. He did take a step back. But please it was hard not to move after being punched. Great . Now he was wet and had a bruise on the left side of his face.

He slowly turned his head back to look at Ascanius. He could feel where he was punched and was not looking forward to the bruise. This was finally over though and both of them were still wet. Nigel took out his wand and used the hot air charm on himself then on Ascanius. Best do yourself first or he would think you were hexing him.

"Finally Dry"

Why did this keep happening to him? Ascanius was all annoyed like. He KNEW he could throw a good punch, pfft. The fifteen year old had been doing it for ages. So why didn't he fall down, scream, cry, ANYTHING. No all he got was a lame stagger back, which was dumb. He KNEW he was awesome.

Shrugging it off and trying not to get upset and totally failing, he grumbled, "Thanks," honestly, he didn't care if he was wet at this point. Did Nigel not see him? He rocked EVERYTHING.

"Sooo. You're Awesome. I'm Awesome."

Nigel put out his fist for a fist bump. Not really knowing what to expect. All he really wanted to do right now was get back to writing music. Maybe a hot shower first. That did seem more important it light of recent events.

Still He would rather get punched in the face. Then have his hair shaved off. Or even worse get petted on the head. That was evil.

"No, no, no," Ascanius said waving Nigel off flippantly. He almost shook his head at the poor, confused person, "See, saying you're awesome and I'm awesome is like saying a Marching Band Drummer and Taylor Hawkins are the same." Which just wasn't true. His hero, the great drummer of the Foo Fighters...his HERO, okay, was not the same as some lazy drummer punk. No, no. Different.

Ascanius went on, "It's just different levels, mate. You were the guy hanging OVER the fountain, I wasn't." Case and point. Although, he did eye the fist bump and threw him a bone by tapping his knuckles to Nigel. Eh, he was gutsy. He respected that. Maybe one day he could ALMOST be as awesome as Ascanius, almost.

They'd have to see.

Nigel could have sworn he was just looking into the fountain and not leaning over it. Though he did hope Ascanius did not see his blank look when he was talking about Taylor Hawkins. Maybe the bruise would disguise it. Nigel did know of some famous drummers and that name never came up. If he said John Bonham,Keith Moon, or Neil Peart. But Nigel was more of a guitar man anyway.

"So you want to be as awesome as Taylor Hawkins. But not as awesome as John Bonham, Keith Moon, or Neil Peart?"

It seemed he did not want to raise his levels of awesome to far. Second Tier looked like what he was aiming for with whoever Taylor Hawkins was.

The Fist Tap was appreciated though.

Arithmancy Post 2
 

Ella was still on her golden ratio hunt and it was taking her all over the castle. She'd read up on the subject, y'know, and she'd seen that plants can be an excellent example of the golden ratio. Especially those plants that had spirals. Like...spirals within the seeds or even on their leaves and petals. That was kind of awesome, actually.

Ella wandered into the tower patch and headed right for one of the garden beds, eyes on the different plant life growing there. Surely there was a good example of the golden ratio somewhere up here. Hmmmm.

Oh! Here was a plant who's leaves rotated in a spiral! This was it, yeah? One of the plants she'd read about. The blonde quickly bent down and starting counting the number of leaves, noting how they rotated, and sorting out what that meant. It'd all lead to whether or not this plant was part of the golden ratio.

Alexa entered the Tower Patch figuring she could try getting something done while she waited on it to be lunch time. Before proceeding she checked to ensure the Professor wasn't present. He didn't like her kneazle but she couldn't leave him back in the Common Room. He'd been acting weird lately. Knocking her ice-cream over if she left it unattended, swatting at the machine when they went to the kitchen; he didn't even want to taste any when she offered which was REALLY weird because he was always willing to try anything she was eating...outside of candy. He didn't seem to like that much.

The coast was clear as far as she could tell so she walked along the hedges, kneazle in hand and tried to find something worth paying attention to.

From what she could see, these were watered recently...but...didn't anyone plan to pull the weeds out?

Lex picked a troubled spot and plopped down. Felix curled up next to her to watch. She grabbed them and yanked. The first set was super hard and didn't seem to want to budge but after she got those out the soil became a little looser making the other ones manageable. While plucking weeds from the ground she occasionally looked over at the feline that was occupying himself with a bug that was flying around.

He was fine so long as he stayed there and didn't try running off. She made her way down the path, picking at small weeds and yanking at the big ones until she'd weeded an entire section. That was tiring. She'd has enough and wanted ice-cream. With a flick of her wand she vanished the weeds. That worked. "Come on Felix, we're going." She didn't tell him where but stood and headed for the exit. He'd follow. He always did.

Names. Nigel was trying to throw out names now and all Ascanius wanted to do was roll his eyes and call him a name dropper. Pfft, nobody had time for that, you hear? But Nigel continued on with it. Luckily for Ascanius, he knew who ALL of those people were. 'Cause he was an awesome person. They had been over this before. Yeah?

"That wasn't what I meant, guy." Pfft. C'mon, mate, keep up here. He had totally just missed his point and Ascanius was not a babysitter. He didn't have TIME to teach him. Nigel had to keep up.

He was a Ravenclaw. So at least he understood what Ascanius was saying. He was just making to clear. It was not his fault he was pushed into a fountain. Mr. Awesome might have was anger problems to work out, with Nigel far away from him. Lucky he did know the names because Ascanius would have to be a pretty horrible and not awesome drummer if he did not.

Nigel could handle his awesomeness. It was just lucky he was not as narcissistic as well. Bad Combination.

"I was just making sure. Your Awesomeness is too much." Lets see if he could catch the tiny bit of sarcasm there. If he did then he was as awesome as he says. "Don't know much about the drums. I just play the guitar"

He could not sing. But whatever.

Yeah, he caught the sarcasm. So Ascanius set his extremely chiseled jaw and just GLARED at Nigel. Did he wanna go down that road again? Jeez, it was like the people at this school had never learned when it was appropriate to SHUT their huge mouths. Especially because most of the couldn't back it up.

And he continued to glare at Nigel? Yeah, did he have anything ELSE to say? Wise guy.

Miffed, he replied, "Yeah. Whatever."

Well, that glare meant he caught the sarcasm. Respect. His glare was average, on the other hand. He had seen worse from Ascanius' Captain and Nigel's.

Nigel shrugged then asked him the question that would bring this whole situation full circle. "So, besides looking for people to push into the fountain. Why are you here in the Tower Patch?"

He did not have to answer. It was just a curious question.

There was just something about the night that made everything more exciting, it was no wonder they'd caught so many students out and about after hours this term. Though Medea couldn't quite say she wasn't nervous either. Considering, this "date". He'd SAID date, now that she thought about it. It'd flew through one ear and right out the other earlier in the tree house, otherwise, she would've said something.

Something. About it.

On the other hand, it was said only once. It could've been just a silly slip? Whatever the case, she still headed up to the tower patch, bag in hand with the last few small containers of nutella that she had and a very clean jacket draped over the other. Airey should be pleased. She'd even made sure there was not a single cat hair on it. Except, oh...oh, she'd missed one. Ahem. Just gunna...pluck that off.

Flicking it away, she looked up, only to stop where she was. Oh, goodness. This was a rather beautiful area. How come she'd never gone up here before? And there was Airey! "Did you do all this yourself?"

Laura decided that she would continued with her mission to help clean the school, seriously why had the Professor got rid of the house elves, surely she would have fought tooth and nail to keep them, Laura would have house elves had lived in the castle for years and they deserved the best treatment possible. """Scourgify!" Laura pointed her wand when she saw some dirt on the fountain, she smiled as it cleaned up, now she had to find something else that needed cleaning.

Oh, Marion Burbage, may she rest in peace. How wonderful of her to create such a place though. Moving closer to the fountain, she vaguely noticed the stone plaques to the left of the fountain, though the words were difficult to make out in the night. There were too many shadows. Not that her attention was on them long enough to read.

What was this? He made her an ice cream rose!?

"Oh, wow...thank you." She took the sweet rose with a smile just as sweet, inspecting the nutella bits upon it before her gaze flickered upwards to him. This wasn't a date. This waaaaasn't a date. "It's magnificent. You're skills vith experimenting vith your food astound me." Yes, she was teasing him a little. Giggling softly, she glanced back down to the rose, only to notice and remember what she had brought.

"Oh erm, I brought my nutella. Like promised." She held the little bag, dangling on the edge of her fingers, along with his clean and cat hair free jacket. Well, maybe cat hair free. "And you left your jacket in the tree house."

What was he doing up here again? Oh yeah, he was going to go play drums on Glitter Trouser's office door until it chipped. Heh. Ascanius wanted to see how OCD girly!man handled an imperfection on his door. Amusing? Yeah.

But looking back up at Nigel he decided against telling him that. Then he'd be collateral and he couldn't have people knowing it was HIM who had been messing around on the door. Pfft. That was just stupid.

So he shrugged, set his glare and replied, "Nothing. And you?" Besides being an idiot, yeah?

He was probably messing with Flamsteed. Probably has something to do with Lint or the show he likes. Ascanius must dislike him or he wouldn't have made the trip up. Pretty long way from the dungeons he is.

Nigel shrugged when asked the same question.

"Just came here to get away from crazy hufflepuffs that wanted to pet my head." Nobody touches the hair unless they have permission. Merlin. "And write some music and play guitar. It is pretty quiet up here."

Quiet is Nice.

Seriously though, he and Glitter Trousers had a long overdue visit and his drumsticks were about to tear up his door, 'cause why not. Smirk. Ascanius knew that he could do it and get away with it and, well, why not? Limits were there to be pushed and FLAMSTEAD never had a problem pushing them. SO he needed to get going was his point.

AH yeah, the yellow ones. Why were they always hugging or touching people? A little thing called personal space went a LONG way, yeah? Yeah. So he nodded and continued on, "That's cool. And I'm not a guitar person. Drums." He swirled his around in his hand just to make a point.

Astro lesson 3 polaris systems 1
 

Sarah did not want to venture any further from the castle, yet on her way up she remembered she had not done the last part. The part about finding the systems. The part where she had to use that spell on her eyes. It was not the spell itself that she dreaded yet rather the drops she had to put in her eyes afterwards. The fact that was in an area where someone died, at night did not bother her so much, well as long as she did not think of it that way. Still there were some students around.

Now for the dreaded step. "Oculo FFFFocalis" she casted on her eyes. She was not concentrating as she was worried about the drops afterwards. "Oculo Focalis" she tried again, alas the nerves were still present. She attempted to clear her mind once more "Oculo Focalis" she did. WHOA it had worked.

If it were day she could magnify into the algea in the pool... very cool indeed. However it was dark and time was running out so she could not do that. She had to find the polaris systems instead

Astronomy Lesson 3-the spell 1
 

So Forrest climbed all the stairs back to the seventh tower, as being outside after the Sun had set creeped him out. He was going to perform and fail at the spell HERE. He had his worries--his DEEPEST worries--because his wand would be pointed at his EYES and what if he performed a blinding charm instead of that star-gazing thing? He shuddered at the thought. But it was for Professor Flamsteed. If only he had half of his faith in himself...

He looked at the sky and sighed. His eyes would be okay. Nothing would happen to them. Really. He would still be able to see well. At this point, he was much less concerned with casting the spell correctly than with the well-being of his eyes. He closed and opened and closed his eyes again. Did he have to? Couldn't he just--just--lie to the man? He gasped at the thought as his eyes were open in that instant with fear. That would be the wrongest thing to do. He shooed away the thought with immediate effect and retrieved his wand from his robes' pocket.

Deep breaths... But he wouldn't KNOW if we lied--SHUT UP AND TAKE DEEP BREATHS.

Then, without warning his negative-logic, his positive-logic pointed the wand on his eyes and cast the spell quickly and with determination.

"Oculo focalis!" And he tapped.

He wasn't blind, was he?

Astro lesson 3 polaris systems 2
 

WHOA.. It really was strange so magnified and all. She lay on her back and stared up a the sky. GORGEOUS VIEW and all. Now she need Polaris... there was Draco so that meant that Polaris was.. there.... Zooming in more she began to aquaint herself with the triplets. The names of them were A,B and Ab. Someone was very creative. She found Ab and A almost immidiately.. where was B? It was funny as before she had seem them as one thing and therefore the fact that B was not right there was okay. B B B . Where is B. There it is! Great she had found it all.

She did a bit more gazing until finally she gave up/ "Finite" she casted. NORMAL again. Oh no. DROPS. She was dreading returning to the classroom. She would need help with the drops. YUCK. She picked up her things and made her way indoors. Too much night time things for her

Astronomy Lesson 3-the spell 2
 

After counting to ten, Forrest opened one eye. He saw--he wasn't blind!1111!!!1!1!--and moreover, the spell had WORKED! LIKE, IT WORKED! His other eye went open and WOW LOOK AT THAT everthing was VERY close and BIG and it WORKED and--words failed him and he started clapping and jumping around himself. He had obviously forgotten about his butt, but soon enough he stopped and searched for somewhere to hold on. He was easily dizzy, and with this spell it would be extra powerful so.

Polaris. Professor Flamsteed. Astronomy. Yes.

Looking up at the sky, he giggled at the breath-taking close-up view of sky. Why hadn't he performed this spell before? He would do it from now on and come here and just watch the sky. It was so, so calming! He even let his eyes wander on their own as he gasped here and there at the beauty of stars--the very stars his mother had been gazing a few hours ago--but every spell wore out eventually, so... Polaris. Of course.

Narrowing his eyes thoughtfully, he searched the sky more slowly this time and after 30 seconds' search, he was gazing at what he thought was Polaris A. And soon enough, he was looking at Polaris B, and that small thing must be Polaris Ab. Good thing he had listened to Professor well, or else he could never remember the pictures.

Task was complete, but he didn't think 40 minutes was up yet. So, he decided to star-gaze and think about his mum until the charm wore out.

...

After about five seconds, when his vision was normal, he got up and headed to the Astronomy classroom.

"That a talent from childhood or just discovered this year?" With their, unique food choice. Speaking of food, it was a bit hard to stop glancing at the ice cream rose every now and then. How in the world had she not thought of doing something like this before?

Aaaand speaking of the ice cream rose, "So, you're sure, you brought the ice cream, right?" she asked with a much forced serious expression, pointing at him somewhat before the smile started to fight it's way to show. He made it rather clear he brought the cold dessert. Which was excellent, because she didn't have the heart to eat the rose creation. It was too perfect!

Nodding a bit, she moved around slowly, more towards the plaques to read them before pausing to glance back to Airey once he posed THAT question. "Oh, no, I..." Maybe? ".........no. I-I'm fine. Thank you." AHEEEEM. Looking everywhere else, biting the inside of her cheek, she finally turned her gaze upwards to the sky while heading over to one of the benches. OH! "Don't think ve could've picked a better night to be up here."

"Riigght." Typically having a disapproval of playing with one's food, she could possibly maybe perhaps make an exception for tonight. Because of awesomeness that had happened. Plus Airey's happiness seemed to be contagious, having found herself grinning as he did. She was more than happy that he had brought it.

OH??! Was there really?? "Are you serious?!" DOUBLE gasp! Automatically looking back up towards the sky as if the comet was going to fly by AT THAT PARTICULAR MOMENT, Medea sloooowly sat beside Airey, and just as slooooowly taking out her wand to hover the ice cream rose next to her. Free hands were needed to eat the other ice cream. "Do you know ven it is to fly by? Or if it has a name?"

If they named stars, they should name the comets, right? And this bowl of ice cream was totally hers, RIGHT? It was hers now. Taking a bite, she smiled and stared up at the sky. Ice cream. Bringing happiness and joy since.......whenever it was invented.

"Oh, I find that hard to believe." Nuuuudge. Surely he joked when it came to astronomy. Whatever the case, she MUST agree that it was simply wonderful that it was a clear night sky on this particular night. It was one treat right on top of the other! It was a HAPPY SUNDAE. Sundae. Sunday.

Riiight!??

"Excellent! OOH, interesting watch." Shifting around so one foot was folded underneath her, she took another bite of the ice cream, just in time for him to give a suggested name of the comet...and for a freezing piece of ice cream and nutella to hit her face. SHUDDER. Oooooooh, that was cooold.

Mouth agape, she turned her gaze to him, before scooping out a little bit of HAPPY GOODNESS ice cream, heavenly nutella included, from her bowl and smearing it on his nose.

Giggle...

Honest to Merlin, she was hesitant to laugh with him, though WHY...was a mystery. But with the chilly treat being smeared all over her cheeks, she didn't care. Haha. "EEEEP! AIREY!" Hahaha. Giggle. Hahahaha. HAHAHAHAHA! Oooooh coooold. Frozen temperatures aside, she scooped up more ice cream and FLICKED it towards him while trying to dodge his hands.

Flick! FLICK FLICK! SMEEEAAAAR on his cheek!ear.

NUUUUU! Laughing, Medea turned her head the other way as the onslaught of ice cream was flung towards her, scurrying to stand up. What did'ya know?? Ice cream brought more than just delicious happiness! Though she was only able to fling just a little more of the sweet treat towards Airey before trying to duck and cover. "OKAY! OKAAAY! YOU VIN!" she snickered, glancing up at him from under her arms.

...OH! What a perfect time to do so!

She stood up, pointing to the sky behind him. "Is that the..." COMET? WAS THAT THE COMET??? Seriously, was that the comet or something else since clearly she hadn't seen one before.

Oh dear, she dropped her spoon...

A chilly breeze suddenly passed through the hedges and flower beds of the tower patch, finding it's way into every nook and cranny. Spring must have been in close contact with Winter, for the chill in the air seemed to settle in the area, unwilling to leave. Was the fountain turning icy? Or was that just the moonlight playing tricks?

& The Narrator
 

meep
 

Oooooh the ice cream sure got cold on one's skin in the spring air, didn't it. Eesh.

There was plenty of "Ooooh's" and "Awwww's" to go around the whole school while she watched the comet pass by. Starting to HAPPily bounce on the heels of her feet, she tapped Airey's arm with her ice cream covered hand, pointing to the comet with the other. Tap tap. TAP! SLAP SLAP SLAP GRAB THE TIE! PULL THE TIE!

"Aireeeeeey!" Yaaaank the tie! "SHOULD'VE BROUGHT A CAMERAAA!"

GAH! What a perfectly HAPPY moment they could've captured! FOREVER AND EVER! Oh gosh. Just look at it. And the sky in general. It was endless wonder. Sighing quietly, her grip on the tie loosened a little. "You ever just look up there and vonder if someone is staring back?"

Blissful was an utterly perfect word for now. Perhaps she finally achieved total inner peace that she'd worked so hard to obtain during all these years in just a few seconds. She could float! All that happiness just rushing in every inch of her veins, AND AIREY WAS SINGING! He had a truly amazing voice. Thoughtlessly, she gripped the tie again, smile growing as she stared up at the comet.

Pardon? It took a moment for her to process just what he asked, and even then it wasn't quite clear to her until she looked to him. Tearing her gaze away from the comet, her own words were caught in her throat when his lips were suddenly on hers. Processing. Prooooocessssing...

Oh...
_____...kay.

Oh my. Should she...umm...time seemed to...the comet...butterflies...ice cream...

What?

If...

Oh, he pulled away.

Still so close though. "Vow." she repeated, a small giggle escaping her. Er, where did that come from? Ahem. Still...still floating? Oh, wow, indeed. Toes maybe curled. Blissful was still an utterly perfect word too. And all that HAPPYYYYY-ness and joy still rushed through her. And he was STILL so close. If she...just tilted upwards a little...

No. Nooooooo. No noo. Maybe? Yes?

No. Ahem. No, that was...no. Somehow. No. Realizing she was gripping his tie as if it'd prevent the end of the world, she let it go and patted it slightly. Nutella and ice cream covered. And wrinkly. "Sorry..." Oops?