Kace was glad the little guy sat down. He liked socializing with other people from other houses. He smiled at him when he said he would give it a chance and then he ate his sandwich and took a swig of his juice before he spoke.

"So little dude...what year are you and what's your name?" he asked politely.

Hufflepuff had won--and what's more, FORREST, him, the CHARLTON one, had helped it with a GOAL! These wizards called it 'score' but who cared the word?!?! The thing was, HE had scored and his cheeks had been red with joy since. He didn't remember when he had been this happy. Ella had been right. He was an alright player!

"...so Ella caught the ball from Tobias--it was such a cool catch really, the kind that only some people are capable of, then she passed to me! I was using a school broom of course so I couldn't really speed, but apparently I was too fast for Alexa because next thing I know, the ball is through the hoop! I scored, Bristol! I scored! Can you believe that?!" He had been analysing EVERY position since he saw Bristol in the common room, and he had talked non-stop while they walked to the Great Hall for dinner. He looked into her eyes with joy. He certainly still couldn't believe it! If she had been bored with the talk, he didn't notice. How could someone be bored of Quidditch, anyway?

Hufflepuff won.

He scored once.

This'd better not be a dream.

Right now, Bristol was the PROUDEST person in the world. As well as the HAPPIEST. Not only had Forrest scored, but Hufflepuff had WON. Actually won - not that she'd doubted they could for a second, she just wished that she'd been a part of the winning team. In a way, she was, all the Puffs were. Sort of. But her focus was only of one badger at the moment and that was her best friend.

She listened and grinned as he explained again, in careful detail, every single thing that had happened in the game. Of course she didn't mind - wasn't even the slightest bit bored - Quidditch and Forrest were two of the best things in the world, so there really wasn't anything to be bored about. "It was a cool catch," she said, remembering what happened because her eyes had been eagerly trained on that Quaffle. "You were REALLY fast to say it was a school broom, yes!" In fact, she'd been shocked at how fast he'd been actually. PROUD GRIN. "You did, you did. You were brilliant, Forrest!" she explained, meeting her best friend's eyes and grinning even mooooore.

"You know?"

... dramatic pause.

"YOU'RE AWESOME."

^.^

Bristol obviously KNEW Quidditch well, because she agreed it was a cool catch too! Forrest BEAMED at his BFF, then giggled giddily. Yes, YES, YES! He WAS fast! His eyes were shining SO brightly that they could easily illuminate this hall, and he had been smiling ever since Alec caught that snitch.

"I was, really?" Brilliant? Him? AHLJSJDO these were the words he wasn't used to hearing so--wait, he didn't KNOW! He held his breath through that dramatic pause and stared into her eyes gravely.

.......

..............

GASP!DALDAJL!GASP!

He was so overwhelmed with delight that he couldn't even speak, and instead hugged his BFF tightly.

"Thank you!" For being an awesome friend too, but that sentence was too long for his too-excited self.

It was impossible to tell exactly what Forrest was thinking, but it was totally obvious that he was happy beyond happiness of ever before. Yep. That was the official title for his happiness now. Bristol also couldn't help grinning back and giggling along with her best friend. Who knew that giggling was so contagious? "Do you cheeks our going to hurt soon from smiling sooo much?" Because they were both smiling A LOT.

"Really, really!" She said enthusiastically, and nudged him gently to further support her point (because nudging obviously did that). In her opinion, he had been the best one of the pitch that day - even better than Tall!Snitch!boy - but she was biased. DOESN'T MATTER. He was the best.

He was gasping!?

Was it really that much of a surprise?

HUGGING. Hehe. Bristol hugged her best friend back tightly and grinned up at him. "You have nothing to thank me for, I was just telling the truuuuuth." Honest. Bristol wouldn't say something that she didn't mean, she wasn't like that.

Forrest shook his head. Smiling was the BEST expression ever and his eyebrows hurt from too much frowning, but his cheeks never! He pulled back from the tiiiiiight hug and sat at their table silently, because he was still so overwhelmed with joy. He motioned her to sit next to him and poured himself a glass of water.

If the dementors came right this way, he was pretty sure he would be able to cast a perfect patronus!

"So, how are you in general?" Obviously he was PERFECT, but he wondered about her too.

Well that answered that and Bristol grinned MORE to show that she agreed. She shouldn't have even needed to ask that because she grinned all the time and it never hurt her cheeks, but maybe it was different for other people. Apparently not, she thought as she plonked herself down beside her best friend at the table.

"I'm SUPER DUPER HAPPY."

That was her mood in a nutshell.

What did she have to be sad or annoyed about? She was happy, Forrest was happy and as far as she knew, Dee was happy, too. What more could she need to make her happy? It was the little things that meant the most to her. Not that Forrest and Dee meant little to her. No, she meant that it didn't take a lot to make her happy. "How areyou?" She asked, because that was much more important than how she was.

Forrest got himself some spaghetti and meatballs before saying "YAY!" to how her mood was. They were both very happy, and that was GREAT!

"I am..." What was that fancy word? "Overjoyed." That wasn't what he had been looking for, but it still explained his feelings. "I mean, I didn't let anyone down! Everyone even congratulated me, can you believe that? I am talented, somehow..." Yeah, he still wasn't over that fact. He honestly didn't think he would ever get used to it.

He drank some water, then turned to her. "What will you do for Christmas?" Half of the meatball went to his mouth.

Food was even better today or what?

Bristol eyed Forrest's choice of food and decided to grab some for herself. Her attention momentarily on food, she had blinked twice when turning her focus back to her best friend. "Oh?" She said, raising her eyebrows and stuffed her face. And back to the overjoyed thing - after swallowing the food currently in her mouth - "that's GREAT." Nod, nod. "Of course they did, you deserved the congratulations! I CAN believe it, because as your bestie, I already saw your talent and awesome before them. They just took until now to realise it." Yep. Meatbaaaaall.

"Food's good, yeah?"

Food was heaven, okay? Okay.

Ohhh. CHRISTMAS. "I'm not even sure yet. Mum's still deciding whether she wants us to come home or not." Bristol frowned momentarily. At least if they were at Hogwarts, she and Dee wouldn't have to deal with their mother's harshness. She'd miss daddy, though. "I think I wanna stay here over the holidays, I don't wanna go home and I have no where else to go," she explained and shrugged, plopping another meatball in her mouth.

Forrest grinned again. Bristol could believe it! Ella, Minerva and Tobias too, though he didn't know the rest of the team--and Fern as well, apparently. That summed up almost everyone he considered as 'close buddies' and that sufficed for him to have a little bit more confidence in himself.

He really didn't mind talking about himself and Quidditch, but he would look arrogant and it would be rude to Bristol so... topic change. Yes.

"They are getting better at it," he commented, meaning the house-elves. Especially after last year. "I almost regret not staying here for the Christmas. The feast is wonderful, apparently."

Bristol could feel them both calming down slightly now, the initial buzz was still there, but weren't bouncing off the walls now. And her grin had become a casual one, just a lazy grin. Perhaps because they'd moved on from the topic of Quidditch - which she could talk about all day, given half a chance - and gone on to talking about Christmas and the holidays.

T'was sooooo close now!

"I agree, even since the start of the year." At least in her opinion. Forrest had last year to compare to, whereas she didn't. "I wish you were staying," she said honestly, looking him in the eye. Christmas without her new best friend. It almost didn't seem fair. "I don't care what the feast is like ... okay, that's a lie, but I wish you could be here and spend Christmas with me." PAUSE. "It'll be weird not seeing you for the whole of the holidays." Especially as they'd spent a lot of most days together. This was a weird sensation - normally she didn't miss people, because she knew she'd see them again, but now she was thinking of missing Forrest even with the knowledge that he'd return before long.

Forrest rolled the spaghetti around his fork and chewed it while she talked. Really, he could almost stay at the castle and enjoy the food, but the Express would only come once and he missed his mother too. Plus, he was going to boast to his big brother about Quidditch (with exaggeration, of course). He wouldn't miss that chance for any food in the world.

He giggled when she admitted it was a lie. "I wish, too," he said, looking a little down-hearted. Last year he missed only Tobias because he had only him as a friend then--this year he was going to miss quite a lot of people. Especially Bristol. Had even one day passed without seeing her? He doubted so.

"It'll be boring," he said with a face. "But I'll bring you lotsa presents!" He didn't know what yet, but surely his mother would think of something. He started eating the other half of the meatball, and asked her while his mouth was full (but he'd closed it with his hand so she wouldn't be grossed out by it). "Why are you staying here?" Like, her family didn't miss her or what?

Maybe she should have started talking about it, because now he was looking a bit sadder and she was sure she was, too. In an attempt to lighten the mood once again, she gently prodded his cheek and a made a ^.^ face. "At least if you're at home you can tell everyone about how amazing you were at Quidditch!" Bristol explained, not doubting that he already planned to do that. "Make sure to tell them that your best friend is proud of you, tooooo!" Not that really mattered to them, but she liked telling him, sooo .. yeah.

OOOH. Present.

"I'll bring you loaaaaads, too. I've already bought two things, they're in my dorm, but you'll have to wait for them." Because no present because Christmas was the rule. A rule that she'd never strictly followed, but a rule nonetheless. Oh and now they were talking about her family? Her face dropped and she stared at her plate, twisting spaghetti around her fork. "Well .. my daddy's nice, but my Mum's ..... really, really not. I don't like me or Dee being around her." Especially Dee. Bristol had always taken it upon herself to make sure that Dee always stayed out of harms way. For that reason, she'd always been worse off.

But she didn't like talking about it, so she just sat in mute silence, pretending that she wasn't one thought away from tears.

Spaghetti.

Forrest smirked. He used to be horrible at smirking, but he'd been practising it here, especially after he scored at the match. "Of course I will tell 'em!" he exclaimed, but didn't reveal more. Ooooh, his brother was going to suffer with his success stories. Forrest couldn't wait!

She already had? He looked at her in surprise, paused, then made puppy-eyes look. "Tell what you got me Bristol, pleeeeeease, plz plz pleeeeeeease!" She was so quick, thoughtful and evil! Now he had to make sure her presents were really great.

He listened to her very attentively. He was hearing these from her for the first time, and he was very surprised. He sucked at consolations though, so he sat there awkwardly for a moment before simply reaching for her shoulder to pat.

"Don't worry! I'm sure it will be fine. You have us and you can come to my house whenever you want." Nodnod. Best friends didn't worry about visiting their homes, after all.

Little? Who was this kid calling LITTLE? Caleb was...well, ok, a bit shorter than this guy, but he was obviously older so it wasn't like it was Caleb's fault that he was tiny compared to him. Regardless, he was trying to be polite and not be like Sophie, who probably would have snapped this dude's head off if he said that, so he smiled politely.

"I'm a first year. Caleb Newell. I'm over there, in Slytherin," he explained, shrugging towards the table at the end of the hall. "What's your name?" he asked.

Ah so his name was Caleb. He would remember that. Oh he even was a slytherin? That was interesting as well. Maybe he knew Cassia? Anyways he responded to him, "I am Kace Lecium. I am of course a Hufflepuff." he said pointing to his table. "How is it going for your first year?" he asked him curiously. He remembered not too long ago that he was in his shoes.

"Nice to meet ya, Kace," Caleb said with a smile. That was a pretty cool name. Caleb thought his name was pretty cool too, but that was beside the point.

"Eh, it's ok. A bit more cleaning than I would have liked," he grumbled, thinking of the suits of armour up in the gallery that were just waiting to be polished for homework. Seriously. What was with all the CLEANING?

"Nice to meet you too!" Kace said with a warm smile. Then he heard him talking about the polishing suits of armour assignment. Kace's eyes went wide. "Oh i did that too! Yeah usually at the beginning of the semester the teachers make you clean. I even did it in Transfiguration one lesson." he said remembering cleaning the desks and the windows. "But do not worry you will get to do fun stuff i promise." he said to the first year.

"Really? Ok, that's good to know," Caleb said with a chuckle. He was glad to know that eventually, the cleaning would stop. "Is it because the school was broke or something last term? I remember my dad telling me about that. He was worried school would close before we even got here," he explained. His dad hadn't started school until his fifth year, so he was always worried Caleb wouldn't make the most out of his Hogwarts experience - or even have it at all if the school closed!

Kace really had no idea why they did so much cleaning. "To be honest i have no idea why we cleaned so much but all i know is that my mother loved that i knew some cleaning spells." he shrugged. "Oh well you know the school is not closing anytime soon." he said motioning around the great hall and with all the students here.

"But i will tell you something you should look forward to which is the events the prefects plan. I remember the winter event they held and it was a lot of fun." he nodded telling the first year the special events they had here. "But don't worry i won't spoil anything for you."

"Good thing, I'd have been so upset if I could never come here and eat...what is this again? A cowburger?" Caleb said. He couldn't remember what this contraption was called. All that mattered was that he was HERE, at Hogwarts, eating it!

"That sleepover thing was fun! I made my twin sister a stuffed animal there," he added. "Do you have any siblings?" he asked Kace. Sometimes it was weird to think that other people had siblings that weren't twins.

Kace shrugged if Caleb asked if it was a cowburger. But he kind of corrected him with a chuckle, "Don't you mean a hamburger?" he asked getting the term right. Make sure they were on the same page. He looked over and saw some roast beef and ate some. It tasted so juicy and good. He was loving it.

"Oh you did?" he asked him when he swallowed his roast beef and took a swig of his pumpkin juice. "Which stuffed animal did you make? I didn't make one actually. Or maybe i did...and i kept it for myself and it is somewhere buried in my room." he grinned at that.

He asked if he had any siblings. He nodded and said, "Yup i have one sister, her name is Belle. She used to be prefect here for like two years." he said admiring his sister's accomplishments. He hoped he could be a legacy like she was. "How about you??" he asked him curiously.

Caleb had gotten the name wrong. Oops. Hamburger? That was odd. "But...it's not made of HAM," he pointed out. Who had named this thing anyways? Whoever it was seemed confused about their meats.

"I made her a hippogriff. I actually haven't given it to her yet," he chuckled. "I will eventually though," he added. He didn't want to keep it for himself, that'd be selfish and Caleb was trying to be NOT selfish. At least some of the time. "Oh really? That's cool! I wanna be prefect someday, both my parents were," he explained.

He nodded when he asked if he had any siblings. "My twin sister. She's a Slytherin too," he added. That told people pretty much everything they needed to know about Sophie.

Kace chuckled and he kept chuckling because he did have a valid point. "That is true it is not made of Ham...i have no idea why they named it. I guess it just stuck." he shrugged still laughing.

"Oooohhh well you better get on that. I hear hippogriff plushies are very rare." he joked with him with a wink. Then he heard both his parents were prefects. "That's pretty cool mate. Yeah my mom wants me to be one and follow in my sisters footsteps but to be honest...i do not know if i want to. But i still got time to think about that. We are still babies of the school." he said mentioning the fact they are both first and second years.

Then he heard he was a twin. Now that was cool. "Sometimes i wish i had a twin. What is it like? Can you guys like read each other's minds?" he asked curiously.

"What? Why wouldn't you want to a prefect? I mean, all that POWER and importance..." Caleb said, suddenly trailing off. Oh. Right. This was a HUFFLEPUFF he was talking to. Those things probably weren't as important to Kace as they were to Caleb. "But I guess as long as you follow the rules and get good grades it doesn't matter right?" he said with a small chuckle, trying to make him feel more encouraged.

Pssh. False. It was TOTALLY important.

Read minds? What was this, Divination class? Caleb laughed. "Well, I don't think I can read her MIND exactly, but I can pretty much tell how she'd react to things and such. We're both Slytherins, so it isn't hard to figure out how she processes information and stuff," he pointed out.