Brynn's raised eyebrow crept further and further towards her hairline as she watched Bart get all flustered and mad. Gee.. she really touched a nerve, didn't she? The redhead kind of frowned a bit. He didn't have to get nasty towards her.. he was the one who was obviously trying to cover things up. She simply called him out on it.

She shrugged at his question and was about to tell him to chill or some other sentiment like that when he spoke again, clarifying things. Brynn listened for a minute, then nodded. "Oh.. well, why didn't you just say so in the first place?" Why did boys have to be so weird? Even if he was her best friend. She took a seat on the bench next to him. "Sounds neat. Does it work?"

What had she been on her way to be doing when she noticed Bart? She couldn't quite remember and her shrug conveyed as much. "I dunno.. guess it wasn't very important.." If it was, she was sure it would find her way to her mind again.

Fern flattened her lips and lowered her brows skeptically at Brynny’s emphatic no, but then when her friend showed her one of her doodles, the 12-year-old’s face changed into a look of surprise. “Oh! Oh Brynny! This is really good!! You are really talented! You are AN ARTIST!!” Fern looked at the Ravenclaw and squealed, throwing her arms around the girl, ”MY BFF IS AN ARTIST!!! WILL YOU DRAW ME!? OH BRYNNY PLEASE SAY YES PLEASE I WILL LOVE YOU FOREVER AND EVER AND EVEERRRR!!”

She wasn’t letting go until Brynny said yes, so still clinging to the first year, Fern mirrored Brynny’s wrinkled nose and said, ”ComPLETELY.”

”Yeah…,” Fern thought quietly about Kace’s eyes when Brynny half-heartedly agreed with her description. Finally, after some serious contemplation, she conceded, “Maybe they are more muddy rain puddle blue actually,”

As Brynny drew out the word mature, Fern deflated, letting go of her friend but still leaning against her. Squinting up at the sunny sky, she frowned. ”Ugh. All the boys at Hogwarts are so immature, Brynny! And mean. They’re all a bunch of jerks. Every single one of them. Well except for Alec. But the rest - I HATE them.” Fern angrily kicked out her foot on the word hate; it hit nothing but air, then fell back against the bench with a thud.

"Because I didn't want to say I was reading to actually learn something. How uncool is that." OBVIOUSLY BRYNNY!! Had she ever seen him read to read. That was hurting the image he had worked hard to make sure he didn't have. What would book boy say if he caught him out here reading? "You don't need to tell anyone I'm doing this. I just want to get a chance to experiment on potions. That's it!" That's all he wanted really!

Glancing back at his book he shrugged, was it working? He really wasn't sure if it was working since he had been interrupted shortly after starting. "I don't know really I haven't read enough, but I guess I was more focused. I was reading about this potion that seemed a bit interesting. The ingredients call for dragon's blood." Remember things wasn't his strongest point so remembering even that was a good sign, though he wouldn't admit that just yet.

She didn't remember what she was doing. He looked at her concerned. He had been very forgetful too. "It's the old. I can't remember things either." He frowned not liking that she was having trouble with it too. "They better find a cure fast. Mum hasn't been too nice in owls lately. I'm not leaving though. I like it here." He actually had professors that liked him and friends he had real friends. Not just ones that used him to do their dirty work with pranks. They had to fix this problem before the end of term.

Noel Wallace was disappointed. His school year was ending and what a creepy year it had been. Every morning he woke up thinking he might have turned old, like all the other kids have. Or that maybe he will see his cousin Hayley into a wrinkly old woman.

Hogwarts was a disaster. Absolutely nothing like he had pictured it to be.

Blegh. He could not wait for this term to be over.

Yeah. This place was a disaster. His great great something or other had told stories that were passed down through centuries... and it seemed that not. a. thing. had. changed.

Well aside from there not being a murderous lunatic out to kill some kid. Heh.

Aaaaaand he had not been watching where he was going and SMASHED right into someone.

"Aww man. I am sorry." He looked up, finally and saw Hufflepuff robes. OH this kid wasn't all old and decrepit either. COOL.

Maybe he would introduce himself. Silas stood smiling for a moment... should he just walk off now???

Owf.

Rubbing his head lightly, the eleven year old gestured with his hand to the stranger how it was okay. "No worries, man," he said.

"At least I am not an old dude, or you bumping into me would have killed me," he joked lamely. It was pretty lame, okay? But he couldn't help it.

"I am Noel, by the way,"

No worries? Cool, cool, cool. Silas smiled brightly and extended his hand toward the other boy. "Nice to meet you, mate. I'm Silas. You're a Hufflepuff. Must be pretty awesome being that close to the kitchens."

And yeah... the old people. "What is up with the old epidemic. It's rather... off putting. Not sure I can look at any of the girls the same ever again." Once you have seen them grey, wrinkly, and with sagging jowls it was kind of difficult to see them as pretty ever again.

"Oh yes. One of the only perks of being in Hufflepuff and being at Hogwarts," he nodded. Yep, he was still bitter about being in Hufflepuff and he was not ashamed to show it.

Noel could not help but give the biggest eye roll of his life when they, obviously, arrived at the topic of the most headline worthy situation. "Oh my God, dude. Do not even get me started on it," he said. "It gives me a headache just thinking about it," he rubbed his temples dramatically to make a point.

"Yes. Exactly. This stupid school," God. Why was he ever excited to be here?

"And day now, I feel Ii will scarred for life by seeing myself as an old ugly bat," he shuddered.

"Well at least you don't have to walk up 50 million sets of stairs every day just to get to your dorm. Dude, I can't get ANYWHERE on time here." Not to mention that one stairwell when the step disappears. Ugh. He had FINALLY gotten used to it, but he had been stuck in it a few times.

"Well I am not hating on the school hardcore, but I am not impressed with it thus far, either. Surely things will get better. My whole family has gone here and they all loved it immensely." Or at least that is what they had told him. They COULD be lying of course.

He looked at Noel a bit curiously and shook his head. "Nah man, I think if it was going to happen it would have already. Besides it's mostly the popular kids anyway. Must be some stupid something they got into. You can count me out of the in crowd if it means you have to get involved in all the crazy crap that happens around here."

Jerking his head slightly he started to stroll a bit. Yeah, the other dude was invited to wander with him.

Caelen walked out into the courtyard, slower than her usual half-running speed. No she was walking today. The redhead was having one last romp before she returned home to her family, and wanted to take in as much of her first year again as possible. Which meant that she was revisiting all of her favorite places -mostly outside- and rewalking the paths she had walked. Yeah, the firstie was all sentimental like that. And it meant that she loved remembering and re-thinking of things. Unless they were embarrassing. Nobody liked to think over embarrassing things.

Slowly walking through the courtyard, the girl with the braid began to carefully work over the year. What had she done? Well, that was a long year and it was hard to remember everything. That's what the journals and letters were four. For some strange reason, Caelen was obsessed with documenting her life, almost as if she had an obsessive diary that was going to need to be worked out later in life after years of denial. Okay, she watched too many of those 'obsession' shows. But it was helpful in some ways -the diary, not the obsession shows-, as the letters and the journal helped her remember what happened throughout her life.

What had happened? Well...

She got sorted into Ravenclaw and found her dorm room and wrote her mom a letter and met her professors and decided she didn't much like transfiguration but still loved potions and figured out how topiary things worked -watch out mom's plants-. And that was only the beginning of the year. The twelve year old let out a low whistle. To be honest, she didn't know how much she REALLY did. Here the shorter girl thought all she did was read and mess around.

And the year went so fast! It felt like yesterday when she was in the white tank top, offering candy to some other kids and meeting someone she never talked to now at the feast. The freckled girl was now twelve. Twelve. She grew up a bit, got some muscle -barely, but it's a star- and even un-matured a little. Which was awesome.

Caelen walked on, switching mental gears. What would be her brother's first reaction when she got home? Would he hug her, like he did to him all of the years he came home? Would they resume the fighting as they did before she left? The girl with the fishtail braid knew that he had a surprise for her. But what could it be?

And that was when the kid finally figured out what the surprise was. She couldn't believe that she missed it so far! Running over to the pathway, she had already started to take off her backpack to check the letters. That would tell her if she was right or wrong. Because depending on the letters, it might be a Birthday present!

It was like her body loved running again, all the small kid's energy revving up at once to give her air. She loved running. Not like organized running -she HAD tried that before and found it boring- but she loved running outside on her own or racing her friends for recreation. Sports didn't seem to be her thing. Except Quidditch. And that was mostly watching the sport. The thin twelve year old was just learning how to fly thank you and did not want to risk breaking her neck. Oh goodness. She sounded like mom.

"That is what I was told too," At least that is how it had seemed in all the stories he had heard about the school. "But I am disappointed with a capital D," he shrugged. And he wasn't happy that he was disappointed. He still wished that something amazing would happen and he would fall in deeply in love with the school because that is what he wanted desperately, with a capital D.

"Oh. So there is a pattern," he mused, following the guy. Because conspiracy theories seemed interesting. "So isn't that a little .. wrong?" he said, feeling left out - even if it was a a GOOD THING he was being left out of it.

So what he was not a popular one. He should be treated as an equal.

Stupid, dumb, racist school.

"So what do you do to keep yourself entertained around here?" the boy asked, because it clearly seemed Silas wasn't that effected by whatever happened around there. Maybe Noel could take some tips.

Brynn gave Fern a look of surprise at the other girl's sudden exclamation. Then she looked down at her doodlings for a moment before looking back up, a slow grin forming on her face. "You really think so? I mean, you think they're any good?" She giggled a bit as her friend threw her arms around her and she hugged her right back, grinning gleefully. "OKAY!" she answered, her own excitement matching that of Fern's. "I never drew a person before, but I bet I could. I could draw you." She nodded emphatically even if just to convince herself. She could do this! "You mean like right now?" Or.. maybe as a surprise.

She gave a knowing nod as she looked out onto the grounds, glad Fern agreed about Kace being a total loser. Because she didn't want her BFF to think that she did like him or try to set her up with him or anything again. Though she wasn't opposed to talking because she didn't mind a little gossip as long as it was not about her. Without turning her head, she shifted her brown eyes in Fern's direction as she downplayed his eyes. And then she nodded. "Yeah.. and who wants to look at mud puddles?" Lies. He had pretty eyes. But she didn't need to say that.

Brynn leaned back a bit as Fern did, following her gaze up into the sky. "They are really immature," she pursed her lips as she nodded wholeheartedly. She'd even agree that her other best friend was pretty immature at times too. But she didn't think he was a jerk. "They're not all bad though.. um, right?" She squinted as she gave Fern a sidelong glance. She looked up to the Hufflepuff a whole lot and her opinion was super important... so she hoped that she would agree. At least a little bit?


What? Brynn gave Bart a confused look. Who actually cared either way? "You're too worried about it," she shrugged. "It's not a big deal." Like, serious.. did he think someone was going to make fun of him for reading or something? Everyone had homework to do and maybe he was just doing that. Gosh. "Besides, I'm supposed to be your best friend. You could've told me." Then he got a really weird look as he continued. Tell anyone?? Who cared?? "Sure, sure.. my lips are sealed," she reassured him with a shrug.

She glanced down at his book again as he did, then nodded a bit as she listened to his experience with the potion. "It sounds pretty neat." And like it probably worked. "Well, you could try reading some more if you wanted. I didn't mean to interrupt." She had just been curious and wondered what he was doing, but that didn't mean he had to stop just because she came over. She wouldn't mind if he wanted to keep going.

Brynn frowned and nodded as Bart said about the old. She hated the old. But obviously everyone did. "Yeah.. I've been kind of hiding things in my owls to my mom," she admitted. "She was really worried at Christmas and I didn't want her to be more upset. But you think they will, right?" She saw and heard about the healers that had come in, though there wasn't any cure. But they had to figure things out, right? Before summer preferably so she didn't go home looking old and get in trouble for lying.