November certainly wasn't going to confess out loud her reservations about the other people on the first level. Not that she felt all that good about Ezra doing it, since he seemed a little uncomfortable about it - if his random "stuff" had anything to say about it. Awkwardly, she stood there with one arm wrapped over her front, rubbing the elbow of her other arm and casting a wary look over the other students and waiting on Ezra.

Maybe it was dumb - trying to find somewhere empty. But thinking of people watching her try (and likely fail!) made her stomach twist and squirm in a very uncomfortable manner. The anxiety made her feel a little like there wasn't enough air for her to breathe, even though they were outside. When Ezra called down to her, she felt a rush of cooling relief that felt a lot like cold water trickling down her neck and her stomach dipped a little.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" she called back to him, hurrying up the ladder. The swaying didn't make her stomach feel any better, but knowing the second level would provide some privacy was much nicer.

Looking around the second level, she patted her belly lightly and gave a nod of approval. "This is better," she mumbled, scuffing the toe of her shoe against the floor of the floor of the tree house, before she settled down upon it.

She carefully tucked her legs to the side the way her father told her was proper and pulled her bag into her lap, withdrawing the gargoyle from it.

"This is going to be dumb," November finally said out loud, exhaling. "And I'm going to be awful at it, I'm sure." The corners of her mouth turned down in a deep frown and she eyed the gargoyle with wary distaste, before reaching into her bag for her notes.

"Piertotum Locomotor," she read out loud slowly, then again a couple times after, because each try had a new fumble somewhere - piertotor, piertotum locomotum, piertotorm. Frustrated, she screwed up her face, closing her eyes, and counted to ten, then tried again, much slower, sounding out each syllable. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to make spells so complicated, anyway?

Ezra had absolutely no idea what November was talking about. As far as he was concerned, she was remarkably good at a lot of things, enough to warrant her the title of good student but not enough that he'd feel the need to call her know-it-all. He was pretty sure it was his duty as her friend to consoling her, but that was pretty much beyond his realm of possibilities. It made him feel awkward, and he didn't like feeling awkward. At most, he could pat people's backs sympathetically, but November's current distress wasn't that great (was she even distressed?) so going as far as touching her would probably be both unwarranted and strange.

Awkward, too.

Very awkward.

He deadpanned: "If it makes you feel better, and it shouldn't make you feel better, I'm prob'bly gonna do even worse than you." Ezra rolled over and propped himself up. A sitting position was acquired. Then he reached for his bag, which he'd discarded close to him, pulled out the gargoyle and placed it in front of him.

Ezra stared at it, tried to tune out November's currently babbling, and then pointed his wand at it. "Piertotum locomotor! Nothing happened, which he took as a good sign (???) and then ordered: "I want you to move your head." Pause. "Move your head!"

Nothing.

"We're definitely off to a good start."

No. This was going to be absolute failure, November was certain. She could only take peace (and it was such guilty peace, which really wasn't peace at all, was it?) in that Ezra would be struggling as well, and as soon as she'd thought it, it sounded terrible. Shaking her head, she tried to rid herself of the thought and tried instead to focus on the stupid incantation.

Instead, she shyly glanced up and watched Ezra's attempt, and frowned deeply for him. "Awfully rude, that one," she remarked, hoping the lightness of her voice would convey some sort of consolation. "Very disobedient, too. Perhaps he'd prefer a please."

She wore a smile, before she turned to her own gargoyle and regarded him carefully. "Right then. May as well try this! Piertotum locomotor!" Nothing was meant to happen following this, she was sure, though it did make her feel uneasy. A wink or something would be an awfully nice sign. Feeling dumb, she continued. "Er... bow. Go on then. Bow." Not even a wink. "Please? Please bow, if it pleases you?"

It appeared to not please the gargoyle, for it did not so much as bat an eye. She sighed heavily, filling her cheeks and then blowing against her fringe.

"At least you pronounced it right," November pointed out, trying to ooze some optimism into her voice as she stared at her gargoyle.

It merely stared back.

Ezra had gone from properly sitting down to lying on his stomach, chin propped up by one of his hands. His other and lazy flicked at the un-moving gargoyle, over and over again, repeating the incantation until to his own ears, it sounded as though someone else was saying it instead of him.

He supposed a part of him should've been opposed to the idea of lying down on the dirty floor but the truth was that he'd already getting used to the filthiness and general unkempt state of the castle. It was an alarming thing, really, and one that his grandmother would surely try to hammer out of his brain, come winter break. "I don't think it answers to please." Ezra blew air at his gargoyle, expecting a response. He didn't get one, of course. "It's not sentient, I don't think. It should answer to please, though." It was only polite. But then, if gargoyles were polite, he didn't think they'd even be considered scary, by some.

"PIERTOTUM LOCOMOTOR! Ezra flicked his wand at the gargoyle, several times. "Move your head!" There was a tiny something that Ezra thought could have been movement but it could've just as easily been wishful thinking--"MOVE YOUR HEAD!"

It wasn't wishful thinking and it did move, but it wasn't it's head that moved, but the tail. "That's not your head." Ezra pursed his lips, tapped his wand against the gargoyle's head. "That's your head. Now, move it."[/b] It wrinkled its nose, instead. "No, no, no! Why can't you do as told?" A phrase he was altogether too familiar with, himself.

Suddenly, Ezra was beginning to feel very bad for gran.

November had to press her fist to her mouth to stifle unnecessary giggles. She hardly felt Ezra would appreciate them them and would, in fact, be quite annoyed, which she didn't much want to cause him. The theatrics were entertaining, though! Though she would like to tell Ezra the giggles were a compliment, she doubted he would believe it. If he were laughing at her, she wouldn't believe him.

"I suppose you're right," November allowed, still frowning at the gargoyles. "Being non-sentient and all, but manners ought to be respected." Even if it was a dumb, inanimate object.

She prodded at the gargoyle's face and wondered if maybe bowing would be difficult for it, given its shape and build. "Shall we try this again, Mr. Binks?" For a final effort, she prodded its belly. Then, she enunciated carefully, "Piertotum Locomotor! Nod your head."

What it did was less nod it's head and more visibly flinch a little, but movement was movement, if not entirely correct, no? Biting her lower lip, she allowed a terse smile.

"Not quite, but definitely better than nothing," she noted, opting for a positive spin.

"It's a little morbid, isn't it? Naming it, that is." Ezra wasn't sure if morbid was even the right word. He didn't think so, and he felt his teeth chew on his bottom lip. "Pretty sure we have to give them back to Professor Bellaire, and it's not like they're really alive." He supposed that the right word for it was not morbid, then, but sad. He tried to give November an apologetic small for metaphorically raining on her parade, but couldn't quite made it work out. So, he settled for mouthing Sorry to her and hoped that it'd be enough.

Ezra dropped his wand, picked up the gargoyle and rolled on his back. He held it tightly between his hands, held it a little above his flat stomach. It was no longer moving. Ezra had the eerie sensation that its stillness didn't mean that the spell had worn off, but that the gargoyle was too busy judging him to do anything else.

"Move your head!!!!"

It blinked.

"Come on, man. Move it!" Ezra lowered the gargoyle until it was nearly touching his freckled nose. "The head! La tête! Capitis!" English! French! Latin! That was the extent of Ezra's knowledge, right there. The gargoyle continued to blink, unsurprisingly so.

The boy placed it atop of his stomach, and he felt on the dusty patch of wooden floor next to him for his discarded wand. Between his hands he took it and cast the spell again. He indicated it to move his head, but instead, the gargoyle took a step forward. Ezra sighed and his tone acquired a sardonic touch that his gran would've been disapproving of. "Well, mate, can you do a few cartwheels or something, then?" The gargoyle took another step forward. "I could show you but would it be worth it? November's right, you are disobedient."

As if to prove a point, the gargoyle hopped in one foot. It nearly topped to one side and rolled off his stomach, but Ezra caught it on time. He leaned on one side, placed it back on the floor. "I guess that's better than nothing." Ezra tapped its head with his wand, again. "You doing any better than I am, November?"

November didn't think "morbid" was the word Ezra meant to use. At least, she was pretty certain, and she wrinkled her eyebrows to signify this, because what was morbid about naming a gargoyle? She frowned. "I'm not sure morbid is the right word," she mumbled, because he'd mouthed "sorry", and she wasn't entirely sure why. "But it feels weird to not call it anything, at all. Like I'm playing some sort of... godly role and just forcing him, and I reckon I rather am, and it makes me feel guilty." Her face relaxed and she prodded again at the gargoyle's belly with the tip of her wand. "Have you never named anything before? Not even a toy?" Glancing up at Ezra, she studied him then shook her head. He didn't actually strike her as the sort to have plushies or anything. Mildly she shrugged. "I know we'll just be giving him back, but it makes me feel kinder, I suppose."

This was probably part of that sensitivity issue of hers her father liked to point out to her.

While Ezra busied himself with coercing his gargoyle into a semblance of cooperation, November prodded a bit more at hers.

"Piertotum Locomotor!" She was pretty sure that came out better this time. "Step forward." The gargoyle's leg moved a little, though there was no actual step. She frowned, her brows knitting together. "Please step forward?" Cheeky thing that it was, the gargoyle moved a little. She wasn't entirely sure if counted as a step forward, but at any rate, it was no longer inanimate, which was the entire task! Okay, not really the entire task, but it felt a lot better to think of it that way.

She rubbed at the side of her nose, blowing heavily at her hair.

"Piertotum Locomotor! Nod your head."

To her great surprise, the gargoyle bowed its head. It wasn't exactly a nod, but it was movement! She clapped a hand to her mouth to stifle her delighted squeak. "Eeek!" At her name, she glanced over at Ezra, who still sprawled out on the floor. "Not sure, really," she admitted. "Sometimes he starts to do what I say, or only kind of does it." She furrowed her brow, letting out an exasperated "Augh!" and kicked her foot at nothing. "This is rather ridiculous. We're only second years!"

Ezra rolled back to lay on his back, and though he indicated the gargoyle to take three steps back, it chose to imitate Ezra's own movements, instead. It laid down on its back, too, which made Ezra want to giggle, so he did. But he was twelve and his voice no longer was what it'd once been, so it was a strange sound. It made him frown, albeit briefly. "I know." He didn't say it unkindly. "But I just don't see the point because they're not ours. Sort of like naming an apple before eating it, except that instead of eating these we just have to return them to their owner."

It just seemed, to him, like a dangerous sort of thing. November was going to get attached and then she'd never see her gargoyle again and then she'd cry. It seemed like a frustrating, pointless idea to Ezra, one he'd been right to discourage. But he also knew November would do what she wanted, in the end, so it was up to her. "Not really..." he'd never considered it. Teddy bears had been banned from his room because they collected dust and Ezra and it made him sneeze. And the rest of his toys, well--"I never thought about doing that. I guess it makes sense. It seems kind of silly to give a name to a puzzle or to legos or to a miniature train station." Not that it'd kept him for playing, but it suddenly felt like an entirely new experienced he'd missed. "We have a family crup, though! His name's Polo, but--" He wasn't really allowed anywhere near Polo because Polo made him sneeze. "--we don't really get on well." Not exactly a lie.

He rolled over, again, and pointed his wand at the gargoyle. "Piertotum Locomotor!" Ezra gave it a moment, watched it and felt like the gargoyle was staring back at him, expectantly. "Uhm. Walk over to November and to her g--Mr. Binks."

The gargoyle didn't really walk to November, but it did walk away from Ezra and stopped halfway. It planted itself there, taking seat. "I think that's progress, and something tells me that's as good as it's going to get for me."

Ezra's gargoyle was acting rather more like a crup, November thought, with the way it was imitating him. That or it was really cheeky and just being a general bother and copying him and refusing to cooperate. She wasn't entirely sure if Ezra's trouble with the spell was his own or had anything to do with his gargoyle. November did not point out that she thought naming an apple would be terribly silly, because she supposed the point he was making was that he thought it was terribly silly of her to call the gargoyle by anything.

"I suppose," the girl allowed, keeping her voice careful. She glanced over at him, before looking back to the gargoyle she'd called Mr. Binks. "It wasn't really intentional, or anything. Sort of just came out, I guess." Biting her lip, she contemplated this. It was rather hard to explain, she decided, because she just didn't like not calling it anything. It probably really was just as silly as Ezra found it.

Picking up the gargoyle, she moved it to a new spot, as if maybe this might make it cooperate any better, though she glanced up at Ezra as he spoke and nodded. "Well, I guess it's more of a plush animal kind of thing, rather than naming a train, although I was looking at these books my parents have been buying for my sister - she's new! I mean, she was just born over the summer. Ugly, pink, wrinkly little squirmy thing, too - and there's a book about a train engine with a name. Dad says it's a muggle book. I don't know if muggles name their trains or what, but I suppose it wouldn't be too weird if you had is all I'm saying." Prodding at the gargoyle's feet, she giggled to herself a little, though gave Ezra a sad little frown when he mentioned that he didn't get along with his crup. "That's awfully sad. We had a cat, but mum gave it to Aunt Adiola because it shed all over the place." She shrugged mildly. "Dad said I can have an owl my third year. I think I'd rather have the shedding cat back, though, than the baby."

She frowned again, thinking about the baby back home growing up without her ever being around. How weird was that? By the time she graduated Hogwarts, the baby wouldn't even be able to go to Hogwarts yet! And it was always fussing and crying and half of the time it smelled terrible and even though everybody was always cooing about how cute and darling it was, it was actually really quite ugly if you asked November - not that people ever did, and when she offered her unwarranted opinion anyway, she was sent away and told to stop being mean or rude.

Eying the gargoyle where it'd stop, November chuckled quietly. "I wonder if it's not so much you as it is your gargoyle," she mused out loud, twirling her wand. "It seems quite cheeky and defiant." Glancing back at her own gargoyle, she tried again.

"Piertotum Locomotor! Mr. Binks, please walk over to Ezra's gargoyle." Watching, her eyes grew wide as her gargoyle took a few steps towards the gargoyle. They were not smooth steps and looked rather like the gargoyle was shaking its legs with each step, but it was beginning to get a little better.

Transfiguration was just an awful lot of work. What would she even use the spell for? She didn't even own statues! Most were kind of creepy! It wasn't like the school would let her use the spell to make a statue of armor carry her to class, and that was the only thing that seemed a benefit!

"I think I'll be content to deal with not being able to change needles into mice or animating statues and the such, really," November sighed. "How soon until I can drop this class?"

"Gargoyle," Ezra tried to sound demanding, which was surprisingly easy. He wondered if he ought to be worried. "Move closer to Mr. Binks." It didn't move or walk so much at it stumbled its way there, but it did sort of worked. Then it swayed on the spot and toppled over. It would have been funny except it reminded Ezra of someone passing out or being knocked unconscious. It was a little frightening, really.

"That's awful." Both passing out and getting a new baby sibling. The best (worst) part about it was the adults usually tried to pass the babies off as gifts and blessings but Ezra was hard pressed to find newborns as anything smelly nuisances. He didn't mention it, though, because last time he'd called Ellie a disgusting blessing gran had sent him to his room without lactose-free ice cream. Ezra didn't even like ice cream, much, but he didn't like it when others placed limitations on what he was and wasn't allowed to do. "My condolences." It sounded like the right thing to say. It also sounded like something a grown-up would say, so he tried to look very serious, which was difficult to do when you were lying on your belly, frowning at a gargoyle. "If you think it's bad, now, just wait til your baby sister starts to crawl!"

Babies were kind of ugly, sometimes, too - all wrinkly and red and weepy. "I don't really like babies." Which was pretty obvious, considering his tone of voice. "I know a lot about them, though. They are not nice, but they do smell nice? Most of the time." Ezra frowned. "It's very unfair."

He muttered to his gargoyle to come back to him, and it did. It stood up and sort of wobbled on its stumpy legs, and then slowly came to him. It was a couple of inches away from Ezra's nose til it toppled over. "Someone's had enough exercise." He grinned. "It's really too bad we can't keep them."

Elise rubbed small circles on the back of his hand absently with her thumb, simply staring off into space as they sat in a comfortable silence. She'd missed these sort of silences the entire time she was at the hospital. Those silences were awkward, tense and anything but comfortable. She didn't even want to be there, most of the time. Here, though? She never really wanted to leave at all. She didn't want to turn her back on the one person who'd never turned his on her, and she didn't really have anywhere else to be at the moment.

Something in the way he said her name, barely above a whisper but clearer than anything she knew of made her want to throw caution to the wind and just kiss him right there and then. Best friend, she told herself, biting her lip to keep from just acting on impulse. His best friend, and that was all she was going to be.

"Do I know her?" she asked, attempting a smile as she turned to face him. Was she going to have to watch him with someone she was especially close to, every single day? She'd almost prefer if it was someone she didn't know, that she wouldn't talk to every day and pretend that it didn't hurt. Her thumb stilled abruptly as she tried to search his expression for some clue of who he might be talking about.

Gliding below the trees effortlessly, Herjenmie's large owl eyes scanned the trees and the ground, gliding over the faces of each student as he flew over them. It didn't take him long to spot the person he was meant to deliver this package to. And how convenient to be sitting on a treehouse. He hooted and swooped down to place the letter and the package on a tree stump, landing beside it.

The Elise person got intent stares as he waited for her to retrieve the items. And feed him chocolate frogs. Or maybe not. He hd to get back early. He obviously had work to do..

"Will you?" GRIN. "I'll try looking out for you...er...but that's if I make the team again. Have to do tryouts first." And with that came a prompt nod. She was good at the sport but she didn't like jumping ahead with things like this, just in case. "But I'm still glad you will!"

Lex stood back, allowing for him to go first while she thought over his question. "Oh, like that. Well...not really but there's Hogsmeade. Just, we haven't been allowed there yet so we've just been sharing sickles and stuff with each other, paying each other back, the works." What other choice did they have?

"Once we go to hogsmeade you can just buy something if you want change though."

Couldn't he just kiss her? Right there and then. He would have done it, too, if he wasn't afraid of something bad happening right after all over again. With Tiffany and Minnie, they had both kissed him first and maybe that was for a good reason. Apparently Christopher just had the worst luck ever when it came to making the first move. So, despite everything that was telling him to go right ahead and kiss her, he told himself to wait. If everything went the way he planned after this conversation, then maybe his bad luck with Elise would vanish? At least he and the whole world hoped it would.

He noticed her biting her lip and hoped she wasn't doing so because she was upset. Surely, this time, she was only doing it because she was nervous. Nervousness was a good sign in cases like these, wasn't it?

Chris almost burst out laughing at Elise's comment. She most absolutely knew the person he was talking about. He figured it would ruin the "mood" if he started laughing though so he held in his life and genuinely smiled at her. Maybe giving her little hints would help her to figure out who he was talking about. "Uh...yeah, I guess you could say you know her...you know her a lot actually..."

Throughout all of this, he kept a steady eye on her, making sure to catch every bit of her reaction. This way, he'd know automatically how she feels instead of just relying on what she said. Not that he didn't trust her, he was just sure Elise would lie to him, if she had to, just so she wouldn't hurt his feelings.

Then, completely out of nowhere, an owl landed on a trunk with a package for Elise apparently. As if that wasn't the WORST timing ever? Chris let out a sigh but continued smiling, waiting for her to get and open her package. What he had to say had waited at least a year, what was a few more minutes?

Daichi flinched when he saw that the little girl almost fell off the ladder so high up. He had held his arms out automatically to catch her if she would fall but it seemed she got the situation in hand. "You okay?!" He scratched the back of his neck unconciously and grabbed the ladder as he climbed up as well.

If he also wanted to come up? "Yes! but i've never been to the top so i don't know how much space there is" He called and continued to climb up the ladder as well though kept his distance.

"You tell me when you've made the team?" Forrest grinned back. Because somehow, he had no doubts about it. She seemed so excited for the game, and just as he was good at football, she ought to be good at Quidditch.

He got down, and once she was next to him too, he nodded.

"I guess that's how we'll make it too..." Like how Tobias paid for him, and how he got the knuts from some older 'puff too.

He didn't know where Hogsmeade was, but he figured it was somewhere out of school with some markets to buy things. "I'll do that, then," he said as he glanced over his watch and...

Rules. It was only ten minutes since his curfew. He quickened his pace and hoped Alexa would match his speed too.

"We should hurry." In case she wondered the reason.

Watching as Ezra's gargoyle - at last! - responded to him, November's face split into a delighted grin and she clapped her hands together a few times with the sheer joy of it. "Yay, look at that!" she crowed, reaching out to pat the top of the gargoyle's head. Maybe the gargoyle was just defective, and that's why it seemed to stumble about and sway in place like that.

Glancing up, November found herself filled with a rush of relief which was, she realized, probably very silly, but Ezra's reaction to the baby was the exact opposite of everyone else and she found her entire summer spent having to choose between being honest - which everyone otherwise always encouraged of her! - or holding her tongue, because honesty meant getting yelled at and being sent to her new room, because the baby now ad her old one. "Thank you," November said, because it was only right that you thank one for their condolences, especially when they were much desired condolences.

A deep frown settled on her face and she groaned with dejection. "I hadn't thought of that. I've been spending all summer listening to it wail and holler and scream and it gets so stinky when it needs a diaper change and it's really quite boring, I think, just laying there and drooling and making dumb faces, and everyone comes to coo at it. I could lay there and drool and make dumb faces but they'd just get mad at me. It's got my old room, too. They moved me into the smaller guest room." Saying this out loud sort of made her stomach plummet, so she laid down on the floor of the tree house. "I went home and it was 'Surprise! You have a new sister! Also we moved your room!' It was very unnerving." It was much more than unnerving, but November didn't think Ezra would care to hear that much. "I'm not terribly fond of them, either," she admitted, as if she had not already made her stance perfectly clear as well.

As Ezra had earlier, she lay on her back with her wand pointed to Mr. Binks. "Piertotum Locomotor!" she tried one last time. "Please, come over to me." And to her immense surprise, the gargoyle did as it was told, stumbling a little bit, before stopping at her head. She nodded to Ezra's words, before it occurred to him he probably couldn't see that, maybe, if he wasn't looking at her, and added, "Yes. It'd be nice to bring home Mr. Binks and tell him to take out the baby with the rubbish."

Lip still caught between her teeth, she shifted her weight slightly so that she was closer to him and had a better view of his expression. Come to think of it, Elise hadn't seen him this worried about anything and it was a little bit unsettling. Chris was always the more emotionally stable of the two, and she knew it so for him to be this upset... it had to be bad. She didn't want it to be, though. She'd take all his problems for him, if it meant he'd have nothing to worry about. It's just how much she loved him.

Someone she knew a lot. Someone she was obviously close to, to know a lot about. She was probably someone he saw around a lot too, she figured. He'd probably see Slytherins around the most and there was just the one Slytherin female that she knew the best. The Ravenclaw could feel him staring at her, trying to gauge her reaction and see how she'd take the news but she kept her eyes from meeting his. Instead, they wandered around the treehouse, stopping briefly on the exit.

Her eyes hadn't even completely focused on the door when an Eagle Owl swooped in and landed on a trunk near her. Untangling herself from his embrace, Elise made her way over to the owl and untied the package and letter from its feet and stroked its head. "I'm sorry I don't have a treat for you," she said quietly, watching it fly off before turning her gaze to the package she now held.

The writing on it, she recognized almost immediately. Kurumummy. She couldn't bring herself to open it just then, though. Not when she'd just figured out who he'd been referring to.

"Y-you're in love with Kat?" she whispered, standing just far away enough for him to stretch his arm out and barely graze the edge of her robes. Katrina Hudson, she realized was practically perfect for him. Slytherin, not to mention a prefect, tall and blonde and extremely pretty, the best Keeper schoolwide since Max left. Yeah. Perfect.

Elise backed away a little bit more, her eyes flickering between him and the exit. She didn't even know if she could bear to hear him confirm her suspicions, to know that she'd have to feel that same pain she felt when he was with Minnie every time she saw her best friend.

"I have tryouts to hold," she said eventually, her voice wavering. It was a lie, a really bad one but she didn't know if she could handle hearing him continue. She didn't have tryouts for a few hours and Chris probably knew it. Elise wouldn't put it past him to somehow get a copy of her tryout schedule and memorize when she had them.

Despite the part of her that screamed to leave, there was another part that begged her to stay. Just to stay and let him finish his sentence. That maybe, just maybe, it wasn't Kat at all. It was the hardest choice a Ravenclaw could ever be asked to make, between her head and her heart. Between what she thought and what she felt.

Clearly, Elise Fairfield was quite torn.

Well... things seemed to have changed around the castle. So apparently, the plastic cups and forks from the feast were not the only new thing around Hogwarts. Ehhh. So Gwen decided to go for a walk around the grounds and stop by her favourite places. The lake. The tree house. Which hopefully was still there.

A grin appeared on the Ravenclaw’s face as she spotted the tree house. Making her way in that direction and quickly climbed up the ladder which was hanging down. In the next moment, she spotted someone. Erm. She couldn’t really recognize the person. Mainly because the person was spinning around quickly. Slow down.

‘Ronnie?’, she finally said, thinking that it could be the Gryffindor. Remember me?

Nerida had to run to the tree house where she thought she saw some berries that could be helpful in her ingredient hunt maybe it would maybe it wouldn't all depended. As she reached the tree house she looked around for any berries, seeing some blue one she walked over nope she didn't want those.

Continuing her search Nerida walked a bit past the tree house and spotted some, walking over she found them they were called Boom berries. She diffindoed a branch off and walked back from whence she came, hopefully she wasn't late already.

Ronnie stopped spinning at the sound of her name, and tried to focus on the girl as the world kept spinning around her. She nearly fell over from being so dizzy.

Merlin's beard, how long had she been spinning?

Once she could finally focus, she realized it had been Gwen. Oh. "Hai Gwen!" she said, making her way over to her friend. "How was your summer?"

Strolling through the grounds Audrey noticed a tree house at the very edge of the forest. Raising an eyebrow, and being slighlty impressed she made her way towards it. There was nothing like this at her old school, then again, it hadn't been on out the outskirts of a town either. There was a rope dangling at the front of the treehouse, so she climbed her way up. It was a lot bigger than it had looked on the outside! Three levels, some facinating charm work was definitely behind that. "Impressive, well, minus the missing floor boards," she muttered to herself. She was beginning to wonder if she had made the right choice in a transfer, it seemed as though the school was having some finiancial trouble due to the state of the common room she belonged to and this tree house.

"Piertotum Locomotor!" Haruka said after setting down her gargoyle. The gargoyle shook awake and waited for a command. "Alright Rose," Haruka started. "Let's try a figure 8 today." Rose looked at her, confused. "Oh! Sorry! What you do is fly around in the air like this." Haruka demonstrated the motion with her finger. "Got it?" Rose nodded.

After wiggling around for a bit, Haruka assumed it was practice, Rose shot up into the air and attempted the trick. Despite a bit of confusion in the beginning, Rose was eventually successful with the trick. "Finite!" Haruka said after Rose landed.

Was Elodie chasing her?

MUST. RUN. FASTER.

Bliss reached the tree house in record time and didn't hesitate before hauling herself up into it. "Come and get me," she called down and ran to the other side of the space. She'd like to see Els get her now. Actually, it probably wouldn't be THAT hard, seen as she knew she was up here and there wasn't really anywhere to hide. Except ... there were a few hiding spots up in old tree house. Bliss creeped behind a box in the corner, out of direct sight. She's have to be searched for to be found.

Bring it, Els.

OOC: Pretend we planned this and pretend Elodie's chasing Bliss for whatever reason, because yeah. I'm weird.

For the record: announcing that a grounds-wide game of chase when Elodie had been awake all of ten minutes was bad for Bliss.

She was going DOWN.

She had interrupted the romance of a lifetime; Elodie and Bed. HOW WAS IT PLAUSIBLE TO CONSIDER DESTROYING THAT?! HOW, BLISS?! HOW?! The damage was done, and the fourth years had both ran from their dorm, from their common room and after Elodie's shout of "Don't you DARE think of going to the Tree House! That's cheating!", she watched her best friend do exactly that. Up the rope ladder Bliss went, and off Elodie had caught her scurrying. Already out of breath from the run, Els waited at the bottom of the ladder.

She was working on a plan. There was technically no where for Bliss to go when she was up there. Because, even being that small meant she had to come down one time, right?

Right?

'Come and get me' ?!

Aw, nevermind.

Elodie climbed up the ladder, swung herself onto the first level of the tree house and started to creep around quietly. "Time isn't an advantage here, short legs." And no it wasn't, because Elodie was onto the other Hufflepuff.

She was around here somewhere.

(Which somewhere, Elodie hadn't quite figured.)