"And vhy's vhat?" Erik continued, pretending not to notice the woman's discomfort with discussing centaurs. Had she had a bad experience trying to ride one? He really wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. If anyone were fool enough to try riding a centaur, Callie would be it.

He tried to picture her working in Diagon Alley but his mind drew a blank. "Vorking vhere...in a shop?" Look at him, asking all these questions as though he cared. Ivy must have been rubbing off on him. "Sorry, I just find your subject interesting," Erik added as an after-thought. Who knew you could find talented and qualified professors just every day in the Alley?

Divination was, yes, mildly interesting, but he also thought it was completely full of lies. Maybe the professor was the same....interesting and full of lies...

Aha, so she had definitely tried to ride a centaur, then. Silly woman likely got bucked from the thing, heh. Erik tried to hide his amusement. Yes, sure, centaurs thought Astrology was the only important thing when studying the Noble Art...Noble Art...he almost scoffed at the phrase, but covered it by coughing lightly into his gloved hand. "I see," was all he said instead. "You seem to feel passionately about this topic, Calista." Was her face getting red or was it just cold outside?

His eyebrows went up, he couldn't help it, when she said she had been working out of a wagon when she was hired for Hogwarts. Well. They really did hire just anyone then. "Vhat is certainly true," he mused, not meaning to sound mean but it came out anyway. "You could only go up from vhere, I vould think."

He shrugged a little at her question and turned back to looking at the tree. "I'm not sure I believe in divining vhings." He wasn't sure it was a real art, the Noble Art. Scoff.

Ronnie nodded. "I understand how that is." she said. It wasn't quite like that for her...not yet, that is. "But it'll probably not get so busy at times, too." she said reassuringly, nodding. "Mine is pretty good. I'm trying to really make it last...yet this year feels like it's going by too fast for me." she said, gesturing to the snow around them. "I mean it's already winter." she said with a sigh. "But...it's great. Did you hear that Jory and I are together now...?" she asked, turning to look at Ella with a small smile. This was the first person she was telling this, and she had been dying to tell someone.

She grinned, and carefully stood back up and jumped off her snow angel and spun around to face it. It was still in perfect shape! She then stuck her hand out towards Ella and helped her out of her snow angel. "They look awesome!" she said with a nod of approval. They sure did!

Now, for the snowman. "How big should we make it? And what should his name be?" she asked. Of course he had to have a name. That was always required whenever Ronnie built snowmen.

She seemed passionate? Was the man's brain frozen? She taught the subject, possessed the Inner Eye and had devoted most of her life to the stuff; of course she was passionate about it. "Yes you could say that." She said with a grin. She didn't know if he knew about her abilities or not though and she didn't quite trust him enough to go into it all.

....

"Yeah it is." She said looking at him, her eyebrows pulled close together and her voice rising just a bit. Hopefully there weren't any students around. "And I am glad that Headmaster Tate took a chance on me because it helped me out when I most needed it." She was fuming just a tad but she wouldn't let him see her upset. Her talents were better served in a school than the street regardless of what 'ole frozen head from ze North' thought. "I had a job at the Ministry before though." She added with a huff.

So take that Erik!

And he was a non-believer. By the way the conversation was going Elwood could have picked that up on her own. "Many do not believe because they don't see results as soon as they try. Divination is not made up of spells you can quickly master it takes years and years of practice and requires utmost concentration." That was what she was teaching her students.

"Yeah, I guess you have a point. Things will slow down eventually." And then pick up again, surely. That's just the way things went. The blonde looked around thoughtfully and nodded in agreement about what the red head had said. "And soon it'll be spring." This was said with a smile because spring was lovely and Ella couldn't wait for warm weather. Wait... WHAT? "Really?" She squeaked, bouncing a little. "That's brilliant, Ronnie. I'm happy for you both." Really! "When did this happen, hmmm?" Nudge. She wanted details.

"Nice skills," Ella said cheerfully, accepting her friend's hand and standing up a little more carefully than Ronnie had. "They do look great! Job well done." Mhm!

How big should they make the snowman? "Huge, of course." GRIN. As for his name...."What abouttttt...Merlin?" Yeah, Merlin seemed legit. "We can give him a beard and everything."

Ronnie nodded. "I hope it'll come soon for ya, Ella. And I'm sure it will." she said with a small nod. It always did. Well, for Ronnie it did anyway. She then chuckled. "Yeah, it will. I love spring." she said, looking at the Whomping Willow as its branches swayed in the breeze blowing past. "What's your favorite season?" she asked as she continued to study the tree. She needed to come down here and sketch it again and send it to her father. He'd always wanted to see what it looked like.

A grin spread across her face at Ella's reaction, her cheeks turning a bit pink. She nodded. "Thanks, Ella! It means a lot." she said. She then chuckled. "It happened a few days ago," she began. "We were just at the lake together and...then he told me he liked me which was a surprise. I mean, I've liked him for the longest time and had no idea he ever liked me. Turns out he had liked me for quite a while too." she said, laughing a little. "Anyways, I told him I liked him too then...we're together now!" she finished with a giggle. It was nice to have a friend to finally tell this too. She had been rather busy lately and didn't get a chance to tell all her close friends..

Ronnie grinned again. She liked the way Ella thought. "I was thinking the same thing. Huge is always good." she said. She then laughed at her idea, nodding excitedly. "That's brilliant! How about you get started with the bottom part, and I'll get working on the middle." She bent down and began rolling some snow into a large ball, and then rolling it around some more to make it larger.

"I'm sure you're right," Ella said confidently. Besides, she was getting used to the work load so maybe that'd take off some of the pressure too? She just really needed to stay organized and then she'd be just fine. "Spring is really nice." Really. As for her favorite season, Ella shrugged. "I'm torn between Summer and Fall. I know they're nothing alike but I love them both." For different reasons, of course. "Yours is Spring, then?"

Awww! The blushing was adorable and Ella BEAMED at Ronnie, poking her playfully. "Anytime and it seems like you're really happy about it!" Nodnod. "You're very smiley." Just saying. As she listened to the girl explain how this had happened, Ella let a slow smile spread across her face. "Funny how that happens, isn't it? The liking someone and them liking you back but not realizing it." Her and Alec had been so blind for ages before Bliss finally clued Ella in.

"I'm on it!" Yup, the bottom of the snowman was totally something she could handle. The sixteen year old started with a small snowball and began rolling it in front of her, picking up more and more snow as she went. She whistled while she worked, too.

Erik's brain wasn't frozen but it was maybe stuck on the setting for 'amused smirking,' as that was all he was doing at the moment. Watching Elwood, watching the tree, and smirking at his thoughts regarding this woman. What a basket case of kneazles she was, but at least she seemed to love her job.

With a passion.

Had he said something to tip her from the passionate side to the angry side? Erik was extraordinarily good at reading people, it was part of his job, so he noticed when Calista's voice rose ever so slightly. Throw in her defensive quip of her old job, supposedly at the Ministry of Magic, and Erik could sense one feisty little Divination professor. He didn't have to have his third eye open to see that.

Heh. Heh. Heh. But why stop now when she was only slightly upset with him?

"Is it vorth it, in the end, after all vhose years of practise and concentration?" he just had to ask, seemingly in a sincere manner as he again focused his wide blue eyes on hers. "Vot if as much as you try you never see any results?"

Wouldn't that be frustrating? Maybe she wasn't a passionate little professor after all, but just a frustrated one. That could also explain her nuttiness somewhat...

For Ali :D
 

Max headed out for the Whomping Willow..it was something that always made him feel oddly safe, someplace familiar. He had a lot of memories there, some good some bad..

He was a bit chilly, which was odd for him. He was used to the cold for the most part. He even took to it, preferred it to the heat but today was just cold..the slight bit of hair on his face itching as it sometimes did, he hadn't shaved today. No classes so why bother? He had the makings of a decent beard.

Taking a seat as close to the tree as he dared he leaned back and looked at the sky, it was grey, like the sun was hiding from him. He didn't mind, pushing his sunglasses into his jacket pocket he wondered about things, the future, his with Elliot...that of his friends. He didn't like to think that far ahead, but it wasn't so far now was it?

For Touz
 

Well.

So.

Maybe she had been a baby. So.

Zahra Kettleburn, with her fur-lined cloak and ear muffs, sashayed as well as a first year CAN sashay, PAST Mikey Toussaint. You know. CLOSER to the Whomping Willow than HIM.

Who was the baby NOW.

"So Toussaint. You going to touch it?"

He had been looking the other way when Z had finally made her appearance and he couldn't stop the grin from forming on his face and he stepped up beside her.

"I plan to do more than touch it Kettleburn." He turned to her and flicked her earmuff before taking hold of her hand. "Come on Z, let's see how good your balance is."

Harness your abilities, practise, practise, practise...right, Erik could tell she was practised herself at spouting this nonsense to people. Too bad he still wasn't buying into it.

"I vhink I am one ov vhose people who has to see to believe," he offered. "No, Calista, I never tried Divination myself. Vhat is vhy I don't believe in it. I haff never seen any results relevant to me."

Simple enough explanation. Yes, he was a cynic. Cynical until proven otherwise. He didn't even mind if his comments sounded egotistical; surely there was a large portion of the population that agreed with him. Divination after all was an art form, an elective course offered at Hogwarts. It wasn't even an important enough subject to be required. It certainly hadn't been required at his school in his heyday.

They're both going to end up in the HW, right? LOL
 

Zahra CACKLED and latched back onto Mikey's hand. She PROBABLY should have been keeping at least one eye on the ground below with all those jagged, protruding roots in their path - but this Gryffindor had her eyes on the PRIZE.

And also the limbs. She was watching those. They looked pretty mad. COOL.

"We're going to climb and ride, right? We shoulda brought a LASSO."

She hopped a root by instinct, but her toe caught the next one and she tripped... tripped...

LOL Of course
 

Michael too was keeping his eyes on the tree. He had already spotted the branch he wanted. When Zara spoke, he tore his gaze away from the tree and looked at his friend. "Now you tell me." He would have gotten one bad brought it with him.

As they neared the flailing branches, Michael was once again looking at the branch that his name on it, when he felt Zara going down and because she had a tight hold of his hand, he followed her and hit the ground.

Before he could he eeven begin to start laughing however, one of the Willow's branches was heading in their direction. Michael didn't even think, he just strated pushing Zara. "Roll Z, roll!!"

BRE/Nash
 

There he was, just sitting near that stupid, dangerous tree. Nashville had heard about this tree from some people and he just didn't believe them and with what had happened in the last couple of days he just needed to cool off and just think about everything. He hated how his "friends" were saying that he didn't want to be friends with them, mostly Minerva! It made him angry, friends weren't suppose to bring you down they were suppose to make you happy when the world was bringing you down.

Nashville looked around at his surroundings as he tried to clear his head. It just wasn't working, he just kept feeling worse and there was nothing that could or would change that at this point. Oh, lookie, Miiika was here.

He wished that she would roll a little bit faster, the branch managed to hit him. Twice. Sitting down was going to be uncomfortable over the next few days.

So worth it though.

"YEP! I''VE EVEN GOT BRUISES!" It wasn't a good day out unless you came home with bruises.

"Reckon you can grab hold of that branch when it comes around again? Mikey wasn't leaving until he had ridden the Whomping Willow.

If it had been anyone else, Michael might have been concerned about the bloody nose, but this was Z and he had seen her bloodied up plenty of times. So when he saw the tree branch smack her straight in the face he burst out laughing. "We should have brought a camera with us." He would be able to watch that over and over again.

While Zahra was sticking leaves up her nose, Mikey waited for the branch to swing his way and the moment it did he grabbed hold of it. He let out a very loud, "WOOOOOOT!!!! as the tree lifted him up in the air and before he could even call out to his BFF, he was flung twenty feet in the opposite direction.

He hit the ground straight on his stomach which knocked the wind right out of him. He rolled onto his back and put his hand in the air and stuck his thumb up. "I'M OKAY!"

In case she was worried.

Zahra was just about to start on her other nostril... WHEN MIKEY FLEW. It was so.... MAGICAL. And his landing, if one could call it that... was the BEST part. She CACKLED at him. It had to hurt, but that was just part of it.

Now she had to one up him. Do better. Fly higher and fall harder. There were a few other students around, but there were peripheral and entirely disregarded. Zahra had better and bigger things to DO. She stuff a quick leaf and a ball of snow up her nose -- and was OFF, chasing a LIMB, LEAPING FOR IT.....

...she only managed to grab it though, and go for a quick ride where she got tossed head over heels and landed more or less on her head in a heap in the snow.

Whoa. Whoa. "Did you SEE THAT?" Zahra called out, somewhat muffled cuz of the snow in her mouth and the dead leaves in her nose.