Hair compliments will get you everywhere, Kinsley. Ella laughed and then pulled at a strand of hair absently, smiling to herself. "Thanks for saying that." She still thought Alec's was the best, though. Theo's was nice too. It had gotten longer, yeah? She sort of wanted to reach out and touch it but she refrained for the moment. Standing on her tiptoes seemed like it would be sort of painful anyway.

And he was laughing now which was nice. He had a good laugh, Theo did. It'd been a long time since she'd heard it and to be the one causing it felt good. "You are too." Miss-able, that is. In case he didn't know or something. She'd thought a lot about him but she was rubbish at knowing what to say. Maybe it was good that she'd nearly hit him with that anti-wrinkle cream today.

His facial hair was quite long. Ella found herself staring at it curiously and before she knew what she was doing, she reached out and grabbed his chin gently, turning his face to see it better. "When did this happen?" This manly stuff? Theo was just really grown up and Ella hadn't had an excuse to notice until now. As for him having a date, the blonde shrugged. "Not sure you need one. Besides, I'm sure you could find someone to dance with. If all else fails, find me, yeah? I'll be around." And she wouldn't mind dancing with him. Bluetiful would be around too, surely. Perhaps the three of them could talk at the event? She missed them both.

Oh and she was letting go of his chin now, okay? She hadn't meant to be grabby but hey, she was getting bolder in her old age these days.

YESSS... she hadn't gotten all Alec-defensive. "You're welcome." He flashed his teeth in the biggest smile eveeeeeeeeeer.

"You bet, I am." He really hoped that he and Ella stayed in contact once she graduated. It would obviously be easier to hang out once HE graduated the year after, but he didn't wanna be one of those distant memories to her. Ella had never stopped being super special to Theo. First loves did that to a person. "So... the end is near." He commented, fiddling with a bit of fluff that he pulled off his jeans.

Oh, chin grabbing. Theo wondered what the heck she was doing invading his FACE like that, but he didn't say anything. Maybe he kinda liked Ella touching his face? WHO KNOWS. Ohhhhh... the chin hair. "I am a growing boy." Hehe... he hadn't said that since he was like, 12. Theodore grinned and stuck his chin out a little further to show it off. Yes, he was very proud of the stubble. "It grows like crazy. I have to shave it off all the time." Well, not all of it. Not sure he'll need one. PSSHHT... because he'd be too busy making a FOOL out of himself the whole night? Theo gave her a look, because she knew what he was thinking, right?

"I'll hold you to that, Ella Bishop." He pointed at her. Yeaaaaaaah, and hopefully Alec would be watching.

Gosh, that was very long chin-holding. She must've liked it.

The end is near?

Ella smiled sadly over at Theo and nodded her head. "Yeah..." She had mixed feelings about this, y'know? It brought up a whole bunch of emotions and rather than unloading them on Theo, she changed the subject. "Remember when we first met?" The Hump backed witch, yeah? "You thought I had cooties and nearly killed me." With the whole jumping off the statue onto her thing. She laughed a little, recalling the incident. "I think you'd have much less trouble climbing her now. You being so big and tall."

Growing boy. "That explains it." Ella wondered how it would feel to have to shave her face all the time. Seemed terribly tedious to her, honestly. She was curious, though. And so when he stuck his chin out further, the eighteen year old smiled back and tugged at his chin hair gently. "You could always grow it out and use it to distract girls." Griiin. "Whipping your beard back and forth might work just as well. Who knows." Remember the nose hair, Theo?! Bahaha. And the look? Ella knew what he was thinking and she merely raised her eyebrows a bit and smiled. He'd be fine.

Someone meant business. Ella nodded her head and held out her pinky. "I promise I'll save you one." Pinky promise, even.

It seemed like they were about to take a trip down memory lane, which Theo wasn't sure was a good idea. As much as they had good memories, they had a lot of bad ones, too. Hopefully Ella wouldn't choose those ones. "Of course." He laughed and shook his head. First year Theo was such a douche. "Cooties." LOL... "And... I was convinced that you had a crush on me and Alec..." He stopped laughing but kept his smile at the floor. SEE? THIS IS WHY MEMORY LANE SUCKED. He was determined not to turn this conversation awkward, so he eventually looked back up to her face to continue his smile.

She did NOT just bring the whole hair whipping thing up....

Theo was sure that he used to get mad whenever anyone mentioned that traumatic time, but this time he couldn't help but laugh. It really was the most ridiculous story ever. "Hey, shut it." He said jokingly. "Besides, I've got plenty going on for me already to distract girls with." Yeah, distract them from his personality. Though, now that he thought about it, that was ALL the girls around this place saw in Theo.

Wow, a pinky promise. This was really gonna happen. Theo linked his pinky finger with hers and gave it a little shake. "Deal." At least he had something to look forward to, he supposed.

And... I was convinced that you had a crush on me and Alec...

Oh. The blonde looked down and played with her hands a bit as she thought on that. Honestly, she'd tried to block out the bad memories because she didn't like to think of anyone being upset and truth be told, they'd been upset with each other a lot over the years. Luckily Theo seemed willing to look past that and she returned the smile when she looked up, just happy that they were talking. "You were a very opinionated kid, Theodore Kinsley." Grin! Still true, probably.

Oh and she did, Theo. She totally did bring it up.

And he was laughing about it which made Ella smile genuinely. He really had grown up quite a bit, yeah? "Who me? I was just reliving old memories, is all." Innocent, she was. "And I think we should have another pillow fight with everyone before I graduate." Just saying. As him thinking he was a catch, this made Ella raise her eyebrows slightly. "And so modest. You'll be quite popular come Valentines day, I'm sure." Speaking of, she probably had to start making people valentines now if she was ever going to get them out on time. Darn her need to send things to everyone. It was terrible stressful. /Dramatic.

Good pinky promise etiquette, Mr. Snake. Ella approved and she smiled as she released his pinky. "Deal." Nod.nod. Now to give Alec a heads up on this because she knew what he'd think and yeah, she didn't want any upset boyfriend issues at the event. Not at all.

Theo watched her looking down, being all awkward, and felt kinda bad about bringing it up. It was bound to be come out at some point, though, it always did. Only this time, he tried to look at it in a more positive way than usual. What was the point in still being miserable after all this time? Finally, she looked back at him and smiled. "Still am... only not a kid anymore." Much more mature... in some aspects at least.

Cringggggggggge.

Thinking about old times was fun, but also so embarrassing. "Fine by me... just not THAT memory. Scarred me for life, that did." So much so, that he was afraid of nose hair. His hadn't grown too much throughout puberty, but if it ever did, he would get the clippers out for sure. Oooooh, a pillow fight! "Totally!! Get the whole gang together!" Just not Mordred and Oakey since they were long gone. His grinning faded dramatically when she mentioned Valentine's Day. "You think?" He shuddered. Actual shuddering. "I'm not so sure about that." Unless he attracted attention from people who didn't know who he was. Theo was sure that he could count his friends on only one hand.

Hehehe... "Don't suppose you could pinky promise to stop by my booth?" You know........ yeah. Theo chuckled and wiggled his pinky at her again.

Just KIDDING, of course, but if she wanted to then he would totally be okay with that.

"Nope. We're both all grown up. Well, one of us a bit more than the other." Smiling, she was. He saw the greys, yeah? And it felt really good to joke about it because she spent most of her time feeling worried or upset about her current predicament. This was a nice change, no matter how short lived it'd be.

Dramatic Theo was dramatic and Ella couldn't help but laugh. "It wasn't that bad. Besides, it definitely distracted us." So really, he'd done the guys a solid by whipping that awful nose hair around. Just saying. "Yeah? I'd like that. You see Blue much? I haven't talked to her recently." Sort of sad, really. She'd need to change that real soon. And was he shuddering? The Head Girl was puzzled by this but she didn't ask. "You never know. Confidence, Kinsley." The way he was acting, you'd think he was the one with the wrinkles.

...Snort.

"Cheeky." She shook her head at him, a small smile playing on her lips.

Not going to happen, Theodore.

Caelen ran up to the fifth floor, caught her breath quickly and then continued pacing and looking around. She was re-starting her pacing mission. Because the redhead may or may not have staked out on the wrong floor. But at least she got information on.... nothing. There was no good information on the third floor. That was a waste of time. A long and boring waste of time. Annoying much?

At least she had something to do now. Ya know, write things down and observe. Like a detective. Ooooh, she wanted to be a detective! That was now her unofficial name for herself. The detective. The redhead could picture the music in the background of her television show now. Okay, she needed to stop imagining things and get back to work.

The girl with the braid put on her bothers baseball cap that she stole from his room and resumed the pacing position.

Back and forth and back and forth anad back and forth. Because she messed up on the third floor and wasted precious minutes of "subtle" time. This was subtle, right? TOTALLY subtle, she thinks with sarcasm.

After a few minutes, Caelen sat down and puffed out her cheeks. This wasn't working! She had already messed up before and accdidently walked around the third floor corridor, now her feet hurt on the fifth floor corridor. The Ravenclaw suspected she'd be an awful secret agent. And this was kind of proof. She was juuuust becoming good at being quiet, and the whole thing with the cluminess meant that she was not going to be scaling buildings anytime soon.

.......

She looked around, takign in everything from the walls to the floor. Because that's what she did when she was bored. Take in information about her surroundings. And write down the stuff she saw. Because it counts as science if you write it down. Hence half of her failed expiriments as a kid.

Something odd was going on and no, she did not mean all the premature aging. That was old news as far as Brynn was concerned and she was pretty much over it. She was just holding out hope that her mom would have some answers or find a decent healer to take her to because nothing was happening to help anything here. No, what had caught the redhead's attention was something else entirely.

She had caught sight of Caelen, her fellow first year as she climbed the steps, but as Brynn slowly shuffled up the steps, the other girl sprinted past as if she were on a mission. She kept the girl in her sights as she quickened her pace, trying to follow her somewhat to see what she was doing. Though she had shared a dorm room with the girl for the better part of the year, being that they were both first years, she wasn't sure they ever had much in the way of conversation. That certainly did not quell her curiosity.

Still a ways behind her and what she thought to be out of sight from the other girl, Brynn spotted Caelen step off on the fifth floor and so she did the same a few minutes later. She hung back a minute, just watching as the girl as she seemed to be looking for something. Or just bored and a deep thinker because she was doing a lot of pacing too. And people didn't usually pace unless they were really thinking about something. After a few minutes of observation, the old!young girl spoke, "Whatcha doing?"

Woah, hi person. Caelen wasn't necessarily paying attention and almost didn't see the other girl. Wasn't she a first year too? The redhead knew that she saw the girl around, but she had been wrapped up doing whatever the small Ravenclaw usually did to actually talk to her. Well, better late then never. And to be honest, the squirt could use some interaction with a peer. She didn't do that often anymore and it stunk. According to Caelen's aunt, humans were social creatures and needed to talk to people. Which was the reason that she had that one year of kindergarten before being homeschooled.

How would she actually explain this? Pacing was completely normal. Yes. But how would she make this sound like an everyday expedition? She lost something and was retracing her steps? Waiting for someone who wasn't showing right now? The second one sounded better, but how much did she see? Time to test the theory.

"I'm waiting for someone. They're not showing." She furrowed her brow as if she was thinking of something. And she was. She was thinking of continuing this little fib. Not a lie. But she didn't want to look crazy. Obviously. No one wanted to look crazy.

"Man, they were supposed to be here by now!" She stomped her food for effect.

Walking out of the Ancient Rooms hallway after his chat with the Professor, Nate casually walked down the Fifth Floor Corridor. Great, just who he wanted to see, Caelyn. Then he started to jog down the hallway. His muscles stretching the sleeves on his shirt which was getting a bit snug on him. It made clung to his abs a bit, showing the outline of them. Just by looking at him, you'd think Nate could take down an American Football Quarterback. That's how strong he looked. All of that was from pure working out. Some from practicing Quidditch through the summer. "Caelyn!" Nate called from down the hall.

He noticed that another First Year was talking to her. He'd have to make sure nothing bad was happening to Caelyn. If something was it would be blamed on him. Nate was her protector at Hogwarts. If anything happened to her, Caelyn's parents would have Nate's head on a stake in their front yard...that would be burning non-stop. So basically he'd have to make sure that nothing would be happening to her.

Yes! Could there be a better time for him to pry? She would hug him right now if she wouldn't feel like it would be weird. Anyway, he was the perfect person to be waiting for. A big smile broke out across her mouth. She whooped internally.

"Just my luck! There he is!" Yep. That the was the person Caelen was looking for. Sure. That worked. Yep. Make the redhead look less awkward. And possibly even talk about what she didn't find. Because Nate was kind of helping her now. The firstie had successfully dragged her older brother from another mother into this.

Frantically, she waved him over and bounced on her toes with excitement. That was a thing that happened sometimes. Only when situations got unbelievably lucky in her favor. Not that she would stop talking to the old!young girl that Caelen swore was in her house and year. Man, the kid really needed to start talking to more people her age.

Actually, maybe the old girl would be able to help them. The potions professor told her not to intervene anymore, but maybe the blue eyed girl could get a small testimony out of this girl. When she started figuring out all of this happened and such. When the other Ravenclaw got infected with this thing. Not prying as in the name. But TALK to someone. And use it to her advantage. The girl with the braid couldn't say she was smart for nothing.

Brynn squinted at the girl for a few minutes as she watched her. It seemed as if Caelen was trying to think of what to say which made the 11 year old all that more curious. Waiting for someone. "Oh..." How boring. Though Brynn wasn't entirely sure she believed her. Did people normally pace like they were in deep thought when they were waiting for someone? She thought not. No, Brynn thought the girl was acting quite bizarre or she wouldn't have bothered to follow her this far and her raised eyebrow as Caelen stomped her foot said as much.

The redhead opened her mouth to speak, though she wasn't entirely sure what she was going to say, when a voice down the corridor caught her attention. Hm. How convenient. Maybe Brynn had been wrong to doubt her, though she wouldn't deny that something seemed very off here. She glanced back at Caelen as she seemed awfully excited to see the older boy and she shrugged a little to herself. "Alright then..." Sure, this was all sorts of weird and she didn't completely believe it was all that the other girl said.. but she supposed she didn't care all that much about it either. She could just be on her way and not interrupt whatever meeting this was.

Sophie was tired of walking the castle and therefore decided to just stop right here and now to hang up her last poster. She wasn't even sure why she was even putting so much thought into this. It was just an assignment about Pluto, aka the object in the sky she'd determined should be called a big ball of cheese.

She walked up to the wall and fixed her poster on a piece of empty wall. Taking out her wand again, she pointed it to the poster and said, "Prehenso!" She backed away and saw that the poster remained in the place she'd fixed it to. Awesome.

Now she was done. pLuto was officially labeled a big ball of cheese. Or, at least it was labeled that on two parts of the castle now. She turned from the poster and walked off.

Caelen hoped that the other girl stayed. Because besides Nate embarrassing her -cue teenage style eye roll- the redhead wanted to have a conversation with someone who was not considered a family member. There was too many of them around her. Like always. Sometimes she felt like a kid in a daycare center. And she was the kid, being the youngest in her family.

And yes, she did use her power as younger sister to be annoying sometimes. Like getting food that SHE wanted or getting the last of something. But with a smart-ish- brother like Rockwell, it backfired once in a while. For example, she had four pairs of hand-me-down jeans stuffed in the back of her closet. They were going to become super cute shorts the minute the blue-eyed girl got home.

Also, did the Ravenclaw seem too excited? Should she tone it down a bit? Yeah, Caelen was probably coming off as slightly murderous crazy right now. And that was not a good way to make friends. Unless they where murderous crazy too. And then that's what they call a toxic friendship. Well, not toxic to them... oh whatever.

Point being that the kid needed to calm down. If this was how she lied to someone who she didn't even know, how was she supposed to lie to Rockwell and tell him that she read all of his letters. No, she wasn't lying to her brother. That was beneath her and she wasn't starting on the shady path to being bad. First, lying. Then, getting bad grades. And according to mom, it all went downhill from there. She would just read every single letter that was in her backpack. And of course open the book shaped parcel that he sent her. That man was NOT the best planner.

Almost as an instinct, the girl with the braid wiped her sweaty hands on her bottoms to try and dry them. When did that happen? Did she always sweat when she told little white lies? Why was it only her HANDS that were sweaty? Gross. That was the worst tell ever. She could never be a criminal. The twelve year old was too nervous for that. And sweaty apparently.

"Stay a minute, this should only take that long." Caleen had found her voice and was talking to the other Ravenclaw. Hopefully they could become friends after this. The little red one needed someone to talk to that didn't know her exact bedtime. Too many family members cramping her style. Did people even say that? Caelen had been watching WAY too many eighties movies for her own good. Which might explain her bedhead. Subconscious wishing anyone?

Brynn felt slightly uncomfortable hanging around here any longer. What started out as curiosity about her fellow first year and housemate acting a bit strange now felt like she was distinctly interrupting something that wasn't really any of her business. And while it still felt odd, it wasn't in that same, 'cool, what are you up to?' kind of vibe.

Caelen was still acting strange, almost suspicious, and Brynn eyed her with distinct speculation as she wiped her hands on her pants. But she wasn't sure she should stick around to see whatever it was that was making her act that way, not when it was clear that the other person was quite welcome in her presence. Otherwise she might just to make sure the other girl was okay, him being much older.

She started to head in the direction of the stairs, thinking about just going back to the common room when the girl's voice made her stop in her tracks. She wanted her to stay? Brynn thought for a moment before she turned back around to face her. Was this some sort of trick? She hoped not, but she glanced at the older boy quickly before turning brown eyes back to Caelen. "Um.. ok.." She hung back a bit to let them finish up whatever it was and to sort of stay out of their business. And, even though she was over by the stairs in case she did feel the need to go, for right now she was still there.