While Paris was still very new to Hogwarts, he was a native of Scotland and was very accustomed to it's weather. So when he looked up at the sky and saw that it would most likely, he grabbed a light rain jacket and ran out to take advantage of the grounds while he still had a chance.

The fourth year made it all the way to the lake before slowing just enough to launch himself into the tree, almost slipping on the first branch and just managing to catch himself on the next one.

"I'm not eating bark," Dot pulled herself up a bit to eye the tree dubiously. No bark for her. "And if we want Gilligan to like us, I'm pretty sure we shouldn't eat him." Just a thought. Being nibbled always made Dot cross, and she wasn't even a tree.

She latched an arm around the tree and tried to scoot up into a seated position. "Have you ever climbed a tree before? D'you do it often?" Because standing at the bottom of a tree, wiggling your fingers at the branches, didn't seem the way to go.

Hope had returned to her consistent escape and as she observed it she found there to be more people in the tree than usual. Far too many honestly. She looked back at the lake and saw Cutty talking to some poor souls and she rolled her eyes. Better to be surrounded by these people than anywhere near the seriously deranged Mordaunt. At least she could be spared the way he seemed to know it all. Like there was something he knew about her that she didn't

With a good ump she caught a lower branch and pulled herself up into the branches. As she stepped from branch to branch she recognized a very familiar head petting a cat. Kace. Hmmmm. Maybe another day and with another jump she was momentarily suspended in air as she pushed herself forward to grasp another higher branch that was hanging a little ways out.

With grace she managed to make it and pull herself up. Yes, this was a good spot. Perfect view of the lake. She tugged at her hair and stared in amazement at the dark color. Should someone ask, she was rebuilding herself. Bringing for a new form of Hope Evans.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HOPEendures

Hope had returned to her consistent escape and as she observed it she found there to be more people in the tree than usual. Far too many honestly. She looked back at the lake and saw Cutty talking to some poor souls and she rolled her eyes. Better to be surrounded by these people than anywhere near the seriously deranged Mordaunt. At least she could be spared the way he seemed to know it all. Like there was something he knew about her that she didn't

With a good ump she caught a lower branch and pulled herself up into the branches. As she stepped from branch to branch she recognized a very familiar head petting a cat. Kace. Hmmmm. Maybe another day and with another jump she was momentarily suspended in air as she pushed herself forward to grasp another higher branch that was hanging a little ways out.

With grace she managed to make it and pull herself up. Yes, this was a good spot. Perfect view of the lake. She tugged at her hair and stared in amazement at the dark color. Should someone ask, she was rebuilding herself. Bringing for a new form of Hope Evans.

Caleb really loved the fact that it wasn't, you know...FREEZING here anymore. It was nice to finally get outside and enjoy the beautiful fall air. It was his favorite time of year, really - there were fun holidays like Halloween and then it immediately went into Christmas season. It was impossible NOT to be happy during this time of year! Even if he was still not talking to his twin.

As he walked, he heard a stirring in the tree above him. OMG. It was a squirrel ready to attack his hair, wasn't it? Jumping slightly, he immediately put his hands over his curly hair and looked up into the branches, expecting to see a rodent ready to pounce...instead he saw...Hope?

He wrinkled his eyebrows. What was she doing up THERE? "Hope?" he called up to her, just to make sure he wasn't going crazy and seeing things.

Ian looked like a kicked puppy when Justine, quite suddenly, snatched away her earlier gift and left his neck bare, without the warmth of her beautiful tanned hands. She always knew how to leave him wanting more.

He raised an eyebrow when she began stuttering, sounding amazingly… non-French.

*Staaaaare*
“…What happened to your accent?”
Did her overwhelming love for him cure her of it? Perfected her English? Amazing the things love could do.

Hope looked out at the lake and surveyed her surroundings. All seemed at peace...for now. It was Hogwarts after all. Still, she could help but hope that things would turn out just fine this term she slowly drifted off into a cloud of her own thoughts. Quidditch (or lack of it). Homework. Classwork. Poppy. Candy. Books. Meh.

....was that her name being called? She looked down and there was a familiar head that caused her lips to curve upward. Let's be honest...she was a little smitten with the Slytherin that stood under the tree before her. But she was Hope Evans and that meant she'd never even admit it to herself.

"Hiya, Caleb!" Hmmm..maybe she should move closer so she wouldn't have to shout. With a couple of swift movements she landed a couple branches lower. It felt nice to just free fall for a moment. "How was break? Care to join me?" After all she wasn't too far up. Maybe three or four branches.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HOPEendures

Hope looked out at the lake and surveyed her surroundings. All seemed at peace...for now. It was Hogwarts after all. Still, she could help but hope that things would turn out just fine this term she slowly drifted off into a cloud of her own thoughts. Quidditch (or lack of it). Homework. Classwork. Poppy. Candy. Books. Meh.

....was that her name being called? She looked down and there was a familiar head that caused her lips to curve upward. Let's be honest...she was a little smitten with the Slytherin that stood under the tree before her. But she was Hope Evans and that meant she'd never even admit it to herself.

"Hiya, Caleb!" Hmmm..maybe she should move closer so she wouldn't have to shout. With a couple of swift movements she landed a couple branches lower. It felt nice to just free fall for a moment. "How was break? Care to join me?" After all she wasn't too far up. Maybe three or four branches.

Ah, so it WAS Hope up there, as Caleb had suspected. And did he want to climb a tree? Hmmm...he hadn't climbed a tree in years, but why the hell not right? He grinned and reached up, hoisting himself up onto the lowest branch and grabbing the one above him to pull himself higher. It wasn't very hard to get up to Hope's level, especially since he was taller now and had a pretty large stride now.

"Nice to be able to do stuff like this again without worrying about freezing to death, yeah?" he said with a chuckle as he sat on the branches opposite of her. "Break was...good," he added, answering her earlier question. "My sis and I had a bit of a falling out, though," he said with a shrug, acting like it wasn't a big deal despite the fact that it TOTALLY WAS.

SMORES.

Omg.

That sounded so mouth watering, so much so that Abbi even licked her lips quickly. "Can't we warm them up with our wands or something?" There had to be SOME quick acessible way, wasn't there? But then hey they still needed graham crackers. Ugh nevermind then. WISHFUL thinking. "Or maybe for another time? I rate we all sneak out and camp in the grounds one night?" YEAH?

NOD NOD. Perfect victims. Abs wore an encouraging expression to urge Eden further, but a slight frown appeared when she appeared to be disappointed. "Really? Come on, Edeeeeen! It's not that mean!" Oh well, Abbi still ended up taking the marshmellow shooter from her, aimed and then shot at Kyroh and Dot.

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH. She shot the previously loaded marshmallow towards them in hope she would actually hit them.

"Yeah yeah. YOU BETTER. SHHH, though. Can't have them immediately know it was us, can we?" Time to be all NINJA, Eden.

Eden HATED not being able to perform a perfectly fine DARE, but she did NOT want to tick off new people here. Well, SHE was the new person, but the same thing!

"Oh. maybe. Hmm. Professor Romanos seemed to be a fan of s'mores. We should totally be brown-nosers and bring her some." You know, when they DID figure out how to make some. She grinned cheekily and winked. It was beneficial to get on the professors' good sides, right? And plus, Romanos had seemed SO nice.

OMG. EDEN LOVED CAMPING. She got all BOUNCY just at the mention of it. "WE SHOULD TOTALLY CAMP OUT YES ABBI! Let's DO it!" she smiled and grabbed the girl's shoulders(notcrazyNOPE) and just SHOOK her excitedly. "You're a GENIUS!" Really. Were all Gryffindors SMART? She felt like they were secretly very smart. And stuff.

GAAHHH.

She was flailing and covering her MOUTH to keep from laughing as Abbi shot the marshmallows at them--OH MY. She couldn't help it, though--she burst into laughter and quickly shoved her face in her sweater. GOSH. It was just so FUNNY.

Those puppy dog eyes would have no effect on Justine, nope, definitely not, Justine had perfected that look, had practically invented it and she would not be lured into kindness by such an old trick. “Don’t touch me again.” Justine said, flipping back her hair with her remaining clean hand. The other felt almost diseased; she would need bleach, or dragon’s blood to rid herself of Ian’s germs.

“…What happened to your accent?”
“W-what?” Justine blinked. Oh Merlin’s underpants, her accent, she was using her real accent: The boy had actually annoyed the fake French right out of her. “I don’t know vat you mean, ‘ale… You must be more delusional zan I zought.” Justine said, effortlessly picking the accent back up, hoping quietly that Ian was dense enough to go along with her.

Idiotic prat.

Craptastic. Chance's mood had a dark cloud over it. He headed to the Lake, a frown on his face. If you knew Chance, you would know that this wasn't his normal face. His normal face was full of smiles. Chance was always happy-go-lucky. Even when he had gotten rejected multiple times by the same girl.

So, what was up with him today?

Kicking rocks out of the way as he made his way to the lake, Chance found a tree. He looked at the tree. It was just a simple tree. Nothing fantastic about it.

Chance hit the tree. As hard as he could. Chance didnt even grimace in pain as his knuckle were torn open from the bark on the tree and the impact he had made with said bark.

Chance's eyes filled with tears and he hit the tree again. The tree had never hurt him. But, instead of hurting other people that Chance liked, he would take his emotions out on this tree.

Except, the tree was winning.

Chance's knuckles were bloody, scrapped, and ripped open. Chance kept pounding the tree though. His face didn't mask any pain. Instead, it was emotionless. The only emotion that could be seen was a restless stream of tears flowing down his face.

This was not the usual Chance.

"Oh." He hadn't thought about Gilligan not liking them if they ate him. That made sense. Kyroh nodded eagerly. "Then i'm not eating bark either." Did that mean they'd eat nothing? Uhoh. They couldn't be stuck here and just eat nothing at all.

"Nope! this is my first time ever!" Didn't Dot know? Oops. Anyways, he thought he did pretty WELL! Almost all by himself too. "I figure if I do it a few more times I'll be an expert.....if we can get down now of course."

Kyroh wiggled a little bit, because tree branches were actually NOT that comfy at all. And just when he was starting to get some feeling back in his butt something fluffy and white instantly smacked him in the face.

It was SOFT but if he was not sitting with his back against the trunk the second year probably would have fall off from shock alone."We're being attacked Dot!!" He didn't know by WHO or with what or- hey. Spotting a white thing nearby he grinned. "GILLIAN IS FEEDING US MARSHMALLOWS!" Man, they had the best tree friend ever. Now their hunger problem was SLOVED.

He was so focused on the marshmallow he didn't even notice the laughter below.

Hope beamed as he joined her up in the low hanging branches laughed. "Yeah, it is. I never thought I'd get to see the outdoors again." At least nothing outside of the frozen wasteland. She leaned back against the trunk and looked out over the lake listening to Caleb talk. She watched his shrug out of the corner of her eye and shook her head. So many responses tapped danced their way across her mind but none of them sounded right. "Well, if you ever need an outside perspective you've got me." That was the best she could offer....

"My break was...exciting." Was that a good word for it. She shrugged and very nonchalantly said, "I found out some seriously shocking news." No biggy. Nothing too AMAZING...or was it? She shrugged again. and ran her hand through her dark locks. CHANGE OF TOPIC! "So, what is the second thing you're going to do with our new found freedom?" She was considering the first thing joining her in the tree!

"HAHA!" Zahra cackled to herself. She had just dug a giant hole, like at least 3 meters across, maybe a couple meters deep. "WOOT," she called out as she jumped down into it, landing like a BOSS in her digger boots her brother had sent her. "COME ON DINOSAUR BONES."

Oh crap. She left her DIGGING tools OUTSIDE the hole. Boo. So Zahra started climbing out of her hole...

A few many trees away from the lake, where Paloma hang upside down from a branch, trying to think of how to complete some of her school assignments, and also about the upcoming holiday season already planned agenda...

Wait...That was irrelevant.

The moment she opened her eyes again, ready to put herself on feet and head back to the castle, Paloma noticed a girl jumping into a hole, but then climbing out of it. Being dragged by curiousity, she jumped down from the tree and slowly approached the area where the girl was. "Ummmmmmm...." She stopped herself, hoping she wouldn't mumble and look dumb when she asked her the important questions...

"...hi, I saw you...from that tree, and...you were crawling out of the hole, and...what is this for?" Too late, she mumbled. Still, she was a few meters away, in case the girl didn't want to talk about her plans. Besides, Paloma didn't want to look too nosy.

.... a Ravenclaw. Zahra had to admit, she was immediately on guard. She kind of wanted to spread out and protect her AWESOME HOLE from the judgement of the Ravenclaw. But maybe this one, this one she'd seen around a few times, wasn't.... so bad? MAYBE.

Zahra had retrieved her digging tools from TOPSIDE and had already hopped back down into her hole. "THIS is a hole for digging. I'm looking for dinosaurs. Dead sea monsters. Ancient dead stuff." ...... okay? "You can help if you want."

Paloma took a few more steps back at the reaction the girl had and raised her eyebrow. Really, what was wrong with asking? Once she had hopped back into the hole, Paloma walked closer to the hole and looked down as she spoke.

She nodded at every statement, considering that it could be true that there were many dead things, that the place was ancient as far as no one really could tell. Surprised by her invitation to help her, she beamed. "And have you found anything? Because in that case....do you need some light?" She asked, searching into her bag for those glow in the dark sticks she had gotten in those crazy concerts her cousin took her during the summer.

AHA. Taking just one of the sticks out, she decided to wait for the girl's response. Again, she had to make sure she wasn't being so invasive, nosy.

"Oh no. Not yet. I don't REALLY have a CLUE what I'm doing. But I'm pretty good at digging holes and I figure you gotta start somewhere?" And if Zahra didn't find anything, at least she had this epic hole. "My brother is a digging person. Curse breakery type thing." Just so this Claw didn't think she was TOTALLY crazy for digging holes.

Mostly Zahra was getting tired of hearing she was crazy. She wasn't crazy. She was just digging a hole.

WHAT WAS THAT. GLOW STICKS. "COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL! Bring those down! We could dig for worms if all else fails."

Again, Paloma nodded. The girl had a point, everybody started somewhere. Those archeologist had to really dig in deep their backyards or some park around their house to be who they were, and well...there was the concept. "OH, he works for the Ministry, then?" Totally cool, being skilled in that curse breaking business, digging around...

Paloma chuckled as the girl replied at the sight of the glowing sticks. "Ummm, I'll throw one to you, and I will join in a sec." She said, doing so, though looking down at her shoes. They were her pretty almost-ballerina shoes.

But...oh, she could fix them! Without any more hesitation, she made sure that she'd land safely to where the girl was, and seconds later, she was standing next to her, cracking the glow stick so it could work again. "By the way, I'm...Paloma." She had to introduce herself, so the other girl would do the same, and they'd be not so strangers anymore.

"Oh COPE? Hahah no no. He works...," uhm.... who DID Copernicus work for?!? hAHAHA SHE HAD NO IDEA. "....himself? I dunno. He digs up stuff, like DANGEROUS stuff, cursed pirate treasure and junk like that. But my DAD works for the Ministry." hehe. He was the Minister, but everyone knew that.

OH YEAH! COOL. GLOW STICK. How wicked must you be to just carry around SPARE GLOW STICKS? ..... Cool Claw was cool and joining her in her hole, too. COOL.

"SUP Paloma!" Sounded like llama. Llama. hehehe llama. "I'm Zahra. Here you go," the Ravenclaw got handed a SPIKEY TOOL that Z wasn't sure how to use, but it was part of the digging kit, so there you go Paloma. Meanwhile, the glowstick went behind Z's ear and went searching for a fossilized merperson or something cool like that.

Wind blowing her red hair about her face, Lux made her way slowly over to the big tree by the lake. Winter was coming, and soon everything would be covered by snow and ice. But for now it was pretty with all the leaves changing colour.

Sighing, she plopped herself on the grass leaning back against the tree's trunk. It was a lazy day and a good time for her to get some reading done. She had found a new series to read and hopefully she would like it. Reaching into her bag, she pulled the book out and opened it to the page she had left off on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squishy

Wind blowing her red hair about her face, Lux made her way slowly over to the big tree by the lake. Winter was coming, and soon everything would be covered by snow and ice. But for now it was pretty with all the leaves changing colour.

Sighing, she plopped herself on the grass leaning back against the tree's trunk. It was a lazy day and a good time for her to get some reading done. She had found a new series to read and hopefully she would like it. Reaching into her bag, she pulled the book out and opened it to the page she had left off on.

Under normal circumstances, Andrew wouldn't be sulking like he was. Then again, that goes for most people. Hopefully, at least. Andrew was usually such a cheerful fellow, and especially at this time of year, but something had been bugging him for a long time. Something he just couldn't get off his mind.

Disappointment gnawed at him. He had so hoped a walk in the crisp air would distract him, but alas, it only made things worse. Trudging through the leaves towards the big tree by the lake, he spied a familiar redhead and gave her a wave. With the sight of her, a twinge of hope flickered in his heart. Lux was always cheery! How could she not help bring his mood up.

"I certainly hope I'm not disturbing, Lux." He forced a smile as he approached.

Paloma let out a quiet chuckle as the girl spoke. Family out there sure had a difficult way to be explained. "That's gotta be interesting, that you have family in the Ministry...and what your brother does for work..." Her dad worked at some kind of liason from Spain, and since she didn't really know what he did there.

"Nice to meet you, Zahra.." She let out the usual Spanish accent with the Z sound, like the 'th'. Taking the tool that she gave her, looked at it and blinked. She had no idea on how to dig. Maybe she had to do research on archeological things now, which wasn't going to be bad after all. "So, how long have you been...digging this hole?" She asked, brushing the dirt with her fingers and the unknown tool trying to find something.

Because she guessed, and Zahra was sure that they could find something cool to look at, find out about...whee.

"Well, it's alright, I guess. Having the MINISTER as your DAD sure doesn't deter these professors from docking my points or giving me detention," PHEW FOR REAL. In fact, Zahra was in trouble more than most ANYONE she knew. She could hardly breathe in class and not get in trouble it seemed.

BUT ANYWAY. It was alright. "My OTHER brother he lives like right over there!" Like right there in Hogsmeade, what! "HE came back to this area with Bunbury did. They're like this weird thing." Her brother and the Headmistress. Yeah. Weird.

DIGGING! THen Z was using her glowstick to dig. THen she was sitting down 'cause man, she had been digging for a WHILE and she was pretty tired. ".... a while, to be honest. I'll probably get in trouble for it, too haha!"

Her dad. The Minister? "Whoa. But yeah, feel you on that. My mom was my teacher in Muggle school, so I just had to really be a good girl...most of the times." Yes, she was no goody-goody, but she had to behave in order to get what she wanted, keep on going to her ballet lessons.

At the mention of her brother and the Headmistress, Paloma blinked again. Well, her brother must be old enough to have a relationship? with someone as the Headmistress, right? "So, they're...dating...or what?" Sure, she had to ask, her head was curious thanks to Zahra. And natural instinct, but....this family talk was interesting by itself.

Get in trouble?!

Paloma started to cough, because those kind of nerves killed her, those of getting in trouble with some authority. "Do you...think someone would actually come here? Like, would the Groundskeeper be roaming around there and could see us...?" She had to just find an assurance that this could not go wrong. Whist her preocupation, she kept digging, even faster, then she hit something...

a stick.

with a handle.

Was it....?