Mitchell shook his head and laughed. "Yeah. It was Goldie's idea. I'm not sure what she was thinking. She gave it to me for Christmas."

Maybe he ought to get her a bonsai tree or something?

Oh. Apparently he wanted to talk about Marigold anyway. "No. We're not a thing. I'm pretty sure she'd rather hug Ralphie than me." he said with a laugh. "Ralphie is what she named the cactus."

"That is a unique thing to give someone for christmas. I think she has a thing for you. I mean an original christmas gift would be candy or candy canes right?" he asked him. Well that is what he thought. He never ever got a cactus for christmas. But then again...this is Marigold we are talking about.

He shook his head and chuckled. He didn't believe that for a second. "Oh come on dude, you guys are totally a thing. You tease each other, you have a nickname for her. She probably said that because she didn't want to admit her feelings. Trust me dude, i know what i am talking about." he smiled and nodded.

Bears? Why was she talking about bears? Ian wondered to himself. What a strange topic of conversation. He shrugged and assumed she didn't want to answer his question. He watched her as she headed over and sat down. Mercy! At least I can sit down he thought. He shuffled over and sat beside his first year friend who was a girl.

He leaned in as she began to speak and tried to listen and he heard her ask (very faintly) about the old-people thing. He shrugged. I don't know much about it. I've heard rumblings, when I could hear better. I thought about going to the healer, but it seemed like such a long walk. What have you heard? He answered her this time because it seemed very much that she was exhibiting the symptoms as well. He surely hoped that things would be worked out and that they would find someway to help out the afflicted students. He was tired of this. Really, he was tired of everything at the moment.

So he didn't know much. Well, it didn't seem like anybody did. Gwen shrugged. I have a theory," she informed him very seriously. "But I'm not sure how accurate it is. I'm muggleborn, so I'm still getting used to the way things work, you know?"

She took a deep breath and plowed on with her theory. "When it first started, kids in class were talking about a time thief, so I looked it up." Which for Gwen meant that she was really truly concerned. Because it took a lot of effort to research something, so the eleven year old typically didn't.

"There was this guy a few years ago, and he came to Hogwarts and stole kids youth or something. Then, just last summer he escaped from prison."

Did he see where she was going with this? "I think he's back, and he's doing it again. But I couldn't find out if those kids ever got their youth returned to them. So we might actually be stuck this way for forever." Frightening, right?

Gwen watched his face, gauging his reaction. Ian was muggleborn too, but he had been around magic for longer, by a whole year. He would be able to know better than her.

Mitchell laughed. "Yeah. Well..." He shrugged. Maybe she did. If she did though, she had a really weird way of showing it. Really weird. Cactus weird.

"You think?" he asked. "I hadn't really thought much about it." Minus the times when he thought about kissing her because her face was just that cute.

...

wait.

He didn't say that out loud, did he? He glanced at Kace who didn't seem to be having any reaction. Good. He just thought it. That could have been awkward.

Oh? Keep him around? Paulie tipped his chin up and met her side eyes with the same sort of peek. Except there was a cheeky grin splashed across his face now. "I'm real handy too, ya know. Can carry heavy loads. Look half-decent when I have to." Did she need more reasons? He could make a list, if need be. Also, she was more than obliging about that autograph request. Could he have ALL the places signed? Hmm, Tori? It was evident by the way he was grinning over and making eyes at her that this was what he was thinking. "I heard it's trendy with sign autographs with lipstick these days...." Or lip gloss. Mhmm. Did she pick up on that trend?

Aaah, she was happy about it then! And her being happy about his new job made HIM even happier about it. "Thanks!" Although deejaying and hosting talk shows weren't quite where he was at just yet. "I'm workin' my way up to that," he said with a smile. Right now it consisted more of getting coffees for people and responding to comments and complaints and occasionally filling in for last-minute absences. But he wasn't going to say that he wasn't a fancy journalist when Tori just called him one. "Maybe one day I'll have to interview you." Interviewing someone who's used to being the interviewER. He could make her even more famous.

Ooooh. Delilah noticed that smirky smirk right there, David. Boys. "Maybe.. and maybe, you should compliment me, too." Just saying. Since she just made him smirk. Heh. She thought she deserved it, right? Riiiight.

"Of course! It's lovely. Food is AWESOME, people are great, the grounds are fantastic.. there's nothing to complain about, really." Delilah said, enthusiastically. She was so glad she transferred here. Not that she didn't miss her old school but she definitely liked this one better.

Ian tried his best to listen to her. It seemed that this matter concerned her greatly. It should have him as well, but he knew strange things seemed to occuir at Hogwarts on a nearly annual basis. He just figured at the end of the term, all would be fixed and everything would be normal. He was just kind of a laissez faire kind of guy and because of learning about life in a fishing village, assumed that life is difficult.

He nodded when she spoke of the time thief character. Where did you hear that information? It's quite interesting. He leaned closer to her, his ear cocked in her direction so he could hear better. He feared falling over, so he placed his hand in between them and it caused him to have contact with both his leg and hers. This bench wasn't the most comfortable, but it was suitable. He still needed to adjust his position from time to time to avoid cramping up.

Gwen noted his lean, thinking that maybe she wasn't talking loud enough. He probably couldn't hear her. She would be louder. "It was in a newspaper." She informed him. "Believe me, it's not easy to find." It seemed like they didn't really have that much information about it, just a few snippets over two newspaper articles.

She shrugged. It didn't seem to be bothering Ian very much, but he seemed pretty laid back. Gwen wasn't that way at all. There was a problem, and she couldn't stop until it was fixed. "Do you think we should tell someone about it?" Gwen asked, remembering to raise her voice so he could hear. Wouldn't it just be easier if everyone knew ASL?

Kurumi's violet eyes continued to scan around the area to see if anyone had heard Selina shouting things that surely would have made it into the Aparecium had they still been students. Thankfully it seemed as though everyone was going about their business - and thank Merlin for that because she saw a Paulie at the opposite end of where they stood. Eyes darting back to Selina now, she rubbed her hands against her coat subconsciously to remove the sweat that was there.

Yes. Thank you Selina. Now could that panic attack be over ----

"WHAT?!" she exclaimed as her eyes moved from Selina's face to looking down at her figure. "Are you serious?! I have a dress fitting soon and if it doesn't fit anymore I may have to find an entirely new one and I really don't want to do that because this is an altered version of the one mother wore and irreplaceable but if they have to rehem and stitch everything then I'll have to go dress shopping again and with everything else to do I just don't think we'll be able to get everything ready and then the wedding can't happen and then I can't become Kurumi Rasting and..."

....she was rambling now. BIG time. Panic was sinking in big time too, so thank you again Selina Skylar.

Her attention went to her hair now...that was ORANGE and turning a darker shade close to a burnt red every second now.

"It does NOT!" she squeaked as she searched for the hood on her coat to throw over her head, only the coat she had on did not have one of those which only sent her panic to new heights. "You might be able to pull off the red head look....but I certainly can't."

Bentley skipped a long side his grandmother while she held his hand. He wasn't sure what it was but she was looking a whole lot differently lately but the five year old just could not put his finger on what it was. Oh well he was coming home now but his grandma promised that she'd come see him again real soon and he was looking forward to seeing his parents and even poopey head baby brother,Heath.

Sophia checked her watch and frowned. She had agreed for pick up to be midday and it was midday now, they had better not keep her waiting, or she'd turn right back into the castle and they'd have to wait for the term to be over before they got Bentley back. She didn't mind having her little tyke around once things were....normal...or well..as normal as things got at Hogwarts.

As much as she didn't want to send Bentley home, she had to, until she figured out what was causing her and the rest of her co-workers to age so rapidly. She used her free hand to straighten her silvery hair.

Dylan arrived with Rhea on Diagon Alley in the place they had arranged to meet with Sophia. Although the thought of meeting with the (soon-to-be) mother-in-law-from-hell, he was surprisingly jovial. They were getting their son back. The little boy had been away from his parents for far too long and Dylan had been less than pleased (to put it mildly) about him being taken in the first place. Frustratingly though, it had happened anyway and had put a strain on his relationship with Rhea, but things had been looking better of late. Even moreso now that Ben was coming home.

Hands deep his pockets, he spotted the boy before he saw Sophia. “There's the little fella.” He said brightly to his fiancée. He sauntered over, scooping Ben up in his arms and kissing his cheek. “Hey, mate!” He grinned. Merlin, it was good to see him. His gazed shifted to Sophia... who looked terrible. Old terrible. Age was not being kind on the woman.. but Dylan chose to be kind in not mentioning it. Was she stressed? “Sophia.” He nodded at the woman.

Bentley giggled as his father scooped him up and planted a kiss on his cheek. He wiped the kiss off but hugged his dad back around the neck anyways. "I missed you daddy." He said brightly while holding on perhaps a little too tightly to his dad's neck and his mummy. He started reaching for her. He'd missed her too.

Rhea beamed brightly as her eyes landed on her first born. Was it just her or had he grown a little bit in the few months that they had been a part. Must be something in the Hogwarts food. She smiled as she watched him reunite with his father and her eyes fell on to her mother, who really did look dreadful. She couldn't understand why she looked that way considering her uncle was older than her mother and he didn't look a day over thirty. She took Bentley as he reached for her and snuggled him. "Mummy?...Your hair..." She was grey...

Sophia frowned as Bentley was so rudely snatched up by Dylan. Muggle-borns. Ugh...she scoffed and turned up her nose. He didn't even give her time to properly say good bye to the little tot.

"Dylan.." She said returning his greeting coldly. And Rhea, she was growing even more beautiful the older she got but she was still a fool and a huge disappointment to her. "My hair is fine, just trying a new look and you can call me Mrs.Bellaire now, thank you." Now that she was going to give up the name and for what? To take on the surname of a muggleborn. So disappointing. "Come kiss grandma goodbye Ben Ben." She opened her arms for the little boy.

Ian nodded as she mentioned where she had found the information. She must have done quite a bit of work if she only got something from a newspaper. Where did you hear about a time-thief? I've never heard of such thing. It was an interesting concept. What would a time-thief do with stolen time. Well, did you look in the library for any information about those types of things? Mr. Kitridge is quite helpful.

At her next question, Ian thought a moment. Well, I suppose it couldn't hurt. Who would we tell? I mean even though we are part of a magical school, who would believe all of us are afflicted by a silent aging thing? Ian's family was more of a sturdy, stick it out kind of group since fishing wasn't always consistent. Ian had learned that things happpened in cycles and if he waited long enough, things would settle themselves out.

That was his boy! Dylan laughed as the little lad rubbed his cheek where the kiss had just been planted. “I missed you too, mate! How was Hogwarts?” As Bentley reached out to his mother, Dylan smiled and handed him over to Rhea. Aw.. He'd clearly missed them both.

Back to Sophia.. it was difficult not to show in his expression exactly how he felt about the woman, but he managed not to. Today was a good day. Even Sophia couldn't ruin it. His eyes flitted to her hair. Grey as grey can be. When did that happen?--His attention was drawn back to her eyes as the words, 'call me Mrs Bellaire' came tumbling out of her mouth. TO her OWN daughter? Dylan's expression became incredulous. “Don't you think that's a step too far, Sophia?” He replied, his tone of voice was tired patience while he emphasised her first-name. Her appearance now, aptly matched her personality.

Poor, poor Rhea..

Bentley held his mother's face and planted a sloppy kiss there then wiped her cheek right after. That was his I love you mommy kiss that she always demanded from him. "Fuuuuuuuuuuuun" He said in reply to his dad's question. His little backpack had cookies and chocolate frogs that he had weaseled from Alexa Cambridge and his new friend Cassia. Yep they gave him frogs whenever he asked them. He wiggled down from his mother and ran/walk to his grandmother who slowly (and painfully) scooped him up.

Sophia frowned at Dylan, scowled rather and focused her attention on Bentley, planting a kiss on his head. "Now you be good Ben and remember all that grandma told you, I'll be seeing you real soon." She slowly bent her aching back and released her grandson who ran walked back to his parents. "Don't you think that you should mind your own business..." She caught herself before calling him the M word.."Dylan? Hmmm? Haven't you butted in and ruined lives enough already?" She turned her attention now to her daughter who was visibly doing everything she could to not burst into tears.

Rhea released the specially made wedding invite that she had been hoping to give to her mother and left it to fall to the ground. She thought maybe over time and seeing that she had gotten to keep Bentley for those months that her mother would maybe finally forgive her and accept her back as her daughter but nope.

"Yes, ma'am.." She replied quietly.

Now that Selina was somewhat calm and backtracking- really backtracking- from her whoopsie with the tummy comment and the hair thing, Selina was blinking at Rumi. She looked CARAAAZY. And now she was causing a scene, which was relatively embarrassing for Selina. Being that she had done her best this whole conversation to keep a level head, okay? Merlin, Rumi. There were PEOPLE around.

So she figured, in her way, the best avenue of handling this situation was to snap her best friend out of her rage.

SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP.

Pause. "Pull yourself, woman. You look amazing. All I meant by that was that you don't look like a twelve year old boy anymore. For Merlin's sake. And leave my hair out of this." Ginger pride. Selina had a lot of that.

Taking a few deep breaths, she brushed some wisps out of her face. Gosh, handling a Rumi wedding meltdown was quickly becoming a skill of hers. Huh. Maybe that was what Maid of Honour's did. That and, well, everything else.

Meep. Nope. They weren't talking and or thinking about the 'M' word. She didn't have the wherewithal.

"Um," Gwen ducked her head a little when he asked about the library. "No, I didn't really. I don't like reading very much." Which was ironic, considering her House. Ian was pretty smart though, so Gwen thought the best course of action might be to prod him into doing his own research which he would probably tell her about.

The little blonde shrugged. "It's not like they don't know that we're all getting old. There was a huge thing at the board of governors meeting." Telling someone they were getting old wasn't the point. "I do think we ought to tell someone that we're concerned about the time-thief." Before they like, died of old age or something.

Gwen was pretty sure her family wouldn't recognize her if she went home like this. But the question was, who to tell? "Maybe we should look up anybody who was involved with the time-thief last time, and any teachers who were involved, and bring it to their attention?" Because, actual adults and things.

WHOOOOOOOOSSHHH

The fairly cold wind blue across her face as she went zooming around the streets. Hogsmeade was no fun when just walking at a slow pace the whole time. You needed to whooosh a little. It was good for the thinking mind, really. Or good for Abbi's mind anyways.

Abbi had been running about for what seemed like a few minutes, but was really half an hour, before she came to a halt to catch her breathe. She drank some of her bottled water and then put it away in her back back before exceeding to stretching her legs by bending them.

Running sesh in Hogsmeade was just so much better than the pitch okay? Quidditch fitness, gosh it was tiring.

Ian listened to more of what Gwen had to say. He was a little surprised that she hadn't been to the library. He hadn't heard about the Board of Governor's thing, but that's not out of the ordinary since he has kind of been in and out of things the last couple of weeks. He only came here because he needed some time away from the castle.

Ian sighed, sat back and placed his arm behind Gwen's back (it was getting kind of sore from holding his weight up). Well Gwen, perhaps we should first try to see what we can learn about a time-thief. Do you have any ways we can try and identify those who were impacted previously? I think we might be able to talk to Mr. Kitridge, the librarian. He seems like a helpful fellow and kind of closer to our age than most of the other staff. He used his outside hand to rub his temple. Seems he'd developed a bit of a headache and he failed to notice a clump of hair come off of his head and land on the ground beside his feet.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cedric

Oh? Keep him around? Paulie tipped his chin up and met her side eyes with the same sort of peek. Except there was a cheeky grin splashed across his face now. "I'm real handy too, ya know. Can carry heavy loads. Look half-decent when I have to." Did she need more reasons? He could make a list, if need be. Also, she was more than obliging about that autograph request. Could he have ALL the places signed? Hmm, Tori? It was evident by the way he was grinning over and making eyes at her that this was what he was thinking. "I heard it's trendy with sign autographs with lipstick these days...." Or lip gloss. Mhmm. Did she pick up on that trend?

Aaah, she was happy about it then! And her being happy about his new job made HIM even happier about it. "Thanks!" Although deejaying and hosting talk shows weren't quite where he was at just yet. "I'm workin' my way up to that," he said with a smile. Right now it consisted more of getting coffees for people and responding to comments and complaints and occasionally filling in for last-minute absences. But he wasn't going to say that he wasn't a fancy journalist when Tori just called him one. "Maybe one day I'll have to interview you." Interviewing someone who's used to being the interviewER. He could make her even more famous.

"Mmmm well, those are definitely resumé-worthy skills," Tori's hazel eyes twinkled at Paulie. "I don't know about the looking half-decent part. I just haven't seen enough of that." And once again she was tempted to check him out... for evaluative purposes, of course, that was all. She cracked another grin at the signature line. "Yeah, or lip gloss, or permanent marker, so you can go turn the autograph into a tattoo..."

Just imagine, her name, tattooed on his lower back arm? That'd be hooooooot. Heh!

Tori nodded and smiled and continued down the street with Paulie. "I'd LOVE to be on the radio. Performances run in my jeans, didja know?" ALL Bunburys were basically stars, duh. And her cousin Ivy was a legit star, well, nearly. She ran an opera house or something anyway. "You can interview me and I'll write a story about you! Tradesies!"

"Dude i know. I mean she blushes every time she sees you. You have nicknames for each other and you fight like siblings." he said pointing out the facts. "I do not know what i can say more than that to convince you otherwise..." he shrugged. "I mean do you like her in that way?" he asked.

ooc: flailing at this convo!!

Kurumi was still rambling off words, words that at this point really had no meaning attached to them due to the fact that she wasn't taking any breaths and therefore everything sounded like one long squeak....Or did until there was a loud smacking sound as Selina's hand made contact with her face.

Mouth hanging open, one of her hands flew to her cheek and stayed there for a good long while. She was actually glad that she hadn't worn mittens today because the chill from her hands was helping soothe the throbbing pain.

"..........itai yo........." she managed to whimper after a few moments of just looking at her best friend in complete shock. It took her even longer to figure out what Selina was going on about with looking like a 12-year-old boy. But when the dots were connected she looked down and her cheeks flushed. "I haven't looked like a 12-year-old boy since 5th year, thank you very much."

Slowly moving her hand away from her cheek, Kurumi whimpered again and looked down at the snow. It was tempting. Very tempting. But father had always told her that revenge was not as sweet as people made it out to be. Then again.........if it was just playful banter that was a different story, right?

Scooping up some of the snow off of one of the window panes and forming it into a ball, she smashed it on top of the redhead's head and then scurried a few steps away. "Your hair looks nice with white accents, did you know that?"

There was a pause as the slap rang out in the street they were standing in. Selina kept his eyes wide and focused only on Rumi because whoops? She hadn't meant to hurt her. It was just her base reaction because, well, she had been told on numerous occasions that she was a little bit of a violent person. Mortimer enabled her. Blah, blah, blah. (That last bit was SO not true. Mortimer was her baby, thank you.)

When Kurumi finally whimpered something, though, Selina let out a breath. Sure, it wasn't English, but at least it was proof that Selina did not break Rumi or anything of that nature. She would have been in a LOT of trouble if Kurumi broke down or something. And she supposed she would have been upset if she had heart her. Yes, that as well.

SO YAY. Whimpering was signs of life.

"Oh, um," Recover, Skylar, recover, "I know you do. I was just teasing you." And she wasn't saying that Rumi wasn't pretty. SHE WAS. Selina was friends with really, really pretty people. Which often begged the question why she was there, but she found she brought charisma to the table. That and a very important skill of eating all of their food. All important things.

BLINK. BLINK. Was Kurumi REALLY going to start a snow war with her. Oh-ho-ho. It was ON. Like, Merlin please, it was so on. Donning an innocent little face, Selina walked slowly at Rumi, "You know what, Rumi? I think you might look JUST as good with some white colour." SNOW ATTACK.

Haha! David hadn't expected that comeback, and so he was still very amused and continued smirking. "I suppose that's fair. You're also very difficult to overlook, you know." And he winked at her too for good measure. Was that a good enough compliment, Miss Delilah? Hmmm?

The smirk faded away a bit when she started excitedly describing Hogwarts. Those were the things he had hoped to hear, so this was good. Even nothing at all to complain about? That was definitely good to hear. "Can I quote you on that?" he asked with a grin. His dad was gonna hear about all this. 'Cause how could he say no when there were people - well, technically just a person but psh, his dad didn't need ALL the details exactly - who had nothing negative to say about it? Oh yeah, he was so persuasive.