Even the sound of Olly's plate scooting away from her had a disheartening tone to it. Like, was there a pancake curse with them? Hogwarts kitchen jinx? It was upsetting. All of this talk.

She returned Olly's gaze but eventually her eyes fell down to her half-eaten pancake again. "I don't know.." she replied quietly. Olly's question seemed like more of an answer anyway. No. This was like.. like a bigger version of when she was leaving for Peru.

Olly closed the lid on that idea when she told her point blank that she didn't want to move to Spain. And that wasn't really something Schuyler could expect her to do. In fact, Schuyler knew she probably wouldn't be keen on the idea even before she'd suggested it. She'd suggested it anyway, obviously. She was grasping for a more appealing answer to their problem. Speaking of which..

"I haven't confirmed anything yet?" Running it past Olly was kind of going to be her last step though. Because it was getting down to the wire in terms of deadlines. "I got accepted other places? Paris? Plymouth..?" So, maybe she hadn't been completely certain of the actual university, but hey. Nothing like procrastinating when it came to big decisions. At the same time that she was busy being upset over this long distance versus no relationship business, she was also getting stressed over college things. Future things.

As much as she liked to argue that she'd be just fine in Barcelona, she knew the fact that she WASN'T fluent in Spanish would kind of affect her grades. And living in general. Yeah..

Her chest rose as she drew a deep breath. "No matter where I go to college, I don't think we'll physically be together.. as much as we're used to." To be euphemistic. Even Plymouth. Plymouth was in the UK, but even that was still relatively far. Separate.

Her opinion on the matter hadn't changed. Schuyler still wanted to try long distance. It was something, right? Not the same, but she still had Olly. Could call her her girlfriend. There were the mirrors.. But if that was going to be harder on Olly, if that would make Olly's state of mind worse than it already had been lately, then.. they wouldn't do it. Then Schuyler wouldn't want it like that.

This discussion was doing a bang up job of making her heart feel like a lead weight. Honestly.

SPOILER!!: I don't think he is ever going to ask her 'what's wrong?' either XD for fear of those sorts of personal relationship issues HAHAHA

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

Lex waited for the reaction that was sure to come from the man who read an Aparecium paper and freaked. You could have sworn he'd walked in on her and Jun snogging with the way he'd spazzed out. A reaction would definitely happen so even when he turned away from her, she waited. Of course he was sorry he asked, that was the point of her oversharing. He was completely welcome and with luck would not be prying in future.

"Like I said Sir, it's not the type of conversation I fancy. Spent a lot of time hiding out in the Ravenclaw dorm because of them--but I never told you that." Just like she never told him she was usually hiding out with Jun. Ahem. He was definitely welcome she didn't mention that part. Carry on.

Was he sure he didn't want any though? This was good stuff. "Suit yourself." Lex said with a shrug, scooping another spoonful into her hands.

And what on earth was he humming about? Medicine? Maybe she'd just not question it. Nah, Just pour and pretend this was normal. With Airey, this was all kinds of normal anyway.

"D'you know how long these will take to be done?"

If it weren't for the fact that he was holding on to the frying pan with one hand and using the spatula to stir with the other, changes were somewhere around 99.9999999% that the astronomer would have climbed up on top of the counter and assumed planking position to avoid all further eye contact and conversation with the prefect. Thank you and good day, Miss Cambridge.

Ravenclaw. Boy toy.......

LA LA LA LA NOT LISTENING LA LA LA LA

Seriously, he was mentally plugging his ears with the index fingers on both his hands into either ear to block out the rest of Miss Cambridge's words from reaching Wernicke's and Broca's areas of his brain. NOT GOING TO PROCESS. NO PROCESS. NOPE. NOOOOOOOOOOOPE.

Suit himself? What? "Nothing suits me like a suit," he hummed as he resumed stirring - not realizing that he had in fact stopped stirring during those moments he had just been frozen in terror at the over share. Which meant that things were beginning to burn and take on a somewhat charred smell. But it just smelled like burnt sugar which sort of had a sweet aroma as far as he was concerned, so he didn't think any of it.

"Well...according to the recipe here, we just need to plop all this into a square pan and let it cool," he read from the tiny piece of parchment in his sister's handwriting. "Given how cold it is around here...not long at all...especially if we open that window over there and hold the pan outside for a minute."

Er....was the Professor feeling alright?

Lex tilted her head and popped the last of her marshmallows into her mouth as she watched him virtually freeze before her eyes. Had she....had she said something wrong? Truthfully the statement had been left open to interpretation. What in Merlin's beard could he think she got up to when she visited the Ravenclaw dorm.

....Interesting. "Earth to Professor.....you alright?" As in...did she need to ask him how many fingers she was holding up? Or what colour her robes were? SAY SOMETHING MAN!!

Oh. There we go. Suit talk. "Right...that does remind me. How do you plan to get these dry cleaned if we're all snowed in the way we are? Heard we don't have owls or anything to make deliveries." She didn't want to believe it, but looking through the window that day it was hard to deny the fleeting figures that were the owls of Hogwarts. Talk about being abandoned.

And what was that burning smell? Lex peered over into the pan but didn't say much in case that's what they were meant to look like. He was the chef with the recipe here, she was just helping.

"Brilliant idea Professor. I'd have never thought of it." Mostly because she was too busy thinking about frostbite but the pan was hot so that would help...in theory. Yes.

SPOILER!!: good good. we are all good XD & I have this image of her just dropping a whole stick of butter in the bottom of the pan HAHA

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

Er....was the Professor feeling alright?

Lex tilted her head and popped the last of her marshmallows into her mouth as she watched him virtually freeze before her eyes. Had she....had she said something wrong? Truthfully the statement had been left open to interpretation. What in Merlin's beard could he think she got up to when she visited the Ravenclaw dorm.

....Interesting. "Earth to Professor.....you alright?" As in...did she need to ask him how many fingers she was holding up? Or what colour her robes were? SAY SOMETHING MAN!!

Oh. There we go. Suit talk. "Right...that does remind me. How do you plan to get these dry cleaned if we're all snowed in the way we are? Heard we don't have owls or anything to make deliveries." She didn't want to believe it, but looking through the window that day it was hard to deny the fleeting figures that were the owls of Hogwarts. Talk about being abandoned.

And what was that burning smell? Lex peered over into the pan but didn't say much in case that's what they were meant to look like. He was the chef with the recipe here, she was just helping.

"Brilliant idea Professor. I'd have never thought of it." Mostly because she was too busy thinking about frostbite but the pan was hot so that would help...in theory. Yes.

LA LA LA LA LA

Enough of all that. Yep. Done. Focusing on this mess that was supposed to be a delicious treat in the end.

Aw, no...don't go there, Miss Cambridge. That was kicking a man when he was down! Rubbing salt in the wound! Squeezing lemon juice in his eye! Deflating like a balloon, the astronomer's usual perfect posture slumped and his shoulders lifted upwards towards his ears. If he was entirely honest here, he had been holding on to the hope that the storm would pass and he would be able to go out on the weekend like usual, head to Hogsmeade and then apparate back to London so he could hit up his usual muggle dry cleaning establishment. Only now...with no way out of the school (he had tried, trust us)...he was in a crisis.

"Thankfully my suit collection is extensive enough that it should last me until at least mid-May should these conditions remain as they are," he replied, fidgeting like an awkward first year admitting that they didn't know where the loo was. He refused to use magic on them based on principle, and there was no changing his mind about that. "Everything else the house elves clean and press for me."

Flicking his wand to summon a square pan-thing, he squinted at it and then the mess in the pan he had been stirring. "Says to butter that pan," he read, glancing upwards at the prefect. She knew what that meant, right? Which also meant that she was going to do it because his hands were still busy stirring the stuff in the pan and all that. So his look was more of an expectant sort.

Yes, Miss Cambridge. Butter the pan.

For a moment Lex questioned whether she might have actually broken the Professor. He wasn't saying much...then suddenly he was looking like someone had cleared his candy bag of all chocolate frogs and sugar quills--no wait no, that would have been a severely peeved off kinda look. Nah, he looked more like he'd been told the winter would last forever and he'd be stuck without clean suits.

...Oh.

Well nevermind then. "Mid-May?" Whaaaaaaaaaat? "You think it'll last that long? Merlin I hope not! It can't possibly, right??" He was probably just thinking worst case scenario but what if that was what happened??? She couldn't be stuck in here that long and NOT among the most annoying people she'd ever met either. You never knew how annoying people were until you like....stayed stuck in a castle with them with little other choice. It made her wish she wasn't a Gryffindor if only for the fact that people like Kevin and Bart weren't in the other houses. "It'll pass though, right Sir? Like not getting to June at all? I mean what if we get stuck here ALL SUMMER with people like Professor Smiles offering hot chocolate and Astrology cards to make us feel better?" One class was enough and the woman seemed the type to do it again if given half a lick of chance. No, just no. She had PLANS for her summer.

Deciding she had to calm down. Lex took a deep breath and reached for the butter. Did it say how much? This was a fairly big pan...and you know butter probably didn't spread that well so.......Lex plopped the entire stick into the pan and began rubbing it around. It didn't all melt into the pan, there were still clumps but those would be taken care of when they heated it. Nothing to worry about.

What next?

Maybe Olly was being difficult. Maybe moving to Spain wasn't so bad as it currently sounded in her head. Right now, however, she couldn't get herself to agree. No, she didn't want to move to Spain. There had to be another way. She had friends here. She had her family here. The only thing in Spain was Schuyler. The only thing but also one of the most important things. Maybe THE most important thing.

She didn't want to choose, though.

And maybe, maybe she didn't have to. Olly's eyes widened slightly when Schuyler pointed out that there were other universities. Closer universities. One of them even in Plymouth. That was within reach. That was also within flooing-distance. There was a part of her brain that told her to tell Schuyler to go. To go to Barcelona if that's what she wanted to do.

But she simply couldn't do that. "Plymouth?" The look in her eyes CLEARLY suggested that that was an acceptable option. "I know I shouldn't...I'm not gonna tell you to do whatever you want, Schuyler. I'm sorry but I'm not...strong enough to tell you that." Though Schuyler KNEW that already. "It might be selfish of me but...I want you to stay." Here. Close. In the UK. Not in Spain. So there.

The next thing Schuyler said brought her attention back to the fact that they might still have a problem even IF her girlfriend stayed here. "No, of course not." She knew that. Nonetheless, Olly averted her gaze down to her pancakes again, unable to look at the Gryffindor. Yes, she knew. That was a problem. But Olly was doing so much better now, couldn't Schuyler tell? She'd slept and everything.

There was a follow-up topic of discussion here but she kept quiet for now. She didn't want to spring that on Schuyler.

Adi had just finished his Divination homework and decided it was time for a snack. So he made his way to the Kitchen, humming to himself and hoping the elves would let him have some cookies and hot chocolate. Yep. More sweet stuff. Who can stay away from them?

But Adi liked to watch the little elves bustle about so instead of disturbing them, he took a seat and watched them work. For now. Soon they'd have a hungry, sweet obsessed Hufflepuff disturbing them. Hehe.

Enjoying another long sip of hot chocolate, he had closed his eyes a little to simply enjoy the moment and let the warmth just fill him up. It was for this reason, Benny hadn't readily noticed that Angel had moved at all much less behind him while he did so. It wasn't until he felt a touch at his shoulders...both shoulders at the same time...that he was broken from his daydream. He reacted in surprise and nearly spilled the remnants of his drink and tensed his shoulders just as Angel started on her massage of them.

"Um...uh...what are you doing?"

Yes….. Plymouth…..

There was a change to Olly’s expression. That was noticed. And the way she repeated it made Schuyler begin to feel like maybe there was a better solution to this. Maybe. It certainly helped that horrible feeling that'd been invading her chest.

So when Olly started speaking, Schuyler was all ears. One of the things they always seemed to do right in their relationship was be honest with each other. Like now, for instance. And when Schuyler thought about how Olly really wanted her to stay and how she wasn't quite 'strong' in some ways lately, the Gryffindor felt ashamed to a degree. Ashamed that she hadn't given Olly enough part in this conversation before. And that she'd underestimated not only how hard it'd be for her girlfriend, but how hard it'd be for herself, too. Like… this wasn't a month away. This was four years.

She was quiet for a little while, her fork making shapes in the syrup. This was good. Okay. She was weighing pros and cons and actually trying to think things through about what would really be good for her. And her education, naturally. The stress of choosing had gotten her into the habit of putting off the actual decision making.

Her girlfriend's input did mean a lot. And it was a really big factor in her decision on which university she should go to. But the actual decision had to be hers. Schuyler's. Obviously.

That being said, there wasn’t much that could compete with Olly. Not even the allure of some vibrant city.

"It's not selfish," she answered. "..Not when I want to stay with you, too." Because she did. Of course she did. But 'staying' for Schuyler wasn’t so much staying in England, in a location, as it was needing to stay with Olly. Staying her best friend. Her girlfriend. Olly wasn't something she ever wanted to lose.

"Plymouth does seem really nice.." she started as she picked up her fork again, a small smile forming. "Beachy. English-speaking. The campus is beautiful.." She tapped her fork on the plate a little. "And closer to you." She looked up at Olly.

With all the time she had spent marveling simply at how pretty Barcelona must be, Schuyler had almost managed to completely overlook how perfect studying in Plymouth would be for her.

Almost.

"So.. is Southern England too far to visit?" Her smile widened. For the record, she was counting on that answer being a 'no.'

Zander had been making quite a few trips down to the kitchens lately. For starters, all of this cold weather was really making him hungry. Or maybe that just had to do with boredom? Buuuut also, all this cold weather meant warm foods. Like soups, fresh pies, tea, AND HOT CHOCOLATE! Duh. And Zander did love his chocolate. So instead of venturing out into the corridors for the millionth time, the Gryffindor decided to stop by one of his official favorite places.

The kitchens, of course.

As he walked in, he spotted a guy sitting down just watching the elves? O___O Why!?! Why would he just sit and watch when there was warmth to eat and cocoa to drink! WHY, boy WHYYY!? Let Zander enlighten you, kid! Oh, wait. Upon further inspection, Zander realized that this wasn't actually just any kid. This was that guy, uh, the one who had made the card for him that one time in divination? What was his name again.... Uh..... "Hi, there-" Oh yeah! "Adi," he added as an after thought. Fancy seeing him here. Not eating. Like he should be. "Are you... you planning to get anything?"

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

Her brain was sending out signals to the rest of her body but somehow Olly didn't move. Or talk. Or do anything really. She just stared at Schuyler for what felt like an hour. Trying to process what had just happened. Trying to understand it. And react accordingly. So she was....Schuyler wasn't....she was....but Spain...and Barcelona...and........

"So you won't move to Spain then." Olly finally asked, somewhat stupidly. That was what Schuyler had just said, no? That she was staying in Plymouth. Which wasn't in Spain. But in southern England. It was here. Close. Olly wouldn't mind going there. Not at all. It wasn't exactly like London was her city of choice to live in. It was big too. Plymouth sounded a lot more appealing to be honest. Not that Schuyler had suggested anything. Only that she could visit her. Not that Olly was genuinely worrying about the details right now.

Schuyler was staying.

And probably waiting for an answer right now. Even though it was obvious. "... 'course not." Pause. More staring. And before she could stop herself Olly had gotten up and walked over to where Schuyler was sitting to give her a really really big hug. It was a 'thank you' without actually saying the words. Because Schuyler probably wasn't staying FOR her. Or not only. Probably. Actually she didn't know. Nor care right now. The most important thing was that she wasn't leaving the country.

SPOILER!!: BAHAHAHA XD

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

For a moment Lex questioned whether she might have actually broken the Professor. He wasn't saying much...then suddenly he was looking like someone had cleared his candy bag of all chocolate frogs and sugar quills--no wait no, that would have been a severely peeved off kinda look. Nah, he looked more like he'd been told the winter would last forever and he'd be stuck without clean suits.

...Oh.

Well nevermind then. "Mid-May?" Whaaaaaaaaaat? "You think it'll last that long? Merlin I hope not! It can't possibly, right??" He was probably just thinking worst case scenario but what if that was what happened??? She couldn't be stuck in here that long and NOT among the most annoying people she'd ever met either. You never knew how annoying people were until you like....stayed stuck in a castle with them with little other choice. It made her wish she wasn't a Gryffindor if only for the fact that people like Kevin and Bart weren't in the other houses. "It'll pass though, right Sir? Like not getting to June at all? I mean what if we get stuck here ALL SUMMER with people like Professor Smiles offering hot chocolate and Astrology cards to make us feel better?" One class was enough and the woman seemed the type to do it again if given half a lick of chance. No, just no. She had PLANS for her summer.

Deciding she had to calm down. Lex took a deep breath and reached for the butter. Did it say how much? This was a fairly big pan...and you know butter probably didn't spread that well so.......Lex plopped the entire stick into the pan and began rubbing it around. It didn't all melt into the pan, there were still clumps but those would be taken care of when they heated it. Nothing to worry about.

What next?

Yes. No more talking about his suits. Chances were he was going to start manly wibbling about them. He still did when the memory of his Carolina blue silk tie resurfaced. That slot in his tie case had remained empty all these years in hopes that his long lost tie would come back to him. Hey, he hadn't given up hope that Pebbles would return to him and THAT had paid off...so perhaps the odds were in his favor even if statistics were against him?

Which reminded him that he still needed to post that missing poster. Could give the kids something to do now that they were all locked up inside the castle...

"Afraid I can't say for sure either way, Miss Cambridge," he frowned as he sort of stopped stirring and began stabbing the contents of his pan. "Meteorology is a complicated field that tries to predict what weather will look like, but by no means is a guarantee. From what I have been able to deduce from my own readings and research...well...it's not looking good." And 'sir'? Really, Miss Cambridge? You know better than that. So raised eyebrow to you missy. "All storms pass eventually," he confirmed, mustering some sort of a smile on his face. Eventually being the keen word in this. Only then the slightly amused eyebrow and doofy grin on his face turned into a slightly confused one. "Professor Smiley?" he repeated.

Merlin, he really did need to come down from his tower more. Didn't even know there was a Professor Smiley on staff!

Oh wait. Never mind.

Now he was just feeling cocky that, by process of elimination, he had come to the right conclusion as to who the student in question had been. Score one for the astronut! "I did hear about that assignment," he replied coyly as he stopped stirring to look at the prefect. "Pity our signs don't match up." Because otherwise then surely she would have been delivering him a card, yes? Hello ego blasting off into orbit.

Picking his next words carefully as he watched her butter the pan, he began to tip the pan in his hands over - the one with all the gunk in it - and began to pour it into the pan. The butter sizzled and melted, forming a butter soup at the bottom. It was supposed to look like that, right? Right.

"I heard there were some...disturbances that lesson in regards to the material being covered."

Just caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasually bringing it up.

Adi had been way too busy watching the elves work to notice his new Gryffindor friend, Zander make his way into the Kitchen. Plus he was getting distracted by the low rumbling sounds emitting from his stomach. Hungry. he was hungrrrry! Time to bother the elves!

But by then, Zander had arrived. Adi grinned at the boy, guessing that he had almost forgotten his name. "Hallo, Zander,'' he said. "What's up?'' Getting something to eat? Of course! Now that he had watched the elves enough. Hehe. "Yep. Hot chocolate and...'' What exactly did he want? Adi no longer wanted cookies. "Something. What are you going to get?'' He doubted Zander was here to elf watch.

Schuyler was still thinking about it. Plymouth. Yes… Plymouth. She even nodded subtly to herself. It sounded good. Right. It actually still hadn't completely sunken in yet, that she would be at university in the fall and not Hogwarts.

Her mulling over happened to make Olly's pause seem less pronounced. So.. she wouldn't move to Spain..? She gave Barcelona one last, brief consideration in her mind. And then shook her head. "No," she answered. "I won’t move to Spain." Spain could do without her and she could do without Spain. Although maybe this could be used as leverage to get Olly to go there with her on holiday. That was something to keep in mind, yes.

And Olly's answer had been a 'no.' She breathed a small sigh of relief. In fact, now that the long distance issue had been changed to 'not quite so long of a distance,' and the university decision had at last been made, she felt much more at ease than she had a minute or two ago.

The hug had taken her by surprise, but you wouldn’t have guessed so by how quickly and naturally she responded to it. It was comforting just feeling Olly against her. And instead of releasing her from the embrace, Schuyler tried tugging her down to sit with her. Nice and close.

"Sorry if I made that complicated.."

Lex watched the sizzling butter in the pan as it got heated and the contents poured into it. Don't ask her if it was right, how would she know? She was simply here to hand him things as the recipe called for it and not question it afterward.

Her attention was drawn from the pan at his uncertainty. Lex was never one to appreciate a lie but sometimes she made exceptions to this rule...like when she'd rather not hear that there was no way of knowing when this storm would let up. The Gryffindor paled slightly at his words. "It's not?" Looking good that is. "B-but do we have enough food for worst case scenarios? We can't exactly conjure ourselves a sandwich and call it a day, Gamps Law and all." If this wasn't sorted, they could very well all starve so forgive her for not doing the courtesy of returning the smile. The Gryffindor took food very seriously around this place and she took her birthday and summer even more seriously too.

Hmm? He didn't know? "Professor Smiles--though I reckon Professor Bellaire said I should stop calling her that regardless of me being allowed." But was Bellaire here...? Noooope.

She would have proper explained but he caught the gist of it soon enough after the cards and Astrology were mentioned. Alexa scowled deeply at the Professor. He may have been joking but she couldn't fine the humour. "It's not funny and doesn't matter. If I'd run into you first I'd have given the card to you and it wouldn't have meant anything. Just so happened that Professor Bellaire was in the corridor first." Did he get it? Did he? Who the hell cared what someone's bloody sign was? "It's not REAL. The month you were born in doesn't dictate a thing about you. How very illogical to think such a thing. Where's the proof of science? Planets can't influence such things. They can't--"

Say what? "Disturbances...?" Her brows slowly creased in confusion. "I...wouldn't say that. Can I ask what she told you?" Because boy oh boy Lex was about to go off regardless. This...didn't sound like what happened by virtue of the fact he said disturbances and those were never good in lessons. She didn't disturb anything.

He had remembered his name? Like, right away? Oh. Welp, that's embarrassing. Just at the thought, his hand jumped up to the back of his neck. Ahum, oopsies? But Adi didn't seem to be too bothered, so no harm done. Hopefully. Anyways, what was the kid doing just sitting there? Zander almost even asked him, but then the boy started speaking again. "Oh nothing much really. Actually now that we're snowed in that's really all that's going on lately," cue a dramatic exhale of air and longing look into the distance. Yes, at first being snowed in wasn't too bad. But now, now it was very bad.

Oooh, hot chocolate? That sounded AMAZING! "Hot chocolate sounds awesome," speaking to people was actually starting to get a lot easier for the boy now. Conversation was actually starting to become... natural? "I think I'll go for one of those too, with extra whip cream on top..." he thought for a moment before adding, "AND marshmallows!" He felt the need to get to know this Adi kid some more actually... Was that weird? Just because they were in the same year.... And they hadn't ever truly talked before, outside a classroom setting. "So, how have you been doin'?" That was a start... right?

Schuyler wasn't going to Spain. She was staying right here.

Olly was so relieved that she was clinging to her girlfriend almost desperately. There was some insistent tugging on Schuyler's part and Olly complied by shifting slightly to sit on the other girl's lap, facing her. Hi. Pulling back far enough for her to be able to look at Schuyler, she grinned. "I thought I was the complicated one." She WAS, too. "But I remember you saying that-" And she was paraphrasing here. "-the important things shouldn't be easy so..." This conversation had been...a good thing?

Even though it had been quite straining on both ends.

Her eyes briefly flicked to some of the house elves that were busy preparing something. She wanted to do more but seeing as they were watching Olly settled with just giving Schuyler a brief but no less intense kiss. "Plymouth sounds nice." She spoke against the other girl's lips at first before leaning back again, her arms still around Schuyler's neck. "You going to...live on campus then?" Subtle, very subtle, Olly.

Someone should give her a prize for optimal subtlety.

This seating arrangement was much more favorable. Yes. Schuyler liked it.

Complicated one, hmm? "Oh, believe me. You haven't relinquished that title," she grinned. Not by a long shot. Although Schuyler had seemed to fulfill their complication quota for today. She recalled saying those words, or some form of them, and agreed with a small nod when Olly repeated them. "Words of wisdom from yours truly," she smiled. And Olly was right.. they did apply.

Her eyes followed her girlfriend's over to the house elves, who seemed to be politely ignoring them apart from the occasional glance their way. Yes, continue cooking, elves. When she felt Olly's lips suddenly on hers, she returned the kiss up until the point when Olly pulled back slightly. Leaving Schuyler craving a little more.

But the elves. Really?

"It is." Nice. Plymouth was nice. From what she’d briefly experienced of it. Her hands trailed down to Olly's waist and lingered there. Was she going to live on campus..? The corners of her mouth gave away her smile. Somehow she doubted the question was asked simply out of curiosity. "Probably," Schuyler answered. "Even though I would love it if I could live with you, I've heard it's good to live on campus your freshman year.. easier to make friends and everything." And she was also under the impression that she and Olly would have plenty of time to live together. That was safe to assume, in her mind.

She lifted Olly's shirt a little bit so she could run the pad of her thumb over her skin. "You'll be around a lot, though," she grinned again.

Oh GOOD. Olly was still the complicated one out of the two of them. What a relief. She pulled a face.

Although, of course, she wasn't genuinely offended by Schuyler's assertion. It was simply a fact. "Well, apparently you're into that though." Complicated people that is. Or else she would've been long gone. Buuuut the Gryffindor was still here. With her. Not just metaphorically but also physically now. Because she wasn't going to move to Spain. Olly shifted slightly so she could feel the other girl's body against her own more. Yes better. Closeness was good. "I have so many wise friends it seems." That's how she picked them. According to their level of wisdom.

"Yeah?" Was it? Olly couldn't quite remember if she'd ever been to Plymouth. Mainly because there was hands on her waist which was VERY distracting.

...............................oh.

Apparently she hadn't been as subtle as she thought. Or at least Schuyler had picked up on what she'd ACTUALLY been trying to ask. Or maybe she'd simply had a similar train of thought. It was better to live on campus during freshman year. Right. Olly didn't particularly care about what people thought was 'good' or not. "Right." Did she sound disappointed? Maybe. But she wouldn't press the matter any further because she'd already gotten her way with Schuyler's choice of university. "I will." Be around a lot. Excessively so probably. "You can't get rid of me that easily." She leaned in for another kiss.

Zander seemed to feel the same way as Adi about being snowed in. He guessed everyone was starting to feel the same. "Yeah, I can't wait to go outside again. A snowball fight would be cool.'' Hehe. Adi mimed flicking a snowball at his new friend.

"So, I've got a question, Zander. Why were you acting so weird during the last Herbology lesson?'' Yep, the hufflepuff had noticed and was quite curious. And as usual, he made no attempt to hide that curiosity. Was his fellow third year terrified of plants or something?

Well, lookit! Zander was like him in a way. Adi nodded enthusiastically. "Lots of marshmallows! When we're done we're going to be hyper on all that sugar.'' Sugar rush! And he was doing just well, thank you. "I'm awesome! Trying to make the best of this weather.'' Which wasn't much. Meh. "What about you?''

Angel smiled at Benny. "I'm just trying to cheer you up." Angel hoped he wasn't mad with her. "You don't mind, do you?" Angel really was just trying to help. "Plus I thought that I would just help you get warm, because I knew how cold it must have been without your cloak on." Angel really was just trying to help, but now she had a feeling she had done something wrong.

SPOILER!!: we sense a disturbance in the force? XD

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

Lex watched the sizzling butter in the pan as it got heated and the contents poured into it. Don't ask her if it was right, how would she know? She was simply here to hand him things as the recipe called for it and not question it afterward.

Her attention was drawn from the pan at his uncertainty. Lex was never one to appreciate a lie but sometimes she made exceptions to this rule...like when she'd rather not hear that there was no way of knowing when this storm would let up. The Gryffindor paled slightly at his words. "It's not?" Looking good that is. "B-but do we have enough food for worst case scenarios? We can't exactly conjure ourselves a sandwich and call it a day, Gamps Law and all." If this wasn't sorted, they could very well all starve so forgive her for not doing the courtesy of returning the smile. The Gryffindor took food very seriously around this place and she took her birthday and summer even more seriously too.

Hmm? He didn't know? "Professor Smiles--though I reckon Professor Bellaire said I should stop calling her that regardless of me being allowed." But was Bellaire here...? Noooope.

She would have proper explained but he caught the gist of it soon enough after the cards and Astrology were mentioned. Alexa scowled deeply at the Professor. He may have been joking but she couldn't fine the humour. "It's not funny and doesn't matter. If I'd run into you first I'd have given the card to you and it wouldn't have meant anything. Just so happened that Professor Bellaire was in the corridor first." Did he get it? Did he? Who the hell cared what someone's bloody sign was? "It's not REAL. The month you were born in doesn't dictate a thing about you. How very illogical to think such a thing. Where's the proof of science? Planets can't influence such things. They can't--"

Say what? "Disturbances...?" Her brows slowly creased in confusion. "I...wouldn't say that. Can I ask what she told you?" Because boy oh boy Lex was about to go off regardless. This...didn't sound like what happened by virtue of the fact he said disturbances and those were never good in lessons. She didn't disturb anything.

He furrowed his brow while trying to even out the lumps of the gunk poured into the pan. Should have an even surface of sorts. The picture on the recipe had things that way and since they were trying to emulate the recipe. Doing a mighty fine job if he said so himself. "Don't go falling into despair, Miss Cambridge. Even should the food in this kitchen be all used up, Professor Bentley has been able to create a make shift greenhouse inside the castle and can still grow plants. Although the photosynthesis process is by no means ideal, it is still efficient enough to make sure things grow. Food is still very much an option." How did that infamous expression going about turning on lights in dark times? This was one of those moments. Turn on the light, Miss Cambridge! TURN IT ON AND SEE THE POSSIBILITIES!

He chuckled. "Better Professor Smiles than Professor Glitter Trousers," he mused. He could live with that nickname - although he felt it would damper his masculinity a bit - but glitter...well, he had a new found hatred for the stuff. "But I would have to agree with Professor Bellaire ... at least in public." Although he doubted Cassiopeia would really mind being nicknamed after her signature facial expression.

And as long as they were talking about this logically... "Now you see why it is in my rules to never confuse it with astronomy," he replied, still chuckling a little. Although he had no doubt that Miss Cambridge had figured that out long ago. "Humans suffer from the Forer Effect and the Barnum Effect, excellent concept to look up on your own time, and such notions tailor to the human need to feel accepted and guided. It's as Shakespeare would say, 'the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.'" And yes, there may have been a bit of a dramatic interpretation on that verse.

But really, he didn't need to be saying all this to Miss Cambridge. All things she already knew to a certain degree. Her acceptance of the logical was what made her such a stellar student of astronomy.

"Not to mention that the constellations nowadays are shifted in the sky by almost 36 degrees, which ends up being an entire month along the zodiac’s clock," he mused.

What were they talking about again?

"I would prefer to hear your side first, if you don't mind, rather than it be influenced by another's words." Although, to be quite frank, he would have rather the Divination professor bring Miss Cambridge along with her to his office to discuss the matter rather than it turning into a she-said, she-said situation. But alas.

...

.....

Okay, so you know when you hear something SO bad that you have to laugh because if you don't you're likely to curl up in a ball and cry? Lex was having this moment right now and the Gryffindor burst into unexplained and uncontrolled laughter at the Professor's words. Photosynthesis? Growing the plants for when they ran out of food? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Someonegetheroutofthisbloodycastle. "Excellent. Brilliant. Fantastic." A crazed look replaced the false humour in the Gryffindor's hazel eyes. "I'm a carnivore Professor. I'll never survive greens. " Don't make her live without meat, please? PLEASE?

For a split second, she would admit she was actually amused. "Glitter trousers? Seriously? Tell me you've never owned up to it." And while they were on this topic her eyes trailed down to said trousers. Not a glitter in sight. Quite the relief too or she might have cut her losses and left. Glitter was a big no and she didn't take the Professor for a Pansy. "Yeah, sure. Public, mhm."Not like she spent a tremendous amount of time talking about Professor Smiles anyway.

Normally she'd have given some indication she didn't care for the ramblings being offered to her but in the wake of talks about Astrology, Lex was fine with letting the logic sweep over her. "Plenty of free time on my hands now, I'll be sure to look into it--which reminds me." Lex hopped onto the counter, watching the Professor get their snack ready. "Let's say a REALLY RESPONSIBLE EX-PREFECT wanted to take a glance at a few things in the Restricted Section of the Library because she's exhuasted all her own books on Defensive and Dark magic.......could she ask you for a permission slip?" He was advocating reading here and like....Lex was running out of things to do. Being inside was trying her MAD.

"And I'll be sure to quote that the next time she tries speaking about planets." If the sky really had shifted then it blew her conversation even further out of the water. Take that Professor Smiles.

Also, she might have calmed down a little hearing that he was willing to listen to her version. No doubt the other Professor had gotten some of it twisted. Lex doubted she'd mention calling the Professor unprofessional. "There really isn't that much to tell, see, you know how Professors like opening classes with a few questions? She showed us this astrology chart and asked what it was. I said it's what you'd call blasphemy--but only cause it's true--and you'll never believe it but then she started implying you were unprofessional and junk just because I mentioned you having an opinion." The nerve of it all. Professor Airey was one of the few with a brain, and an interesting one at that. "I wouldn't have cared about her saying I was wrong, I get that all the time but I told her you wouldn't appreciate what she was implying with her statements--so she called me a distraction even though everyone was drawing star charts or whatever and not paying attention to me." That...was pretty much it.

Aaaand Rehman fires the shot just as Adair uses his hands as a shield. The snowball hits and icy bits fall unto the Gryffindor. AND THE CROWD GOES WILD aaaaah. He couldn't help, but laugh as Adi fired a "snowball". "Yeah, that would be fun," well kind of. Actually more than anything Zander just wanted all the snow to melt. The outdoors were like his escape. Here, at home, always. "I think I just want it all to melt. It's-it's just been here for too long, you know?"

So, he's got a question. Okay. Zander lifted an eyebrow out of curiosity.Why was he acting so weird during-- WAIT, HUH??? Did other people actually notice that?! Dang it. Those acting skills weren't as good as he thought. O___________O But he couldn't possibly actually tell Adi why! He had only met the kid recently. And after telling both Lux AND Kevin, things were getting way out of hand. Why'd this always happen to him!? W H Y W H Y?? Merlin, why?

"Well it's actually a funny story," actually it wasn't. "I'm a bit of a chocolate-frog-aholic..." This was true. "And I ate some bad chocolate that morning..." It could've happened?"And I think it made me sick...." Why? "It made me real sweaty and stuff..." He was no Ravenclaw after all. "And I didn't wanna you know miss class..." Which was understandable because house points, house pride. "And I was scared that I was going to get all sick on the plants..." Too much information? "So I was just really nervous and that's why." A novel, by Zander Adair.

It definitely did not have to do with a certain crush that he was certainly having on a certainly beautiful certain herbology professor. Nope. Not at all. But hopefully the Hufflepuff would believe the story because Zander was fresh out of lies. And further details.

The boy was a little pink in the face now, but he hoped that Adi wouldn't notice that either. Fingers crossed. Hyper on sugar? Yes please. If that meant Adi could think about being hyper and not about strange behavior in herbology THEN BRING ON THE MARSHMALLOWS, BABY! "Yeah me too, the snow is really killing me."

Yes, Schuyler was into that. At least when the complicated person was Olly. Then she didn’t mind it. Her hands still lingered on Olly as she watched her girlfriend move a little closer against her. Needless to say, Schuyler approved of this move. "I'm sure that comes in handy." Having wise friends. Although it always was easier to give advice than to take it. "So, have you been hanging out with your 'wise friends' lately?" Yep, it was Schuyler's turn to be subtle now. As much as Schuyler liked to keep Olly all to herself, part of their efforts lately had been to put a degree of separation between them, for Olly's own good. And that was easier to handle when one had friends to help. Olly was fortunate enough to have some good friends, too..

The living on campus part was taken without protest, and Schuyler did figure that this may have been because they'd just established that she would be studying in England rather than Spain. She smiled into the kiss. Her whole body felt so much more relaxed now. Content. And when she pulled back from the kiss, her fingertips touched Olly’s lips before slowly falling off her chin to rest on the other girl's chest. "Eh. I only keep you around for Julian." Heh.