The great hall was empty except for a second year hauling her telescope in from outside. She had woken up very early that morning to finish her Astronomy homework and was just now coming in. Although she had had such an early wake up, she felt alive, up and running, full of energy, which was probably an effect of adrenaline, but she didn't care. Her plan was to go straight to sleep, but obviously that wasn't going to happen now when she was this wide-awake.

Tora set down the heavy telescope and moved her shoulders a bit. When she had first started to go back inside, she had been too tired to even think of performing a spell to make the task easier, but now she had no problem. "Wingardium Leviosa" she said pointing at her supplies on the ground. They levitated nicely, and Tora moved further into the Entrance Hall.

It still amazed her the beauty of it all. So, because she had time (it was a Saturday after all), she decided to just stand there and take it all in again. Happy sigh. She smiled, even though she might be exhausted later, she was certainly having a great day now.

The decision between whether to go for a run or to have a flying session this morning was kind of difficult. Now he knew he was definitely back on the Quidditch team, Tobias wanted to spend all his time flying. Thing WAS, flying was a LOT of work and strenuous and stuff, but it wasn't quite as good as running was when trying to get rid of some energy. Tobias had been particularly ansty this morning, so 6am run it was.

Today's route had taken him all around the grounds, through the pathways, around the willow, all the way around the lake and then he looped the castle, jogging through the maze after all that just for fun. Then back to the lake to splash his face with the freezing water. It had been quite a long run indeed, and now he had to go and get washed up to start doing some extra reading for his classes.

Hair still dripping from the lake water, and with him massaging a stitch in his side (cold air + running = ouch), Tobias re-entered the castle via the entrance hall and was about to make straight for the stairs down to the kitchen level corridor when he noticed someone ELSE.

Just STANDING here.

In the empty Entrance Hall. Hm.

Tobias wandered over to the girl instead of towards his common room. "Hi there!" he panted gently, still slightly out of breath. "Whatcha do-" But then he spotted the telescope. Riiiiiiight. Yeah. That made sense. He changed tack immediately. "Been doing some stargazing?"

Totally not weird for just striking up a conversation. Not at all.

Very suddenly, the Entrance Hall was not so empty and simultaneously she realized that she probably looked very strange. Wince. What she didn't expect was the other person coming up to talk to her. "Um... Hi!" she responded to the cheerful hello from.... Tobias was it? "Yeah, I was just finishing up my Astronomy homework" she said brightly. Then she noticed that his hair was soaking wet and that he was still breathing heavily. He must have been by the lake then, but why was he running? Her eyes widened. "You didn't fall in the Lake and anger something that lived in there did you? You're not running away from something, right?" she asked worriedly. Maybe she should prepare for an attack from some Lake Monster.

He stepped out into the entrance hall and slipped around a few people, his head up but his eyes averting in case anyone tried to catch his attention. He didn't have it in him to talk to anyone and he was on a mission that he didn't want to stop for some pleasantries. Five years and teachers still didn't even know he was a part of their classes.

Not bad.

To him at least.

Astronomy? Ah yeah. He should probably get a start on that. Tobias nodded at the explanation. It made sense after all, seeing as morning sort of... preceded night.

He laughed at what she said next, generally being in high spirits after his morning run. "Haha, no." Yeah, no. He avoided falling in there if he could help it. Y'know... squid with questionable motives and all. "I just went for a run and stopped by the lake to cool off." November air WAS cold, but the water was even colder and way more helpful. "And I'm not sure the squid has like... land capabilities."

Such as walking.

And breathing.

Aaaaaaaaaanyway. "You're a second year, right?" Toby asked cheerfully, still with enough energy to bounce on his toes. "What was your name again?"

Well of course the squid couldn't walk on land! She had ment other scary things that lived in the lake. Though it didn't really matter now since it no longer (or rather it never) applied here.

"Yeah, I'm a second year. Tora Gallaway." she said cracking a smile, his energy was infectious. "And you?" she asked, curious as always. Besides, it was only polite to ask someone else's name. Kind of weird if you only called someone "Boy" or "the Hufflepuff" in your mind.

She also noticed that his hair was dripping everywhere. She performed a quick hot air charm. "Sorry if that warmed you up, I just don't think the Caretaker would be too happy about you dripping anywhere," she said to justify her actions. The Caretaker would certainly be unhappy about the mess, but so would Tora. He was dripping on her telescope. She performed a hot air charm on that too. She smiled at him though to show that no harm was done and to assure him that she wouldn't get all Tora Temper on him.

"Tobias," the Hufflepuff replied, still rather bouncing and now bouncing from one foot to the other. GOSH. ENERGY. GOSH. "Or Toby. Toby Tempus. I'm a second year too." Which meant that they must have been sorted at the same Sorting Ceremony, except it was understandable that Tobias couldn't remember her, as he'd been so enthralled and distracted from the second he'd stepped through the doors to the Great Hall. His main memory of the sorting had been him staring up at the ceiling until he heard his name called out, and stepping forward, not knowing what they were supposed to be doing. It was kind of obvious what happened next.

Err...

What was happening.

Tobias suddenly stopped bouncing, a little confused as to where the warm sensation had come from, but Tora quickly explained it away. "Ah, okay. Cool. Thanks." Oh, the telescope too. Ooooopsie. "Sorry about that," Toby added with a guilty little smile. Buuuuut... "I think it's the elves that do the cleaning though, which is why is was so filthy last year."

Which meant they wouldn't be quite so upset, 'cause apparently they loved to clean. Not that that was any excuse for making a mess.

Tobias eyed the telescope again for a moment, thinking, before he spoke again. "D'you like Astronomy, then?" Tora did seem to be quite eager to do the homework for it after all.

Tora eyed her bouncy classmate and wondered where he got all his energy. So she asked. "Why are you so excited?" She asked a bit incredulously, her head automatically following his movements until his bouncing got too hectic for her to follow without a headache. She was still recovering from her head injury after all. Then she remembered her manners. "Nice to meet you, Toby," she said trying not to get distracted again by his constant movement.

------

Well, at least he had stopped moving now so Tora could actually focus on the person she was talking to instead of constantly trying to track a moving person. Not that his energy wasn't infectious, she could feel herself want to bounce along, it was just a bit hard when she had a telescope to keep an eye on.

"That makes sense," she replied with a thoughtful look to her eyes, "But I still think that the Caretaker wouldn't be too happy." she continued a little later. He was still in charge of the upkeep of the castle, and house elves or no to help him, he was responsible for keeping it clean.

"It's quite all right, as you can see I've dried it off so no harm done." she said gesturing to the scope. "Yes. I love Astronomy, it's actually one of my favorite classes!" she gave a huge grin at this. She loved Astronomy and everything to do with space. It was just so interesting! "What's your favorite subject?" she asked, hoping he would also like Astronomy, or Transfiguration. Those were the things she liked and if he liked them too it gave them more things to talk about.

Algamus was a busy house elf. Yesm, he had many things to do for the Headmistressie as her most trusted house elvsie. He did the cooking and the cleaning and the care of the studentsies hygiene. Algamus did like to clean most of all.

Sweep, sweep, sweep. The grand room of the big house needed the floors all good and sweeped for the foods tonight. Many of the studentsies were tracking the beginnings of snow on his floors. Algamus liked them clean.

His grumpy, ugly face zoned in on the studentsies who were in his way. "Please move, stuentsies. You are in Algamus' way." Nasty, dirty studentsies.

"Excited?" Tobias repeated Tora's words before giving an amused little giggle. He so often forgot that not everyone was as peppy and hyperactive and enthusiastic and, yes, excitable as he always was or at least seemed. "I'm not excited about anything, really. Not especially so. I'm always like this!" WASN'T IT NEAT? Limitless energy BOY OH BOY.

Anyway yeah. "Nice to meet you too, Tora!"

He nodded about the whole caretaker thing. Best thing was to avoid getting all icky and trekking the outdoors to the indoors, but because the Hufflepuff common room was the closest to the front doors of the castle, it was never an issue Tobias though about all that much.

But now they were talking about favourite subjects, and Tobias didn't even realise that he was starting to fidget and bounce again.

"I think Astronomy is ace! Ancient Runes, too!" Toby began enthusiastically. "They're my best subjects, too. And Flying. Herbology is one of my best classes too, and I'm starting to kind of get used to it," the Hufflepuff gave probably more information than was necessary. "You got a favourite teach-?"

But before he could finish, Tobias was interrupted from a voice somewhere around the region of his knees. He sort of leapt backwards slightly out of the way, his jitteriness meaning he was always prepared to move.

Hey, it was one of them elves! Tobias knew from last year that the elves worked in the kitchens, and were obviously back this year from the cleanliness of the castle and decent food, but he'd never actually SEEN one.

"Hi there, Mr Elf!" Uhhh... Ms Elf? It was hard to tell. "I'm Toby! What's your name?" Tobias added cheerfully, conveniently forgetting that he was one of the people who'd tracked in water from the outside and into the Entrance Hall. He was just super psyched to see a house elf for the first time ever!

Oh wowwww. Always like this, huh? Well, Tora could get used to that; it would probably just tire her out a ton though. Anyway...

"Yeah! Astronomy is soo awesome!" she beamed and reached into her pocket to pull out her Asterglobe, a magical astronomy device that Gram had given her, but before she could, he was off again talking about something or the other. Ancient Runes, specifically. She tried to pay attention... but there seemed to be a little elf coming along. He had probably sensed the mess Toby had been making and had come to clean up.

Tora didn't realize that Toby had stopped talking about classes until he addressed the elf directly. "I think it's a mister and I think his name is Algamus." she said turning to Tobias. After all, the elf seemed to talk in third person, so one would only assume Algamus is his name. "Sorry to be in your way, but I think I cleaned up Toby's mess already" she told the elf smiling a bit.

"Oh. Okay."

Toby hadn't realised that the elf was talking about himself, and had already SAID his name. He thought it was, y'know, the name of a broom or invisible wizard or something.

BUT YES! The elf. Toby was about to say something, but figured he was kind of bombarding the creature with words if he did. In any case, the Hufflepuff looked up at Tora again and his attention was easily recaptured by the thing she held in her hand. Oh, that darn attention span!

"Hey, what's that?" Tobias asked, pointing at the globe-like object.

Christmas wandered down to the entrance hall and sighed it was tough and she had missed the last qudditch match through no fault of her own but really things had to get better soon enough

Running in the cold was tough on the lungs, eh? Ella felt a sting in hers as she made her way into the entrance hall, her cheeks and nose pink from the frosty air outside. She still had to do a cool down too as she didn't want to pull a muscle but surely that could happen inside. She'd had enough of the winter air for today.

Stairs were a good cool down, yeah? If she just casually walked up and down them a few times? Seemed like a legit plan to Ells. The blonde adjusted her ponytail and started up the staircase, humming as she went.

Forrest was quieter and more distracted than usual. He had just arrived at school from his aunts' house and... he sighed. He was in the stage of deeply missing his family again. The holiday just wasn't enough! He wanted another holiday with his mum dad and even with his brother. He LOVED his friends and school too, but he wanted both of them TOGETHER. Why wasn't it school in the morning, family in the afternoon? If he was rich enough in the future--

"HEY!" Someone was climbing the stairs without looking where they were going and he barely had time to jump away. They could have DIED, y'know? Falling off the stairs was very serious and--

"ELLA!" He forgot all about dying and smiled. "Hi! How are you?"

Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game- It's easyyyyy!!!!!

Good song, that was. Ella continued her humming as she forged on up the stairs, unaware that there was anyone coming down them. Distracted badger problems over here. YUP. So when someone called out suddenly, Ella jumped, completely startled.

AHDHJJKHKHDUYEHSJLK!

O_______O

Meep!

"Forrest?" Ohthankmerlin! "You nearly scared me to death, Kiddo." And she clutched her heart dramatically before cracking a smile. "But seriously, sorry. I didn't see you there."

How was she? "Tired. Just got back from a run. I'm good, though. How are you? Have a nice Holiday?"

Forrest giggled when she acted so dramatically. Err... she WAS fine, right? He could actually giggle? He shrugged. It was Ella! He couldn't remember seeing her negative for more than a few minutes. She and her boyfriend Alec were his idols for a reason.

"I'm sorry too," he said 'scaring her to death' in case she truly meant it. They were both sorry for some reason, so it was alright.

"You run?" His eyes moved from her head to toe and examined her body unconsciously. Wow. She did run. "I'm alright." He shrugged and made a face. "Yeah, 'twas fine. I just miss them already, is all." He shrugged again to look cool but really, being thirteen changed nothing about missing his family. He was still a sissy about it.

"How about yours?"

She was completely fine. She was also completely used to being dramatic because her Gran was an actress and encouraged such behavior. No seriously, this was something that was practiced at home. Ella swore she was a bit more loopy because of that woman but she didn't mind. Loopy could be interesting too. Maybe.

"No worries, Forrest." She forgave him, see? Not that there was any reason for him to apologize in the first place. She was still smiling too cause Forrest and he was adorable.

Was Forrest, little Forrest, checking her out? Ella watched with an amused expression, raising her eyebrows slightly when his eyes returned to her face. Welp. "Yeah, not as much as I should but it's a good way to clear your head." Plus the whole 'being healthy' thing was a resolution so yeah. Her expression changed from amused to worried as the younger badger said he was alright. "Just alright? Not great or brilliant or excellent?" What's up with that, kid? Did Ella need to write someone an angry letter? Oh, he was missing the family. She understood that. "I miss my family too. Lots, actually. Letters are helpful, though." And hugs from housemates. That too.

"Mine was pretty good, thanks for asking." Grin.

Forrest grinned back. She was Ella for a reason. She forgave easily but cleverly. Seriously, why wasn't she in Ravenclaw? Right. Because they were arrogant and unfriendly. She was the opposite of those. He liked her in Hufflepuff a lot.

He didn't understand her amused expression and instead focused on her words. "Does it help Quidditch?" he asked in a serious tone, because if it did, he was starting running like right now. She said he had been alright on the pitch, and he didn't want to miss that status.

He recognised 'worried' though, because he had seen it various times on his parents' faces in the past. "You do?" HEY! He wasn't a sissy then, maybe! She was a female so she ought to be emotional alright, but... she was also Captain! He smiled faintly. "I wish I could phone them," he said longingly. He didn't explain 'phone', because she was a muggleborn. "I mean, people wrote letters an era ago?" He hadn't even learnt how to write letters but here, he became a pro on it. Magic was so overrated sometimes.

"Did you stay here?" With Alec, perhaps?

Does it help Quidditch? Ella mulled this over for a minute or two, considering how doing one might benefit the other. "Besides keeping you in good shape? Well, it helps you learn to control your breathing which can be helpful. Y'know, so you don't get winded during matches." And they could definitely be strenuous, the matches. Fast paced too. "It also helps you relieve stress and...well I suppose that means better concentration on the pitch." And Ella wanted her players to be focused, that was for sure. "I had the team run together at the end of last term, actually. Maybe we'll start up again." Maybe.

"Of course I do. I think that's sort of a regular emotion when you're living so far away from them." So if he was feeling weird about missing home, he shouldn't. He wasn't the only one that felt that way. And then he said something and Ella jumped up, slapping him lightly on the shoulder. "Forrest!" She had a GREAT idea. Was he ready for this? "You can call home." From Hogwarts. This was totally a thing thanks to Hadley. "The technology center, the one Professor Hadley created, it has phones in there!" Phones that WORKED. Brilliant idea OR WHAT? BOUNCE!BEAM.

"Nope. I went home, actually. Spent some time at my house and then went to visit Alec for a bit too." Grin. "It's nice to back, though. I miss it here when I'm there." And She missed there when she was here. It was a vicious cycle.

Forrest listened to her carefully and nodded. He understood how it benefited. He was going to ask Tobias too, but maybe he would start running as well. He didn't make any promises, though. Running was a lot of commitment. He wasn't sure how much lazy he would be.

"That sounds fun," he said only and smiled faintly. He could only imagine running all 11 people together. Hehe.

Forrest pouted. He didn't want to miss them! But he definitely felt better about missing them. She was right--it was far away. Then, before he could say something, she slapped him in the shoulder. WHAT FO--

Oh, that. It only depressed him further. "I can't. They live in Saudi Arabia. It only works within Britain." Yeah, he remembered that he was so close to hearing their voice, yet so far away, again. Not the best way to pass his day. He looked down, frowning deeply. He wasn't impressed with phones unable to make international calls at all.

She went to Alec's?! WOOOW. Forrest looked at her with big eyes. Did that mean they were 'serious'? Because Katherine--his brother's girlfriend--had wanted to come over too and his parents had asked him just how serious they were (declining in the end because he had been 'too young' and 'not serious at all').

"Cool. I mean, I missed my friends too." He paused, looked at her weirdly, bit his lower lip, looked away, fidgeted and figured she would make him say it in the end so he could as well save them some breath.

"So you will marry Alec?"

He understood? Cool. Ella wasn't the best at getting things to move smoothly from her brain to her mouth and she was pleased she'd done so successfully this time.

"It can be. It can also be chaos but sometimes that's fun too." Grin.
Besides, she liked getting the team together outside of practices. Getting to know each other was just as important as working on their passing skills.

Oh no. She was an idiot. UGH. She should have asked before she'd opened her mouth and now the poor kid was even more upset and just...epic fail, Captain. Way to go. "I'm sorry, Forrest. I didn't realize-" Because she was an idiot. "If you want, we can sit down and write letters together sometime? Then we can go to the owlery together too." Did that make it better?

He was doing that staring thing again, Forrest was. Like he was surprised she'd spent time with Alec. The blonde tilted her head and eyed him back curiously but didn't comment except for, "I'm sure your friends missed you too. I know I did." True story.

...

....

WHY? Like why did this always happen to her? Ella had a right mind to tell Forrest to ask Alec the answer to that question because she seemed to be the one getting asked all the time but she refrained. Forrest was asking earnestly and she'd be straight with him, no matter how uncomfortable the subject made her.

"I um...well we're only seventeen, yeah? We've still got tons of time to think about stuff like that." Nodnod. "So erm...it's not something we've discussed or anything." Except for telling Bluetiful and Astrid that planning a wedding was not necessary.

Tora looked back down at her hand and the forgotten Astreglobe she still held. She gave a huge smile, happy to show off one of her most prozed possessions. "My Gram gave it to me," she started off with a glint in her eye. "It's called an Astreglobe and it shows you the stars in 3D, real time." she paused here to tap it with her wand and a slightly transparent globe of shimmering pinpoints of light appeared over the face of the compass- like device. She pointed to the red arrow that had spun to face away from her. "This points in the direction you are facing, and the N, E, S, and W around the outside tell you where the stars are in terms of the cardinal points." she looked quickly up at Toby to see if he got it all. It could do a whole lot more than just show all the stars, like it could only show planets or nebulae or what was visible versus what was in the sky at that time, but she didn't want to confuse the boy.

Chaos, pshh. Forrest didn't mind it. He shrugged, but didn't urge her on either. SHE was the captain, after all. She sure knew better than him.

Forrest did his best not to pout and look all upset but he was still touchy about it. "It's alright," he said. "You couldn't have known." As far as he knew, only HIS family was living abroad, so people could communicate with their parents easily whereas the fastest owl flew in like a week to Saudi Arabia. "You don't have to make up for it." He shrugged again. He didn't mind writing letters with her, but he was sure she would mind. Really. He was fine with it. He was only sad because he would see them six months later.

Anyways let's talk wedding.

Forrest looked at her somewhat timidly and expectantly, but had to nod in the end. He honestly didn't know just how young seventeen was--he had never been seventeen before--but if Ella said it was young, then it was.

"Right, if you say so," he said and did some nodding too. "It's just, my parents think staying over at your--boyfriend's house is serious and my mum said that kind of 'serious' means 'marriage' or like a long, long relationship." He felt the urge to explain himself, because obviously, Ella's parents thought differently.