Voice. Male voice. Non-familiar voice. Distracting her from staring longingly at drawings of her pretty handsome boyfriend. Was said voice calling her weird or soppy or just being generally mean? Was said voice even talking to her?

Looking around a little, Charlie gestured to herself as her eyes landed on the boy who'd spoken. Someone she didn't know at all. But he was definitely talking to her (at least, she thought he was - how awkward would it have been if she'd replied and he wasn't? The thought almost made her shudder) and her brow furred at his questions. "I... It doesn't, no."

With a glance back to the tree, the seventh year continued talking without looking at the boy. "From this distance, in it's docile -" however docile the Whomping Willow could be "- state, it's branches can't reach." She paused for a moment, tilting her head to one side. "I guess it's like any other creature: it doesn't thrash around unless it's provoked." And she wasn't going to go poking it at any point soon, no thank you.

Nodding at Angel's comment about not wanting to get hurt, Lux slowly got back to her feet. Brushing some grass off of her pants, she looked around to see if there was anything on the ground that could be used. Hmm. Those twigs might work. Picking two up, she handed one over to her friend.

"I'm not sure how to tell the difference, but I think the new Herbology Professor won't mind us asking." He was a teacher, and part of being a teacher was answering questions that students had. Maybe he wouldn't know either. Maybe trees didn't have genders. Lux had no idea, but there was only one way to find out.

The whomping willow was one of the most fascinating places Chance liked to go to. It had an errie but comforting tone to it. He liked to doge in between the branches as they swiped at him. It was a game. It was always usually pretty quiet at the tree too. A lot of people thought it as irritating with them trying to study and the branches knocking the breath out of them. So it was a little but of a surprise when another boy was lazily sitting by it. A mischievous grin spread across chances face.

Trying to be quiet, chance quickly ran over to the boy and saw the book on the ground. Herbology!! chances favorite subject!! Grabbing the book, Chances attempt to be quiet vanished as he plopped down hard into the ground beside the boy. "Oi!! You like Herbology??" He asked. Not many people did so when Chance found someone to talk with about it, he took it.

Other people? Dot chucked a pebble at her own foot, just... to see what happened. Ouch. What happened was ouch. "I met a boy called Bart who said Gryffindor girls were prettiest." She still wasn't clear on that one, to be honest. How could that universally be true, anyway?

"And there's Dante, in my house. He's a Dark Wizard. And I've met some others in my house." None that really stood out to her so far, but it was a lot to take in, this being new to a group of people who already knew each other. "I'm supposed to make friends who are girls."

Adi had almost drifted off fully for his nap when he was rather suddenly brought back to the real world. WHO in the world was interrupting him? His Herbology book had apparently fallen off of his face because he was staring up at the bright blue sky.

That's when he heard the loud voice. It wasn't one he recognised. Adi heaved himself up into a sitting position and rubbed his eyes. Man. He'd been dreaming too. He'd been dreaming about AJ.

The fourth year turned to look at the dude that had interrupted him. Who was he? Oh. The book wasn't on the ground after all. The unfamiliar dude had it. "Herebology's fine. I prefer Care of Magical Creatures.'' He eyed the boy. "You interrupted my nap. I can put you in detention for disturbing me.'' LOL. Adi could do no such thing but he just felt like having a bit of fun. He was even smiling slightly.

Lex felt herself prickle some. Dot had met Bart? It took everything in her not to outright go, "Ew." Oh whoops, she said it anyway. Sigh. There was no helping that. "Gryffindor does had a knack for gorgeous people, yes, but you shouldn't go talking to him too much unless you want your brain rotting and your character coming into question." And yes, she meant every word of that. Alexa had experienced Bart on several occasions and was happy enough knowing this was the last year they'd share a Common Room. Him and Kevin.

Her brow perked up in amusement. "Dark Wizard, huh? He any good at hexes?" She could appreciate the aspiration. Not everyone had what it took to be a dark wizard and not everyone decided they wanted that life. It took the special few, like maybe this Dante kid.

"Who says you need friends that are girls? I mean they can be useful sometimes but boys can be just as good." She reached over and poked the little snake. "And I'm a girl."

Care of Magical Creatures? For real? Who would want to handle those freaky looking things that drove the carriages on the way to school? Surely not Chance! His face probably portrayed his feelings as he looked disgusted, and unbelievable at the face of this... gulp .... Prefect.

Wait...

He was a Huffie Prefect. He couldn't do that to him could he? .... Nah!

Chance cocked an eyebrow at the boy and his face erupted into a grin. "One: Even if you COULD give me detention, it wouldn't be for disturbing you, and Two: you are a Huffie Prefect, you can't give me a detention anyways!" He hoped his smile was contagious.

"Besides, if you do like Care of Magical Creatures, what are you doing... napping with a Herbology book? Shouldn't you be reading something you preferably like?" Chance asked as he thumbed through the Herbology book. Oh! Mandrakes. Chance loved him some Mandrakes. Those nasty buggars!

Waho.

Noel could BET on his life, this girl was a ravenclaw. "You are a ravenclaw, aren't you?" he called out, still not moving from his place. No matter how docile - um and whatever she said the whomping willow was, Noel was not going near that thing.

"Yes. But. What if someone else provoked it, and you get stomped in the process" he said, standing on his toes and trying to see what she was doing but he couldn't so he took one giant step toward her. He was still pretty far from the girl, so it was okay. "What are you drawing?" he asked, when he saw the papers in her lap.

Angel looked at Lux and smiled. "Yeah I'm sure you are right and the Herbology Professor won't mind us asking." Angel thought it would be cool if they did find out because she was really curious now. "I think it would be amazing to know how we tell the difference.

Angel watched as Lux passed her a twig. "I think you should go first." Angel didn't want to go first there was no need for her to throw a twig if the tree got really mad, after all Lux was the oldest and so she could protect her little friend if things went wrong, right Lux?

Giving a nod, Lux was glad that Angel had agreed with her on asking the Herbology professor about the tree being a boy or girl. But there were more pressing matters to be dealt with at the moment. Namely her being the first to toss the twig.

Figuring she had nothing to lose, Lux let it fly while waiting to see if the Whomping Willow did anything.

Why was the guy looking so disgusted or something? Was it becuase of the Magical Creatures subject? Just for your info, dude, that subject is just awesome. Especially when you've got a cool Professor to go along with it.

Adi grinned at the guy's reasoning. "Quite right you are. We're not allowed to give detentions, anyway.'' He sat cross legged on the ground, the wind blowing his hair all around. "I'm Aditya but call me Adi. Fourth Year. What about you?''

"That's true,'' Adi continued, liking this fellow. He used his brain, alright. "But I like that subject so much that I read the text book a lot. I haven't spent as much time on other subjects so I figured I'd change that this year. You know, when you really like something there's always the motivation to do stuff related to it but it's the total opposite of when you don't like something.'' What a long explanation that was. LOL.

"How are you liking Hogwarts so far?''

See? Chance was smart. You couldnt tell it by his goofy grin and his boylike charms, but he had a brain under this head of hair of his. He grinned triumphantly as he realized he was right. Because honestly, he was hoping what he was saying was right, but you could never be to sure.

Chance's hands automatically went to the grass blades as he sat down with Adi. He gave a goofy grin when Adi mentioned he was a fourth year too. "Gryffindor Fourth Year." he said with a nod. Fourth years unite!

Okay, so his explanation about the book seemed to check out. He'd give him that. "Well, I should probably start reading Care of Magical Creatures then because... one of my weakest subjects." Chance stated with a shrug.

"Oh I love Hogwarts ever since I stepped into it 4 years ago. I had never known about magic until I got that letter and I still didnt believe it until I walked through the door. Heck, I still don't believe some of the stuff that happens around here." He shook his head with the moving staircases and RoR. "What about you? I think I've seen you around with a girl. That your girlfriend? Getting the ladies?" He said with a wink. Chance wasn't much of a ladies man but he could act like he was....... not. You could tell by his goofy grin that that sentence didn't seem to fit him. He was a one lady kinda man.

The whomping willow was perhaps the coolest tree ever, and AJ still had plans to climb it. Or to do something cool with it. How many people could say that the climbed a tree that tried to wallop you good? Still, she needed to figure out how to do it without getting caught. The second year wasn't too worried about getting hurt. That wasn't necessarily on her list of priorities.

As she made her way over to the tree, she stared at it for about five whole minutes. Then deciding that she would enjoy the sunshine while she came up with a plan, she plopped herself down on her belly and kicked her feet back and forth in the air.

Leonard had seen a moving tree...

There was a moving tree!

That was possibly the new most amazing thing at this school!

He'd practically run run where he was to see this thing up close... was it violent or friendly? It looked kind of violent...

And then he saw another Lion and grinned, moving over to her and dropping himself down on the ground in front of where the girl was. "Hey" he said with a grin on his face. "How are you?"

This was the second time for the term that someone had reminded Adi about himself. First it had been Nola and now Chance. Both were so high on smiles and happy like usually was. Persons like that were just awesome!

"Cool. Fourth year buddies, then?'' Adi shot Chance a wide grin. Erm...had he been blind to miss this cool guy before? Course, Hogwarts did have loads of students so there was no way he knew everyone. Anyway. "That's one of your weakest subjects? Well, if you ever need help with it, just let me know.'' Adi wasn't an expert in the subject but he did know a lot about magical creatures.

Ohh. So Chance was a muggle born. "All that magic does take some time to get used to,'' Adi agreed. "I can just imagine you stepping into Hogwarts for the first time and been greeted by a talking hat, moving staircases and moving portraits.'' LOL. "And Platform 9 3/4...what did you think of that?'' You know, the wall and all.

Adi laughed at the next question. There was no doubt about whom Chance was referring to. He and AJ did spend loads of time together. "Yep, AJ is my girlfriend,'' he confirmed. "You must know her.'' They shared a common room after all.

Well, well, well... look who had just joined her. It was one of the newest members of the Gryffindor house, and the firstie that AJ claimed as hers at the beginning of term feast. "Hey, Leo." How was she? Fantastic, awesome, on cloud nine. He could really pick any of them. "I'm good. How about you?" Because she cared.

"How are you liking Hogwarts so far? And more importantly, Gryffindor?" Was anybody giving him any trouble? AJ would totally kick their butts. "See that tree over there?" she asked as she pointed at it. It was time to see just how Gryffindory young Leo was.

The smile on this kid was contagious! Or maybe it was the other way around. Chance was grinning his head off. He didn't know why. There wasn't anything special going on... But he was in an utterly good mood.

"Well I may just take you up on that offer of help one day then, buddy." Chance said nodding. Lord knows he needed it. He wasn't fond of muggle pets, much less magical pets whose beaks, claws, and teeth could rip him to shreds. No thank you! He'd stick to his owl, Oli, and thatd be that.

The wall. The dreaded wall. "I still have to talk myself into walking into it every year. The first time I was told to walk through it I was like, 'its a wall. i will break my nose. no' I ended up getting pushed." Chance said and shook his head. "I love flying though. One of my favorite magic perks."

"Yes, I think I do! She's my Little actually. Small world. I just met her not too long ago actually." Chance said. She had been just as cool as he was. And that coming from a secnd year.... was impressive.

"I'm pretty good" he commented with a grin. And it was true. So far he'd met a lot of cool people, explored a pretty awesome school and had some of the most awesome classes/teachers that he'd ever had in his life.

But anyway back on track with the conversation.

"Hogwarts is amazing" he beamed. "And Gryffindor obviously so" he added to the end, which was true. Gryffindor was amazing. Obviously the best house ever and the best people ever. Including Airey. Airey was just amusing to the young lion, even if he couldn't always keep up or understand the Professor.

"The tree? Yeah I saw it from inside, main reason I came out here actually... I was kind of wondering if it was friendly but it doesn't look like it..." looking at it he wanted to try to get closer to it and see whether it actually was unfriendly.

O_____________________o

What was this?!

Maggie had stopped a SAFE distance away and was now STARING at the tree. Which was moving. And not just the normal, in-the-wind kind of moving. No it was...MOVING. BIG TIME SWAYING! And the wind was coming from the opposite direction. She had CHECKED. With her finger you know.

Of course she'd first looked around to make sure no one was around to see her.

THEN she had licked her finger and held it up. Yes. So it was safe to say that this tree was NOT moving because the wind was moving. NO-OH.

"How'd you know?" Charlie frowned a little, wondering if she'd left her scarf or badge attached to her in some way, but she was out of robes and her dress wasn't even blue or anything. Hmm. Maybe she should have pretended not to be, for a laugh? But she wasn't exactly the type to do that. Turning back to the boy, she eyed him a little. If she had to make an assumption, she wasn't going to say Gryffindor. He'd be a lot closer if that was the case - but hey! she wasn't going to judge. Maybe he was a Ravenclaw, too: it wouldn't be a surprise that she hadn't recognised him, and he had known about her....

Getting braver, for the not-so-Lion. "Then they're stupid. And they'd also get hurt in the process." With a bit of a shrug, Charlie shielded her eyes with her hand to see the boy better as she spoke. "You're not going to go around shouting or throwing things at it, are you?"

No homework was the best sort of homework, as it meant Archie could continue exploring the grounds. The evenings were getting shorter, and as a result, he needed to cram in as many outdoor adventures as he could before winter set in and only the weekends were available for sightseeing.

Today Archie was armed with his camera, with the aim of taking plenty of pictures to send home with his next letter update. He'd already got a few of the castle, so the next stop was the Whomping Willow. Preferably with a few to show Benjy how daring he was in getting close to it. Had his cousin really played jump rope with it?

"Excuse me," he asked, as he approached the person with the finger in the air from behind. "Would you mind taking a picture or two for me with the willow?"

........Oh no.

Maggie IMMEDIATELY lowered her finger and folded her hands in front of her. Not doing anything weird. Nope. Not at all. The person's words hadn't actually registered in her brain just yet, she was too busy looking normal. She even ran a hand through her hair to make it look pretty. Even prettIER.

Eventually she turned around.

Oh. Okay, she shouldn't have bothered. "What?" Something about photos. She didn't really care.

Gryffindors were such a lively bunch, and she loved that she was apart of this house. "Glad to hear it." AJ would keep an eye out for him to make sure that he wasn't falling behind.

"So amazing." There was still so much that AJ needed to explore herself. "Gotten lost yet?" She remembered back to her first year, and being late for her first ever Astro class all because the staircases decided to move. The lion meowed at the professor and somehow managed to not lose any points. Good times, good times. "Gryffindor is the best. You couldn't have gotten a better house." And she wasn't just saying that because it was her house.

AJ wanted to have fun, but at the same time she didn't want to lie to him. "It's actually not very nice. It will whack you good if you get to close to it." Hence the name, whomping willow. "I reckon that I am way faster than it, and can keep from getting whacked."

"Great! Maybe I might need help from you too. Probably with Herbology.'' Adi absently grabbed some grass with his left hand and started to shred them. He was enjoying this day. It wasn't right to spend it reading a boring text book. Chance was the perfect distraction. Plus he was making another friend. Another Gryffindor one too. Anyway. "Any other subjects you're an ace at?''

Adi laughed. "Who pushed you?" He didn't think going through the Wall should be an experience where you wanted to be pushed. "I think I was nervous but my mom kept reassuring me.'' Thank goodness for understanding moms. Hehe.

Ah. The Little Lion, Big Lion thingy. Adi had heard about it. He hadn't known Chance and AJ were teaming up for it though. "You've got a pretty cool partner there, buddy,'' he said fondly, as he thought of AJ He could also say the same for AJ. Chance was pretty cool too. "One thing you must never do is to insult unicorns.'' Unless you wanted to receive a good stamping on the feet. LOL.

"Uh... yeah I got lost once when I was exploring the castle" he admitted sheepishly, grinning at AJ as he ran a hand through his brown curls. "But it was ok, I met another lion who was pretty awesome... in fact she looked like you" he commented offhandedly, finally realising why she had looked so familiar.

Hmmm... so it was a mean tree...

And then AJ said something about thinking that she was faster... so did she also want to try climbing this tree. A mischevious grin crossed his face as Leo looked at the other lion.

"So... how are we going to do this?" he asked with a grin, figuring she'd be on the same page as him. Knowing her, the tree had also attracted her to this place in the first place...

And Gryffindors were supposed to be brave, why wouldn't this tree attract more of them?