Marigold nodded and grinned at Zahra. Yeah, pretty much made sense PLUS Zahra sounded pretty confident SO she MUST be right, yeah? Yeah. But she had plenty of friends, so a best friend was not needed. Woot.

AND THEN THAT HAPPENED. Marigold suddenly was jumping up and down and giggling. "THAT'S HILARIOUS AND AWESOME!!!! Now I REALLY wanna meet Rubyyyyyyy," she said, snorting some air out of her nose. AND THEN SHE COULD SEE WEST?!?!?!??!

"Sooo.... do you have someone like West?" Y'know, a person she liked to STARE AT.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScarletCharm104

Marigold nodded and grinned at Zahra. Yeah, pretty much made sense PLUS Zahra sounded pretty confident SO she MUST be right, yeah? Yeah. But she had plenty of friends, so a best friend was not needed. Woot.

AND THEN THAT HAPPENED. Marigold suddenly was jumping up and down and giggling. "THAT'S HILARIOUS AND AWESOME!!!! Now I REALLY wanna meet Rubyyyyyyy," she said, snorting some air out of her nose. AND THEN SHE COULD SEE WEST?!?!?!??!

"Sooo.... do you have someone like West?" Y'know, a person she liked to STARE AT.

"My brother lives in Hogsmeade and junk so Ruby comes to Hogsmeade and we have sleepovers sometimes on weekends when I'm allowed. And since my brother is Headmisterereresses Bunzy's like total BFF I DO get to." YEAH BOY. HAHA.

Zahra offered Marigold a high five. Because what? New friend.

"Uhmmmmmm........ well.... I don't really look at West. He's good and all I guess, and pretty cool, and his dad is nice and sometimes me and Ruby put on his sister's clothes. BUT... if we're talking The Dead Kneazles, then... well... Ascanius is really the one to talk about. He's the best one." OBVIOUSLY.

Sooooo Marigold was like SUPER INTERESTED in Zahra's LIFE. She had a brother that was BUNZ'S biffle? SHE TOTES WANTED TO MEET RUBY NOW. "Maybe at some point you can like, INTRODUCE ME to Ruby?" YEah?Yeah?Yeah.

AND HHHHIGH FIVE BACK YOU.

"AHAH. Its so strange that you KNOW HIS FAMILY." West's that is. "THE DEAD KNEAZLES." YAY. Fangirl over here. "OOH ASCANIUS!! HE called me pretty once."

NEW FRIEND YEAH.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScarletCharm104

Sooooo Marigold was like SUPER INTERESTED in Zahra's LIFE. She had a brother that was BUNZ'S biffle? SHE TOTES WANTED TO MEET RUBY NOW. "Maybe at some point you can like, INTRODUCE ME to Ruby?" YEah?Yeah?Yeah.

AND HHHHIGH FIVE BACK YOU.

"AHAH. Its so strange that you KNOW HIS FAMILY." West's that is. "THE DEAD KNEAZLES." YAY. Fangirl over here. "OOH ASCANIUS!! HE called me pretty once."

NEW FRIEND YEAH.

"Sure why not. Though, you gotta know up front, she's crazy. No, Crazy with a capital C. But she's alright, you know? She knows lots of things." Probably things Zahra was better off knowing, but SOME things about BOYS had proven pretty useful.

But this... Zahra was all prepared to gloat that YEAH SHE KNEW EVERYONE IMPORTANT and she was going to make sure this Puff knew SHE was ALSO the MINISTER OF MAGIC's *DAUGHTER*, that she didn't call him MINISTER, she called him MINISTER DADDY..................... but..............

"You? He called you pretty? When?" Zahra did a pretty poor job at hiding her disapproval of THIS. In fact, she didn't even TRY to hid it really.

Marigold GRINNED at this whole Zahra-Marigold-Ruby thing. THIS WAS EXCITING. "I like crazy. I think I'm crazy too." Hence her entire thing with names inanimate objects. Yeah, that. PLUS it seemed that Ruby KNEW STUFFS that would proooobably help Marigold become an AWESOME POSSUM PERSON.

Woot. She could totally imagine being friends with Zahra and this Ruby and just totally fangirling over the Dead Kneazles. Bands were so IN.

Oh. And they were back to the Ascanius. "Umm... a couple months ago? On some tower. He's a bit pretty himself." Of course, West was better.

It was still a little early in the year for Lux to see all the pretty flowers, but somehow she found herself wandering in the student garden again. It would be so lovely here come June, when everything would be in bloom and she was a teenager. Obviously Lux was excited about that.

Maybe if she was thirteen, Bay would ask her on a date; though for the moment she was playing it as if they were just friends - since that was what they were. Especially if he was still dating Christmas, which she supposed he might be after that Aparecium article. Oh well, she was still not ashamed about kissing him, and he was really cute again now that he looked his age once more; though she would have liked him no matter what he looked like.

He was pretty was all.

It was difficult to tell if Cutty had been harmed by the recent events in his life. From the premature aging and possible death to the semi to outright abandonment of not one but three principal male figures in his life; All provided magnificent chance for damage. The nearly losing his life to the whomping willow was an incident rife with traumatizing potential on it's own as was the hearing the boy you love confess so much to another. But, if he was harmed or hurt in anyway, Cutty Mordaunt was not showing it overtly in the presence of others. Instead he was there that evening in the student gardens tending to the botanicals: his and others.

"Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa, they have named you..."

He practiced his singing to the greenery as he snipped away the stray and deadened leaves from his topiary.

"You're so like the lady with the mystic smile.", he continued in the old muggle standard a young South African wizard was credited for re-popularizing in the wizarding community during the early part of the century. The music tutor Cutty's father had spent dearly for during the summertime had played for the boy an old recording of a young Prospero Erkhe thinking it might be helpful to Cutty.

The sound of Cutty's trimmers punctuated his meant-to-be-nurturing song to the plant life with rhythmically placed metallic snips & snaps.

"Is it only cause you're lonely they have blamed you
For that Mona Lisa strangeness in your smile?
Do you smile to tempt a lover, Mona Lisa?
Or is this your way to hide a broken heart?"

His voice carried in the emptiness of the greenhouse and except for the snip of his trimmers and the evening songbird, it was practically the only sound until Cutty moved over to the tool storage and placed the trimmers back into their proper spot. He moved on to fill a watering can with water. He froze for a minute as the scent of his older sister's love potion hit him. He turned his head to look over his shoulder back toward the topiaries and spotted the Wiggenbush. The one and same species that had been present the day he'd asked Tobias Tempus for dragon poo. In other words, the day they met.


"Many dreams have been brought to your doorstep." He continued, spilling the contents of the watering can into and over his topiary giving it a water. He stepped back to look upon his creation and sighed with what control it made him feel. Before this project, it hadn't dawned on him, but he actually quite liked getting another living thing to do exactly as he dictated it ought. That was how Cutty appreciated Herbology.

"They just lie there, and they die there.
Are you warm? Are you real, Mona Lisa?
Or just a cold and lonely, lovely work of art?"

Doing only what he wanted, Cutty poured the remainder of the water over the Wiggenbush and gathered his belongings to depart from the greenhouse.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SlytherinSistah

It was difficult to tell if Cutty had been harmed by the recent events in his life. From the premature aging and possible death to the semi to outright abandonment of not one but three principal male figures in his life; All provided magnificent chance for damage. The nearly losing his life to the whomping willow was an incident rife with traumatizing potential on it's own as was the hearing the boy you love confess so much to another. But, if he was harmed or hurt in anyway, Cutty Mordaunt was not showing it overtly in the presence of others. Instead he was there that evening in the student gardens tending to the botanicals: his and others.

"Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa, they have named you..."

He practiced his singing to the greenery as he snipped away the stray and deadened leaves from his topiary.

"You're so like the lady with the mystic smile.", he continued in the old muggle standard a young South African wizard was credited for re-popularizing in the wizarding community during the early part of the century. The music tutor Cutty's father had spent dearly for during the summertime had played for the boy an old recording of a young Prospero Erkhe thinking it might be helpful to Cutty.

The sound of Cutty's trimmers punctuated his meant-to-be-nurturing song to the plant life with rhythmically placed metallic snips & snaps.

"Is it only cause you're lonely they have blamed you
For that Mona Lisa strangeness in your smile?
Do you smile to tempt a lover, Mona Lisa?
Or is this your way to hide a broken heart?"

His voice carried in the emptiness of the greenhouse and except for the snip of his trimmers and the evening songbird, it was practically the only sound until Cutty moved over to the tool storage and placed the trimmers back into their proper spot. He moved on to fill a watering can with water. He froze for a minute as the scent of his older sister's love potion hit him. He turned his head to look over his shoulder back toward the topiaries and spotted the Wiggenbush. The one and same species that had been present the day he'd asked Tobias Tempus for dragon poo. In other words, the day they met.


"Many dreams have been brought to your doorstep." He continued, spilling the contents of the watering can into and over his topiary giving it a water. He stepped back to look upon his creation and sighed with what control it made him feel. Before this project, it hadn't dawned on him, but he actually quite liked getting another living thing to do exactly as he dictated it ought. That was how Cutty appreciated Herbology.

"They just lie there, and they die there.
Are you warm? Are you real, Mona Lisa?
Or just a cold and lonely, lovely work of art?"

Doing only what he wanted, Cutty poured the remainder of the water over the Wiggenbush and gathered his belongings to depart from the greenhouse.

Caleb felt like death. He was super depressed and took to wandering around the school just so he could get some exercise. After all, what better way to feel young again than to start walking around and trying to work out those achy joints? It was all he could do, really.

As he walked around the greenhouses, he could have sworn he heard...singing? Who was singing? It sounded familiar but...could it be Cutty? It was a really depressing song and seemed out of character for his Slytherin frenemy, but he could totally relate on the whole depressed thing.

"Cutty!" he called, hurrying into the greenhouse to try and catch the boy before he left. However, in his haste, he felt his foot catch on something - a vine maybe? Or a branch? Whatever it was, he went tumbling to the ground, landing hard on his hip, and then...

*CRACK*

A loud cracking noise, like the noise of a whip, sounded and he felt an intense shooting of pain through his hip bone. It was blinding pain, the kind that might have made him pass out if he wasn't such a manly man. OHMIGOSH, what did he do now?! HE NEEDED HELP!

"HELP! HELP! I THINK I'VE BROKEN SOMETHING!" he cried, hoping that Cutty - that ANYONE really - was still around.

Laura was really stressed out. She had been working hard trying to study for her NEWTS exams, she really wanted to do well and just hoped that all the work she was putting in would pay off.

Laura smiled when she saw Lux, she hadn't seen her younger friend for ages. "How are you today?" Laura had been sneaky and snuck up behind her. She just hoped her friend wouldn't be too mad with her for doing it after all they were just messing about. "What you been doing lately?"

Lost in her own thoughts, Lux did not realize that she wasn't alone until she heard a voice. Goodness, it startled her! Jumping slightly, the girl was surprised that she didn't fall into the garden.

Oh, it was Laura.

After recovering, Lux turned towards the older girl and gave her a smile. "I'm good. Just thinking about things..." Things which she wouldn't be sharing. "And I have been hanging out with friends and doing school work. What about you?" she asked back for both questions.

Laura smiled at Lux. "What you thinking about?" Laura was intrigued, she didn't want her friend to be thinking about anything bad if she was then Laura would do something to cheer her younger friend up no one was allowed to be sad with her around.

"Oh I've just been ill and stressed out." Laura said truthfully. "You know with NEWTS happening soon." Laura couldn't believe it, why didn't she have a time-turner handy so she could go back in time and relive her school years again. was that actually an option or would she get in trouble for it.

Two sharp sounds were picked up by the youngold boy's ears. Though his hearing had gone somewhat, it was his eyesight that had gone most of all. One of the sounds was unfamiliar, like a cracking that gotten caught at the entrance of the greenhouse and echoed inside of it faintly. The other sound was more familiar. The sound of someone suffering in pain. Not just any someone, either. This was dorm-mate familiarity.

Cutty shuffled along, taking many small, but quick steps toward the voice. When he was in the sights of Caleb Newell the first thing out of his mouth was, "Damn! Caleb, you're loud." Cause he highly doubted that anyone on the grounds that day could NOT have heard that. He drew a bit closer and he could see that Caleb was dead serious about having broken something.

"Oooh!" He began with a wince. "It's your legs, mate. They doesn't look too good. Try not to move." He took out his wand and checked it over really quickly looking at the tip and both sides of the cylindrical form. To his untrained eye, it was the legs which seemed off as he didn't trace the problem to their source. It had been a while since he'd performed the healing spell he'd seen their Head of House do on Caleb their first week in, but the last time he did he'd fixed up Bart Maroon's arm quite successfully. Besides, the only other option was to leave Caleb alone. Cutty wasn't doing that. For terrible reasonings, but he still wasn't doing that.

"Episkey!" He fired the spell at Caleb's legs, then watched his best-frenemy for signs that it had worked.

What had she been thinking about? Lux did not want to tell Laura the whole story; not because she was ashamed, but because she wanted to keep it private. People had been snooping into her and Bay lately - namely Louis - and she wanted some privacy. "Just thinking about my birthday." And that was a half-truth.

Awww, poor Laura. That really sucked. No wonder they hadn't seen each other in a while. "I am sure you will do well on them." As long as her memory didn't bug out again at least.

"BOTH of them!?" Caleb asked in shock. The pain was too distracting to even think about the possibility that he'd somehow broken BOTH of his legs. How was he supposed to get around if he didn't have at least one functioning leg?!

Ok, so Cutty was going to try and fix his legs. This could be either fantastic or a complete disaster. Or maybe nothing. "Do you know what you're doing?" he asked, but before Cutty could even answer, he'd already done it.

Well, it helped a BIT. There was less pain, but still PAIN. Caleb reached forward and gingerly pushed on his legs, biting his lip in anticipation. Ok, his left one seemed OK...he moved on to the next one. Above the knee was fine, but right after that...OH MY MERLIN! Caleb yelled out in pain. Yup, that one was definitely still broken. But at least he'd helped a bit, yeah?

Cutty's wand drew down back to the side of his body after he'd casted and he looked momentarily and slightly offended at Caleb's question. "'Course I know what I'm doin'!" He straightened up and observed. Caleb was still yelping in pain. He must've taken quite the spill and had broken other things.

"Okay. Maybe it only works on one broken thing at a time. We'll systematically go over each spot you hit, then." That was the plan. What could go wrong? And what if it didn't work? Could that put Caleb in a wheelchair for the rest of his life? Cutty did not allow himself to think of this any further. It was far too much of an indulgence. I mean THINK of what they could do with a wheelchair! Begging on the street alone could see some serious profit pulling. And for NOTHING at all! No. NO! He wasn't going to think about that. What were the chances, anyway.

He didn't hesitate any longer, for he believed hesitation to be an evil moste unforgivable (today), and took aim with his wand. "Episkey! Episkey!" He aimed for Caleb's right knee and then the ankle, points that he thought were likely to be broken. He moved up one side of the body, hitting the hips and ribcage in a zig-zag route as he went up, "Episkey." Stopping at the shoulder.

"Caleb, you REALLY need to learn this spell. With as much as you've run into bodily harm this year." He made the side comment. "What about your arms? Can you move them?"

Well, Cutty THOUGHT he knew what he was doing, and that was a totally different thing than actually KNOWING what you were doing. Still, he had at least helped him a BIT, so Caleb was thankful for that. "Thanks," he mumbled, feeling a bit foolish having to ask for help (and furthermore, thank Cutty) for this but whatever. He was in too much pain right now to think about this!

He watched as Cutty began to work some more on his legs, and after watching, Caleb decided to reach forward and test the waters. Hmmm, it seemed ok - it still HURT a lot but it wasn't the kind of blinding pain that Caleb experienced the first time.

"My arms are fine - here, help me up?" he asked. He wasn't even going to COMMENT on the bodily harm thing because - well, who was he kidding? It was true.

It was finally warm enough to enjoy being outdoors without her friends complaining about the cold (it was worse this time, with their old bones and what not), and so Dora was ready to take advantage of it. Picnic and all. Finding Marcus and Nigel was easy enough considering they all shared a common room, and getting them to agree to the picnic was even easier considering she'd promised to make all the food.

It took longer preparing everything and getting ready actually, but once all that was done she went down to the agreed location and wandered around the gardens before deciding on a spot in the center of the enchanted topiaries. A more interesting scenery and surprisingly less crowded for a morning this nice.

She put down the basket, and pulled out the blanket, laying it out and making herself comfortable while she waited on the pair to arrive.

Mo didn't say a word as he found Dora and settled on one corner of her blanket. He was tired and sore, but he flashed her a brave, weary smile as he shifted until his body found a position it could bear. This being old thing was SO lame.

"Nice day, huh? I was thinking, if I come back next year and don't get put into an old folks' home, I'm going to request a dorm room on the first floor. You'll miss me, I'm sure." But at least he'd be there. There was a small chance of Mo and Nigel even being around next term, so Dora should appreciate them while they last.

First time Nigel was ever in this Student Garden thing. He did not like herbology, so he never really came out to this area. Still it was pretty nice and quiet. Perfect place to take a nap. Got to remember that for next year.

Now free food was a great way of incentivising Nigel to do things. The other being if it were fun of course. He definitely was a sucker for free food and how often do you have picnics. Serous question that was. He settled down on the blanket with his legs crossed.

Comfortable.

"Think Positive Mo. This will be fixed before we go home" Nigel firmly believed that or he might have to go to Mungos. Either will get fixed or not. Nigel liked his odds even though it was 50/50 "Now what do we have to drink?"

Cutty didn't ignore the small, mumbled 'thanks' that came from Caleb, but he didn't dwell on it either, his mind occupied by what he'd just witnessed. Caleb had fallen and possibly would've remained there until death unable to move or conjure food. And couldn't that have happened to any of them, when one stopped to think of it?

Cutty's explicably dirty hand reached out and he grabbed Caleb up from the ground using leverage. Could Caleb walk on his own? Surprisingly, he stayed close in the case that he'd missed some part or another of his dormmates recently broken body and he needed a lean-upon. And in a worse case scenario they could always summon Caleb's broom and use it as a hovering/leaning device since they were on the grounds and it would be quick.

What they couldn't do, he voiced outloud. "Can you walk, because you know Nurse Tillstorm will probably deduct every last point Slytherin has earned this year."

"You'll be back next year if I have to carry your old decrepit body over my shoulders," She sat up and reached into the basket when Mo showed his face, pulling out a neatly folded blanket, and handing it over to him with a thoughtful expression. He did look older. "Not allowed to leave me here alone next term, Marcus Orion." So no dorms on the first floor either, she'd need company in the common room.

She got out another blanket for Nigel too, not keeping one for herself since she wasn't suffering from being old or anything and was comfortable enough with one blanket. "Exactly. And you'll be able to get all your hair and skin complexion back. So stop stressing." Now was time to eat. Dora started pulling out an assortment of drinks, most her favorite but some sure to please them as well. "I didn't make too many sweets, so I hope you weren't looking for any." She cooked actual foods, not desserts.

Eww, Cutty's hand was sweaty and gross. BLEHHH. Ah well, Caleb was grateful for the helping hand, at least. He was nervous about putting weight on his bones, and even though he felt like his entire skeleton would snap at any minute - he was standing. He took a few steps, and was relieved to see that the pain was pretty much gone. The aching that had been present the last few months was still there, but he could safely conclude that they weren't broken anymore.

"Wait, take points? From me?! I didn't do anything! I just tripped over a stupid branch or something...probably Bentley trying to kill someone again," he grumbled. He still had not forgotten his conversation with that ghost lady and how SHE had basically killed her. He did not trust that woman anymore!

It was good both of them were feeling so positive about the resolution of this aging thing, since Mo was not. It was also weird, since he was the silver lining guy, the lemons into lemonade person, and he couldn't seem to shake the feeling that his life was actually over. He smiled wearily at both Dora and Nigel and shrugged. "I'm not stressing. I hope it all works out. Just saying those stairs are pretty much murder."

He accepted food from Dora and studied everything as it was passed. Dora could actually cook, so he wasn't going to have to subsist on mere sandwiches. "What makes you so confident that they have a handle on this aging thing? Real old people can't get their aging reversed, you know? How will they do that?" He was being a downer, right? Total downer.

"Summer plans? Go."

That was Nigel's biggest hope that he would be getting his natural colored hair back before the end of term. Not really caring about the other stuff. "As long as i get my hair back" Now onto what looks like the awesome food Dora made. He did not complain when given free food. It was free after all. "This looks amazing" Nigel also accepted the food not caring about sweets. Since he basically lived on Fizzing Whizbees and other stuff.

Mo was still being a pessimist. Which was weird because he was the optimist and Nigel was usually the apathetic one. "Doesn't stressing out make you age more or is that just grey hair?" Which was evil Nigel kept reminding himself. But by looking at them. They did not have much more time.


"Band, Beach, Blue, Surfing, random stuff and Tattoo maybe"

Nigel did love random off topic questions.

Alright. Excellent. Caleb was standing...and walking! Cutty felt himself become all ridiculously confident about his healing charm abilities and seriously considered being a healer for very, very, VERY dubious reasons.

"Yeah." He nodded confirming his meaning. "I know, mate. But, remember it didn't stop her from taking points from Slytherin at the party at the beginning of the year and you didn't do anything there, either." Not that the twenty-five points that their Healing Head of House had taken would've made a difference now in the points race. Plus, just the sheer amount of Puffles present at the school made it difficult-but not impossible-to over take.

In the meanwhile, Professor Bentley had somewhat grown on Cutty, even if not for virtuous reasons. See after thinking about their last project and subsequent homework assignment, Cutty began to realize that actually he really liked the idea of completely dominating a weaker lifeform such as plants. And he expected that Professor Bentley wanted to teach him that exactly. So she got psycho!points from the little Slyth just for being sly and kind of a control freak herself. Awww, yis! Adding to this aura of nefarious psychosis was Caleb saying things like, 'Bentley was trying to kill someone again'.

"...Again?", he asked, but his look was anything but concern or fear or anything that it should've been for one who'd just heard that he or she was in the presence of a murderer.