Well, Lux was happy to see that Abby was enjoying her time at the school so far! "Awesome, and I am always here to help you if you need assistance." Of course there were Prefects and Staff members for that as well, but it never was a bad thing to have extra help when it could be given.

"Congratulations on making Ravenclaw. It's a wonderful House. Your sisters are in Gryffindor, right?" So far Lux had met Angel and Abby. but she knew that there was another sister as well. What was her name? Aubrey? Audrey? Something like that.

Did Grayson want to be sitting indoors and doing homework?

NO.

That was why he had taken every measure to procrastinate, whether it was from writing pointless letters to his family to watching the fishes swim by in the common room and trying to pretend that they were partaking in an epic race. But now? Now he was wandering around the grounds because he really had nothing better to do. Story of a bored teenager right here.

Before he knew it, Grayson found himself standing nearly halfway along the bridge. He sat down, letting his legs dangle over the edge of the bridge. This was the way to observe what was going on around him. It was a pity his electronics didn't work at Hogwarts; how was he meant to get anything done without his music? In the meantime, he was going to sit here looking as casual as possible. Humming a tune like yeahhhh, bopping his head like yeaaaaahhhh.

This ravine was boring. What was he doing here?!

After being at Hogwarts for two years this year didn't count yet Donny had done plenty of exploring and there weren't a lot of places left to go exploring. Instead of exploring, which wasn't much fun without Abbi, he left his beloved toad in the Hufflepuff common room and had skipped outside. He hadn't paid attention to where he was going, but once he realised he was nearing the bridge Donny gave himself the thumbs up and decided to head that way.

Ooh! He could get a book, maybe.

Hello there, stranger! Donny came to a halt next to some boy he hadn't seen around the school before. He seemed too old to be a first year though.. The boy seemed lost in thought, but the tune he was humming was catchy, so Donny sat down next to him before waving a hand in front of his eyes. "....hiiii!" Donny said as he bopped his head along.

Kace got a note from Melek saying she wanted to meet him here. He was happy to meet her. He hadn't really seen her all summer. He walked over to the bridge and took in the view. He forgot how beautiful this place really was. He smiled and took out his drawing pad he kept handy and started to sketch.

Okay................... WHAT?!

One minute he had been looking down at the ravine and having a quiet rave in his head and the next, some random kid decided to disrupt his vision by waving a hand in front of his face. And to think he had been minding his own business, for once. The expression on his face matched that of a deer caught in headlights as he turned his head to look at the newcomer. Did he recognise him? No. Couldn't even tell whether he was a Slytherin or not.

Oh. Greeting.

The expression on Grayson's face softened. He could practically hear his mother's voice in his head telling him to be nice and use the manners she had enforced upon him and his brother, Curtis. "Hellooooo," A little dragged out because his mind was trying to put a face to a name. But he was sure that he hadn't seen this kid before. "I'm sorry but who are you?"

And was the kid bopping his head along to the tune Grayson had been humming before? If so, good. He had good taste and maybe he could stay.

Melek skipped over to the bridge, happy that Kace agreed to come meet her there. It was GORGEOUS and the day was nice. Her thoughts were on Bryant though that she barely noticed that Kace was already there. Mel blinked then beamed, "Hey, Kace!" She saw the sketchbook, "Oh, you draw? How awesome!" Melek tried to look over his shoulder to see what he was drawing.

Kace grinned and said, "Hey Melek..." acknowledging her presence. He was shading in the trees. "Yeah i do draw.." he looked into her eyes and grinned. "It is quite awesome.." he chuckled agreeing with her. "How have you been missy?" he asked his friend. He continued to look at the view and commented, "I forgot how beautiful this place is.." he smiled.

Melek beamed and hugged him kinda seeing that she didnt want to mess up his drawing when he acknowledged her. "I didnt know that you do... Hmmm... Learning new things each and every day!" Mel giggled and smiled at him. She nodded as he agreed that him drawing is awesome. "I have been fine, mister and you?" Melek poked his side gently then leaned against a wall but not in front of what he was drawing, of course. "You should draw me sometime." Mel giggled and teased him. She nodded and looked around at the place, "Yeah... I had forgotten how beautiful this place is too..." A smile came and she started to relax which normally happened when she was hanging out with him.

"Yeah it is not something i like to show off...." Kace shrugged and closed his sketch pad. "Oh i have been fine too, you know i just chilled around for the summer." he shrugged like it was no big deal. He poked her side gently back. "Oh i haven't considered doing portraits yet.." he said considering it. But he may not be good at it. Since Melek was Anna's friend, he better ask her. "Have you see Anna around?" he asked.

"Why not? You are good at it." She smiled at him and tilted her head, "You dont have to stop drawing if you dont wanna... I mean I can be silent if you want to draw in silence..." Melek watched him, "I am glad that you are fine and I am glad that you just chilled around for the summer. How is your girlfriend?" Mel didnt really want to know about his girlfriend but she was just being a good friend and asking about the girl. She squirmed as he poked her and she went to pok him again. "You havent?" Melek giggled and smiled at him. Her happiness faded away as he brought up Anna. She glanced down and away, "Umm... no... not really..." She ruffled her hair and shuffled her feet.

"Oh you think so?" he asked her. He flipped open his sketchbook and showed her some of his doodles. "I am really into graffiti, i do not know why but i always found it interesting. I mean hogwarts would never let me graffiti the castle but it would be cool.." he shrugged. "But i do landscaping for fun. I loved getting lost in the world and drawing it my own..." he smiled as cheesy as it sounded. "Oh you are not a distraction at all." he assured her. He didn't want to make Melek feel uncomfortable.

Oh? She asked about his girlfriend. He smiled and said, "Well she is doing well. I mean i am going to see her in a few and i am surprising her with a picnic so i am quite excited." he smiled. He loved the idea of spending alone time with her. Now the bigger question, "What about you? How is your love life?" he asked his friend. "No i have not considered portraits but graffiti portraits i have considered." he told her truthfully. Hopefully she understood what it was.

Then she answered his question about Anna. She seemed uncomfortable about it and decided to let it go. He nodded and just looked towards the scenery.

Wow. Someone wasn't used to people talking to him.

So.. maybe he'd been a bit overenthusiastic, but was that really such a bad thing? New people could do with some company! Donny was company! ...hellooooo? Donny still hadn't figured out who the stranger was, was he going to speak?!

Ok, so at least he could hear him, but he still seemed very confused. Had he never met new people before? See, he spoke! And he was polite, which reminded Donny that he hadn't been very polite. At least his mam wasn't here to see it. Donnacha cleared his throat and extended a hand. "I'm Donny! Donnacha Harper, but you can call me Donny. EVERYONE DOES." ...almost everyone. "Or Donny Dolphin, you choose!" He took a deep breath and reminded himself to slooooow down. "What's your name? You're new, aren't you?!" Donny continued in a fast pace.

BOOM. Friendship. That's how it usually worked. Donny could do with some musical peeps!

Did Charlie think the threat was something to be worried about? Her brain said no, but her gut said something completely different. Maybe that was just her being worried about Tristan, but Charlie wasn't going to let the boy know she was actually worried.

It wouldn't do to scare someone. "I hope I'm right, anyway. And even if I'm wrong, the Professors are really clever, and we've got extra security at the moment. Do you... play Quidditch?" Because that was when he needed to be worried. Not that he could do much Quidditch playing this year, what with it being banned. That was also a precautionary measure against these threats, wasn't it? So everyone should have been safe. She hoped, anyway. "You can be happy. Maybe you've got inner strengths and qualities you've never had the opportunity to realise. Maybe you're extra super chivalrous?" You know, to make up for not being brave and courageous?

"I didn't think I belonged in Ravenclaw, when I got sorted." And that was something EVERYONE knew about Charlie. She'd almost gone to the Headmistress and demanded a resorting. "But maybe I was just angry at the hat hair the thing gave me." Charlie laughed a little, to show that it was a joke, even if it was true, and was therefore totally at the expense of her shallowness.

It wasn't like she was shallow often at all.

Ah, so he was halfblood? "My mama's a muggle," she said mindlessly. "I'm sure it's not that boring. Does she like it?" Because, like her mother always said, you shouldn't perform a job you don't enjoy. But, hey, some people had to do what they had to do. "It has to be proper snow for it to be nice, though. Not the wet, mushy kind you get most of the time in Britain. And you have to be wrapped up warm." Otherwise it was no fun whatsoever. Nope.

"That's true..the Professors are here. I'm sure i'll be fine.. and no i never really got into Quidditch, it's not as big in America." So did that mean he would be safe? He wasn't an athlete, weren't they the one's being threatened? But just because he wasn't being threatened didn't make the threats less important or serious. These were people's lives after all.

Connor laughed at the hat hair joke and smiled a bit. "Why did you doubt Ravenclaw? I was just embarrassed being up there like that." He was curious if she was actually angry about something, but if it was her business and she didn't wanna talk about it he wouldn't pry. His mother hadn't raised him to be rude, and so far Charlie was nothing but nice to him.

"Ohh, okay! So you know a good bit about the muggle world then? Do you miss any of it?" He missed a lot of things, TV the internet, video games. Not that Hogwarts wasn't great, but he still missed home and his room, his dog, things like that. "I think she likes it, she works with a friend of hers and seems happier now that we're in England." And he just wanted his mother to be happy where she was in life. "Your Mom sounds like she knows what she's talking about then." He would hate having a job that didn't make him happy. "Will it snow like that here? I've never been anywhere else for the winter before.."

Yes, that was a little overenthusiastic.

At least the boy was introducing himself. Which further confirmed his theory that he hadn't met the boy before. Also, Donnacha? Don'cha? Were his parents a sassy bunch? Or had hoped that Donny would end up being a sassy one himself? Because it sounded like the kind of name you'd say while snapping your fingers at someone. But then again, his surname was Whitlock; do you know how many padlock related jokes he had received growing up? Jeez. "Good to meet you, Donny. You have an interesting name," he said, shaking the boy's hand. What? It WAS true.

Don'cha!

Sassy Loony needed this name. Not freaking Hopscotch.

"The name's Grayson. Grayson Whitlock. I don't know what nickname you can come up from that but you can try to give me one." This was the boy's first test: coming up with a decent nickname. And jeez, Donny was talking FAST. Someone had taken their happy-bouncy potion today. "Yeah, I am. Is it that obvious?"

Was this kid boring? Had his former school sent him off because he didn't talk? Donnacha scrunched up his face and after some thinking decided that that was impossible, schools weren't allowed to be mean.

Was his name strrrange? Having heard his name all thirteen and three quarters of his life Donny didn't think his name was strange at all. He'd heard weirder names. Shruuug. "Int'resting? How? There's a famous Quiddisher and and he calls me Crabhands Boy!" Donny told him and snapped his fingers like a crab. Some info to impress the guy! So far he didn't seem very impressed by Donny.. or maybe he was just freaking out over new stuff. New people. New school. New.. shoes? Donnacha quickly checked stranger's shoes. ..Looking good.

Grayson. Gray. Son.... Grayson. Did his dad have grey hair? Because son, y'know. Ooh, and he got to pick a nickname. That would have to wait until he got to know Grayson though, it had to be a good one. Donny Dolphin was good, because he liked dolphins. DID GRAYSON LIKE GREY? Grrrayson Whitlock. Almost like the colours. "Grey and white. Sort of. But that's not your nickname, no. I haven't gots one for you yet!" Deep breath. He hurried on, just to make sure that he wouldn't forget what he was going to say. "Why is it a nickname? D'you know?!" He might!

Of course it was obvious! New faces were just about as obvious as could be, most people didn't change face over summer. "Weeell... Just the diff'rent face thing. Uhuh. What year are you in?!"

Oh Merlin, he had to explain how? His answer to this was LAME and there was no way he could go ahead with this and come across as the cool guy that he was. SIGH. "I've just never heard of it before," Shrug. "And it sounds like a sassy name." You know, if he was going to be honest. Crabhands Boy? Grayson looked at the boy.

And then snorted.

And THEN laughed.

"Crabhands Boy is........... unique." What? It was the truth. MAN. "You a big fan of crabs, then?" They weren't the most interesting of creatures but they did scurry about people while clicking their pincers. Man, having pincers would be awesome. And why was the new boy looking at his shoes? Grayson's eyebrows furrowed before looking down at his own shoes as well. There was nothing there so what was the boy doing? Weird, this one was.

Gray and white???? Because of Grayson and Whitlock? "I could get used to that. Someone calls me Gray too." And he called her Gold because they both had colourful names. Oh jeez, this boy talked a lot. Were his parent hummingbirds? They constantly went around chirping to the other birds about this and that. "Because you nick part of the name to form a new one." That was made up. Honestly, the boy did NOT know but he wasn't going to admit that.

Different face thing. Riiiiiiiiiiiight. Whatever. Grayson nodded at that and decided not to comment. Maybe it was a good thing. His face really was great, wasn't it? "Fourth year. Slytherin, by the way. You?"

Hmm. That seemed logical enough. Although he hadn't ever met a Grayson until today and he didn't think his name was particularly interesting.. "I gueeeess.." Interesting was good, most of the time, and if it wasn't Donnacha would just pretend it was. Donny was just that cool. ....sassy. Now that was interesting. He had been called a lot of things, but sassy was not one of them. Nor did he think his name was sassy. What was sassy? Donnahhhhhhhka.. He repeated his name a few times, but.. nope, he didn't get it. "Oh, uhuh. The sassiest." Donny nodded. Just go along with it, why don't you?

Hehe. Crabhands. It was a good name, wasn't it? Donny thought it was.

Unique. Special. One of a kind. That was Crabhands Boy. "Yeah! It is." But.. although he did like crabs, that wasn't how he'd gotten the name. Or... he liked them, but not enough to want a crab-y nickname. No. The real story was much better. Donny definitely thought it was a fun story. "Well... let me tell you how it happened." He took a deep breath, there'd be a lot of talking going on. Better pay attention, Grayson! "So! I live in Howth, yeah? That's like.. at the sea! Dublin Bay! D'you know it?" No? Ok, he wasn't going to wait for an answer. Answers could wait. "And then.. one day.. I went to the beach to collect shells and stuffs, but then.. then I saw a crab! Yeah! And I gots it and wanted to put it in my bucket when...." He waited a moment before yelling. "SNAP SNAP!!" Donny snapped his fingers. "..he pins'd me. And then I hid it from my mam and it got gross! So now I've gots a scar." Donny wiggled his fingers in front of Grayson's face and nodded excitedly.

Oh. Ok. Grey and White it was. It was kind of long, wasn't it? Gray worked too, but only in case of an emergency! ...hmm. You.. nicked their name. Nicked. Name. Nickname. Clever. "Oh, yeah, maybe! It's a good one! Who came up with it, d'you know?" Was this Grayson person a walking encyclopaedia? That stuff was awesome.

Aha! Slytherin! Like Grace! But she wasn't a fourth year, nope. Just the Slytherin part. Cool cool. "I'm in Hufflepuff! Third year! From the starts!" Donnacha squinted at the Slytherin and tried to think of any other important information that he might be needing... Shoesize? Favourite colour? That had to be grey, of course. He had to check. "Is grey your favourite colour? For reasons."

He guessed? Did he not know how extremely smart Grayson was being with his answer? Whatever. Didn't need his compliment, no thank you. Grayson just nodded in response. Was he going to appreciate that he noticed how sassy the boy's name was? Yes? No? Either way, Grayson was going to make a fool of himself yet AGAIN. Taking a deep breath, the boy tried to put on his sassiest facial expression before saying, "Donn'cha!" And THERE was the sassy finger snap.

Goodbye ego.

Oh jeez. This kid really did talk a lot, didn't he? Grayson blinked as he launched into a story about crabs and beaches and whatnot. Uh huh. Dublin Bay. He nodded. Yeah, he was listening. Of course he was. But somewhere in his mind, he couldn't help but imagine the young boy being raised by a bunch of hummingbirds. Like Tarzan but without the apes. And this was why he talked at a rate of 200 miles an hour.

Then there was shouting. Of course there was shouting. Why WOULDN'T there be shouting?

No, Grayson. This was an EXCITING story. "Sweet Merlin!" he said, his eyes widening as he looked over at the boy's finger and the scar, "You know what this means, don't you?" He was going to explain anyways. "You have a battle wound. And you got a nickname out of it. You're practically your own epic hero." This was a genuine compliment.

At least the boy believed his theory behind the word 'nickname'. Now all he had to do was trademark it so that people didn't STEAL this theory and pass it off as their own. That would be lame and the boy would be very upset. But in regards to the question, Grayson shrugged. "No idea! But the first person to receive a nickname must have been mega confused."

Donn'cha being in the house of the Huggers and Finders made all the sense in the world. No really, it did. "So you're only a year younger than me." He even smiled. A genuine smile. "You must know a lot about the castle." Oh jeez. Was his favourite colour grey? Why did so many people want to know that? "Nah! Grey's a really boring colour. I like burgundy. Green's not bad either." Especially since the inner lining of his robes and his tie both had green on them. "What's yours?"

Not as big in America. That was interesting, almost like the whole football/soccer thing? Maybe. Eh, Charlie wouldn't pretend to know much about sports. "Well, then I guess we should both be fine, so long as the players are protected, I mean." Because she didn't want those people hurt, nope. And if they didn't get hurt, she could hide behind them, who would hide behind the Professors. Or not, 'cause nothing was gonna happen. Right?

Right.

"Because I'm not super clever, and... well, my best friend's in Hufflepuff. So yeah. I got a bit insecure about being on my own." And he didn't need to know that because he barely knew her, but whatever. Connor had told her, so she could tell him. They could bond over being new and not fitting into their houses. Well, not feeling like they fit into them. Looking back, Charlie now knew that she'd been an Eagle from the start, and actually felt stupid about being so silly now.

A bit?! For all of fourteen years, Charlie had preferred the Muggle World. She was probably going to end up working there, too. Or half there, at least - if she could persuade Tam to let her intern forever. "Films. And Vogue." Even though she got her sister to owl her the monthly magazine, she missed her Audrey Hepburn marathons. SIGH. "Mama? Yes she does, she's amazing." Best mother ever, and Charlie would deny any bias, and ignore the fact that she still felt weird about magic. "It does snow, and usually it's pretty great. Just good enough for snow angels, and snow ball fights." If she had a hat on, that is. "I still prefer summer, though." Nothing beat warmth.

Just like that, one month had passed already at Hogwarts and everything seemed to be going the same to Richard. Not that he truly minded. He had made some effort to talk more to people and he definitely had participated more in class. Somewhat.

Really, degnoming? Not his thing and not what he needed to learn, thank you very much.

Sitting down on the floor of the bridge, back leaning against the rail, Richard took one bean from the box of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans as he looked over the results of the previous weekend's Quidditch matches in the sports section of the Daily Prophet spread over his lap.

Oh, ew. Bogey.

Louis was on his way back to the castle, nibbling on one of the double chocolate chip muffins he'd been sent in his recent care package from home. Nom nom. The third year closed his eyes and savoured the chocolatey gooey goodness.

And then he almost fell to his death.

Slight exaggeration maybe, but he tripped! And worst of all the the muffin flew from his hand and rolled off the side of the bridge.

Noooooooooo.

"Why are you sitting on the floor!?" Louis scowled at the owner of the foot he'd just tripped on. Oh. It was the ginger kid from Care of Magical Creatures class. The creepy stalker kid.

"I lost my muffin!"

Oh, the Caerphilly Catapults had lost.

Again.

Richard hadn't watch the match - obviously, since he was stuck at Hogwarts - but he could bet the 5 galleons he had managed to save from birthday and Christmas' gifts for six years now that the fault was with their keeper. And their manager.

HMMM. Could he apply for a job managing the Catapults? He'd try that next summer.

His thoughts about his future plans were interrupted by a kid carelessly running him over. WELL THAT WAS RUDE! "You shouldn't walk without paying attention, you know?!" Richard bristled at the boy's question, crossing his arm over his chest with an huff. What a stupid question, really. "Should I be sitting on the air?" He asked the boy in way of reply, the words being accompanied by an expression which clearly showed his thoughts on the boy.

Rather mental.

You didn't mess with food, though, so Richard did feel bad about the boy's muffin. Uncrossing his arms, he picked up the box of his Bertie Botts beans and offered it to the kid. Just to prove he was nicer than him. HAH.

"I was paying attention," Louis retorted with a frown. He totally wasn't but he wasn't going to admit that, was he? Sit in the air? This boy was crazy. He kind of wanted a Bertie Botts bean to replace the muffin he had lost but even Louis knew that accepting food from stalkers was silly.

Also, last time he'd picked out a rotten egg flavoured one.

"No, thank you," the third year muttered slowly, eyeing the Daily Prophet ginger boy had been reading. Was that the sports section he could see? "Does it say in there how the Falcons did?"

The boy clearly wasn't paying attention. There was no way that boy would've tripped one his foot if he had been paying attention to where he was going. Richard felt like there was no point in arguing that, really, so with a shrug he dropped both the subject and the hang holding the box of candy on offer.

If the weird Slytherin boy didn't want to take it, Richard would most definitely not force him to eat his candy, that was for sure.

He absentmindedly moved one hand through his ginger hair, messing it up even more, and nodded at the boy's question. Well, he didn't know for sure, but surely it did, yeah? "The Falcons played .... the Wimbourne Wasps away and won ..." Richard squinted his eyes, finger following the chart so he'd get to the end result. "... by 270 to 110." Wow, that was good.

Looking back up at the boy, he forgot all about his rudeness and weirdness. How rude and/or weird could someone be if they cared about Quidditch enough to want to know the result of a match?! "So you're a Falcons fan, then?"