Okay, at least she wasn't the only one that had no idea about the menu. Benny was unfamiliar as well..........that made her feel slightly better at least, not being the only odd man out.

It was someone's birthday today? Oh.....that was the Hufflepuff girl (Lux) that had been stuck in the web when she had gotten tossed in. And.....she was joining them for food? Alright, if she felt anything like Ilia did.....she probably needed some distraction and as little alone time as possible. She wondered if the slightly older girl had trouble sleeping too? Maybe worse since she was captive longer....

Henric mentioned his desire to ride the waterslide again and she chuckled a little. Set on it wasn't he? It looked like a lot of fun admittedly and she was also excited , whether that fact showed through or not..........Henric was.....actually inviting a lot of people over.....Ilia wasn't sure if she liked the larger crowd or if it was making her more self conscious and she instinctively made sure that Henric's arm was in her reach. Wait.....wasn't that kid (Noel) the obnoxious belcher from Divi-nasty class? She suddenly found herself hoping that there was no 'gastro-eww-mancy' type foods on the menu.

She didn't know most of the people the way that her best friend did. For one, this was her first year at the school and for two.....the main reason....she was not as openly friendly as he was. For all of the inner fire the little snakette had, she was outwardly shy and standoffish at first. Which, of course, wasn't the easiest way to make friends.

And......he left her for Adi's kebabs. Thanks....bestie.....dumped for meat on a stick. Teenage boy priorities left a lot to be desired in her personal opinion, in case anyone cared to know. She simply watched as the boys went back to teasing each other and Henric went about his food obsessing.

When Adi asked her how it was going however....she really didn't know how to answer, so instead she dodged the question. Food was an easy distraction with the boys and while she didn't agree with the 'food is food' logic, she liked Adi's enthusiasm and suggestion. "If I try everything I won't miss something I like, right?" And....if she didn't like most of it, there had to be at least one edible thing on the vast buffet menu that she liked and she could just eat that. "As long as you and Henric don't eat them all before I get there, kebabs it is." She teased lightly. There was no way she would fight the two of them over the sticks of meat.....never step between those two and food.

As for the lemonade commentary, she simply shook her head. "At least he would be bursting with flavor?" It sounded like some sort of muggle commercial she had heard somewhere. Probably Henric's doing......hopefully with his influence she would start improving at muggle studies.....

She turned her attention away for a moment to look around, even the Headmistress seemed to be enjoying herself. Good, Merlin knew the poor woman needed it after the spider ordeal....

Speaking of which....

SPOILER!!: Zombie Groundskeeper

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott Maclaren

Food. Water. HAIR GEL.

Merlin give him all those and he would be the happiest dirty man alive. Scott crawled along the edge of the lake, having taken a completely different route out than the one he'd been dragged in. Freedom. Freeeeeeeeedom. It was finally his. Were he not so drained he would have dragged himseld along a little faster.

The scottsman stopped suddenly at the mirage before him. Children playing, easily acessible food. HE NEVER WANTED TO COME TO HIS SENSES!!

The man let out a sudden shout, sprung to his feet with a new burst of energy and ran over to the imaginary!hut. No more berries and nuts. No more of that water he saw things swimming around in! He could stay here and pretend for a while. Hahahaha.

!!!!!

From seemingly out of nowhere there was a distinctively masculine voice shouting. What on this little blue marble...???? She turned her head and what she saw, shocked her so badly that her pale skin turned starkly white. Their, who had presumed to have been spider chow, groundskeeper was right there...running full speed at them..... Was she the only one to see this!? She looked around to make sure she wasn't hallucinating.....like the spider webs she thought she saw this morning. But this wasn't a spider web and it was really vividly vivacious.

He looked............awful. Were those scrapes? Dirt? Leaves?......he looked like he had been drug through a forest....or buried..........Wait........Henric had told her about things like this.....That 'video game' type muggle thing he played. The monster things that used to be people but came back from the dead and walked all funny and vacant eyed.......Zombies!? Was she hallucinating or was there a zombie groundskeeper running at them!?

Unable to help herself, she stared at him in small silent horror as he got closer. Her body shook a little and she bolted backwards so quickly that she fell on her backside as she emitted a sharp, inhuman scream. Her wand was in her hand as she stayed still in total shock, absorbing the sight before her.

Oh gosh...all these LOVELY FACES. She wanted to squish and snug EVERYONE and she was overwhelmed with such emotions! Ugh!

Eden looked up at Adi when HE asked for hugs--and she obliged him. Sniffling and wibbling, Eden wrapped her arms around Adi in a tight hug and...yeah. She tried to calm herself down but then...

Noel. Eden FLUNG her arms around his dramatically. "I'm SO glad you w-w-weren't eaten by the spiders--oh thank MERLIN--' she sniffled and used her sleeve of her bathing suit cover up to wipe her puffy, red, runny nose. "Because you're a b-b-beautiful soul, Noel--" oh GOSH. WHY HADN'T SHE BECOME BETTER FRIENDS WITH HIM?

She turned her attention to Lux and draped her sloppy self across Lux, her nose now sore from sniffling so much..."I KN-KNOW--but--b-but--" she siiiighed. "You're the only one, really...oh Lux...promise me we'll hang out all the time okay? OKAY?" she shook Lux slightly. "PROMISE ME."

Benzi looked alarmed to see her like this, clearly, but she just pinched his cheek and sighed. "I will miss you. Will you miss my CRAZY EYES, Benzi?!" she was losing her mind a bit, wasn't she? But she really did feel like she should go hide in her dormitory right now because she felt WAY. TOO. SAD right now...

Merlin.

So many people to say goodbye to...ugh...she had gotten her memory book out of the way, at least, already.

Oh, Evie...Eden just sniffled and hugged her again. "I adore you, Eve..." she said softly and she kissed her cheek before spotting the one and only Ruby Banner...Eden smiled over at her and gave her a hug, too.

"Ruby...." she said softly as she wiped her eyes again. "You look good, as usual...I'm jealous." Because Eden looked like a HOT MESS RIGHT NOW.

"Ohh, sorry...I didn't catch the belated part, man what's wrong with my brain today, I'm just so excited really,"Henric chuckled as he evaded Adi's Kebab stick poking. "But still I missed the date, hope your birthday was an epic one, I'll make sure to have one for you before you leave..."he told her sadly. Lux was leaving next term, another term without one of the best hardworking hufflepuffs around.

Scared he said? Nevaaa. "Are you kidding?! It's not that high. We should do a race too!" He suggested eagerly. Aww...Henric was right...no delicious homemade pumpkin pie in the menu. Oh well...and shrugged,"It's alright, I already had some pumpkin pies on the way here, the houseelves were kind enough to bake the last batch in the kitchens,I've managed to grab a few,"he said, grinning. "Don't hog the kebabs, leave some for us!"he whined, wagging his finger at Adi. He eyed the drink Adi offered with a raised eyebrow,"I'll take my chances, thanks...but I think you just love pulling my leg, don't you?" He shook his head at the puff/chef/waiter and took the drink from him. Maybe he should let Adi do a taste test first....

Henric didn't manage to take a sip because he jumped when llia suddenly let out a terrifying scream, almost dropping his glass of exploding lemonade onto the floor. His hands instinctively reached for his bestfriend"llia! What's wrong?!!" But she was staring horrifyingly elsewhere off to the side. Henric turned sharply but was shocked to find a man came running towards their group.MERLIN!! Wait was that the missing groundkeeper?! Did he come back from the dead?!!"ZOMBIEEE incoming!!" He shouted as he pointed at the direction.

WOAH woah. EDEN what the helllllllll? Ruby almost dropped her PLATE and food was PRIORITIES okay? She was currently double dipping from the plate in her lap and the one on the towel in front of her, a mouthful of shrimp mixed with cheesecake, sooo she couldn't chastise Eden about it because she couldn't quite speak yet. But she DID make an indignant MMPH!! noise. Finally she swallowed and stared at her Ravenclaw friend in disbelief. Look good? Sure. Okay.

... wait. Okay! She was telling the truth right? Meaning as terrible and obvious as Ruby felt, it wasn't noticeable? She swallowed her food and smiled, then re-adjusted her cover up.

"Maybe you should wear some sunglasses, hun, you're not a pretty crier you know."

Helpful advice from a friend. Mhmm.

Yep. He had been totally right. The crying/ sobbing on Eden’s part was because she was graduating. She gave great hugs, by the way and Adi returned the squish. “Let it all out,’’ he told her. He was a good shoulder to cry on. Was this going to be him next year? Surely the clinging and the hugging maybe even tears. Yeah, he wasn’t afraid of showing his emotions. “You’ll come visit us on Hogsmeade weekends, yeah?’’

Adi squashed Lux back. He loved her like the twin sister (since they were practically the same age) he never had. “That I am. We’ll be old buds togeth-‘’ WHAT?! “I must have sand in my ears, Lux. I think I just heard you say you’re not coming back next term?’’ Pffft. As if. Surely he heard wrong. He kept EYEING her as she talked about the Lake and food. “We can’t let you break your promise to Bay,’’ he said, tilting his head. “I would recommend everything! The kebabs are the best though. And the shrimp and dip.’’

More kebabs please! Adi reached for another round, still surveying Benny. And Henric. Were they friends now? Had Benny FINALLY saw the light and was giving the younger Hufflepuff a chance? He snorted and speared one of Benny’s crab cakes with his kebab stick thingy. “Excuses. You know everything about me.’’ Don’t ask. Adi had no idea why he was giving his bestie a hard time. He bit into the crab cake. Om nom nom. This was delish! Anywaaay… “But just forget about it. The next time something attacks us, I’ll find out then if you’re afraid of them.’’ Great Hippogriffs! What just tumbled out of his mouth? He hadn’t meant to say THAT. “I mean, forget it. It’s in the past. I now know great big spiders terrify you. Might make for a good prank someday…’’ already his brain was in motion, thinking of one. Hehe.

HA! Did Henric and his brain think they could evade him? NUUU! Adi carefully aimed the stick to poke his friend. And him and pumpkins! “You need to grow a pumpkin patch at your home, Henny. Your dad could make an endless batch of pumpkin treat for you and fatten you up.’’ Teasing Henric was SUPER FUN! “None for you, none for you!’’ he chanted in a sing song voice. Adi stopped with the singing when Henric took the lemonade. “Henny’s being brave, isn’t he? Prepare to explode!” Mwahahaha!

“Exactly!’’ Adi happily told Ilia, not at all realising that she had not answered his question. Food talk was the perfect way to distract him. “A spoonful of this and a spoonful of that. You’ll still get full and Henric would have to roll you back the dungeons.’’ HAHA! That was a funny thought. “I could levitate you if you like, though.’’ That was his thing, yo! “I think you had better hurry, Ilia. If we let Henny rampage around here, all the kebabs will be gone in a second.’’ And then… LOL! Adi doubled up with laughter. “That’s hilarious! He would have a lot of flavour, yes.’’ Ilia had jokes. He liked that.

Wheee! Everyone was having the time of their lives, weren’t they? Adi was so pleased the group of prefects had managed to pull this off. All that hard work paid off, yo! He was distracted by a SHOUT and a SCREAM just then O__O It was Ilia who had screamed and tumbled on her butt. What was with her and falling on that, man? He turned in the direction of the shout, since Henric was helping Ilia, to see the Groundskeeper of all persons running towards them. Merlin! Adi had forgotten everything about the man! Aaah! He was alive! “Mr Groundskeeper! You’re back!’’ WOOT for him being back but there were questions about his whereabouts too. Gosh, the man looked filthy and wild though...

Eden was practically draped over her, and Lux continued to console her friend. "It's all right, we will still see each other." There was no way that she would leave all of her friends. "I want to see Daisy again too." Of course there was another snake, but Lux forgot its name. Oops.

And speaking of friends, she noticed Benny had arrived. Gosh, she was silly for not seeing him before, but blame it on her being distracted. There was also the Slytherin girl that Henric seemed to be really fond of (Ilia) "Hey! How are you both doing?" she asked curiously before turning her attention back to Henric and winking. "I forgive you," she joked. See, she was trying to get her sense of humor back again after everything that had happened. "I'm excited too! Well, to go home... And that is really sweet of you." Really. He was so nice like Adi.

Speaking of Adi...

"Errr, no. I'm not coming back." OH, GOSSSH. STOP WITH THE EYEING PLS. It made her want to hide. She didn't want to go into detail either, because she was trying to forget what had happened. At least he understood about the promise. He probably had promises with AJ. "Good, so no dragging me into the water." Another attempt at a joke before slapping her hand on the counter. "Lay them on me." Hehe.

Benny had caught apparently caught the attention of Lux once Adi and Henric had finished with her, the question posed to him and Ilia bringing him a tad up short. How best to answer that was the dilemma...but then nothing HE had goen through could possibly compare to her trials. "Better..." the Gryffindor settled on, as it was technically the truth. No more giant spiders around made them all in a much better place. Though news of her leaving was another surprise moment and the sixth year couldn't hep but frown slightly at his yearmate.

He was going to miss her...even more than the graduating 7th years.

The lion weakly swipped at Adi as the badger pilfered a crab cake from his plate. So that was the game at the moment, momentarily distracted when his friend spoke again causing him to react to the poor choice of words. "Alright," he said with a nod, glad to put it behind him and them. "Nothing else I'm afraid of..." he assured his friend. Well other than loosing those he cared about but he was sure that not only did Adi know that one already, but he shared it. Benny couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the mention of a prank involving spiders however. Please, dear Merl--

What?! Who screamed?!

Benny's hand went to his wand in his pocket as he looked around to see what had happened. Ilia had been the source of the noise, falling down on the ground in the process, and then Henric was saying something about Zombies. What in Merlin's beard was he missing? It wasn't until Adi spoke the man's title that he put two and two together and realized who the man was, and the fact that he had been missing for so long, they had no clue what had happened to him.

At least he hadn't become spider chow.

Shiver.

Puck was sitting there watching the food and well, making sure no one ate the food like a hungry wolverine face first in the buffet. Everything looked delicious – she just grinned to herself and continued to munch on the garlic shrimp skewer she had snagged off of an unsuspecting plate.

Yes.

Delicious, not that anyone would notice her but of course she saw it. The running yelling grounds keeper. Sure, people saw him and freaked out. But others – like Evie seemed to understand things. Taking a few steps closer to the screaming Ila and well the grounds keeper Puck just raised and eyebrow.

Grabbing two glasses of sparkling gillywater. Yes. These two needed it, “hey Ila, are you okay? I think the Groundskeeper might need some help – do you want me to grab Healer Tilstorm for you as well?” She asked kindly as she knelt down near the girl a glass of water in her hand just if she needed it of course.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

More persons arrived including the Headmistress. Adi was thrilled to see her. "Professor Headmistress!'' Hehe. She had never told him off for calling her that so he figured she didn't mind the nickname. "How are you? What do you think of the food?" Meh. Adi and his million questions at once. Annnnd heeeeey, Ruby!

Hmmwhat? Was someone talking to her? The Headmistress looked up from her shrimp and finished chewing the bite she had just taken. Oh, it was the Hufflepuff prefect, Adi! "Excellent job," she answered him. "I really like it. It's very relaxing out here." Just what she and Hogwarts needed to coast out into summer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott Maclaren

Food. Water. HAIR GEL.

Merlin give him all those and he would be the happiest dirty man alive. Scott crawled along the edge of the lake, having taken a completely different route out than the one he'd been dragged in. Freedom. Freeeeeeeeedom. It was finally his. Were he not so drained he would have dragged himseld along a little faster.

The scottsman stopped suddenly at the mirage before him. Children playing, easily acessible food. HE NEVER WANTED TO COME TO HIS SENSES!!

The man let out a sudden shout, sprung to his feet with a new burst of energy and ran over to the imaginary!hut. No more berries and nuts. No more of that water he saw things swimming around in! He could stay here and pretend for a while. Hahahaha.

!!!!!

Speaking of coasting... "Groundskeeper?!" She tilted her sunglasses down her nose and stared in shock at the man emerging from the edge of the forest. Quickly, she got up and took her plate over to him. "Are you okay? Here, eat something. Drink something. You poor thing!"

How incredible that he was still ALIVE though! He needed to tell them all where he had been and how he had survived.