Maggie looked over to him again and gave him a long look. "Mhm." She echoed softly. She hadn't been entirely serious about the not dying thing when she'd said it but....it was true. A lot of them had actually been in danger of dying. Herself included. But Noel...he had been KIDNAPPED. Like, there'd been moments when she'd in fact thought he was dead.

Or at least that he might be. "I'm really glad you didn't." Which was kiiiinda obvious but Maggie still felt the need to say it.

Moooooving on though.......

She was still nodding excitedly but stopped when he mentioned talking to professors about it. "Youuuu might not want me there when talking to Professor Flamsteed." Maggie had lowered her voice just in case someone else was listening (there were a lot of creeps at Hogwarts, like certain Astronomy professors ahem ahem). "Moxley though. Moxley likes me I think." They had that connection. Over turtles.

Noel knew she had been glad. But yes, moving on ....

Moxley liked everyone, he liked to think. No wonder she was now the hufflepuff head of house.

And then Noel gave her a confused look. "But why? I think professor Flamsteed may need more convincing than Moxley and I know you can help with that" Also what was with the lowered voice. Now more confused than ever, Noel gave Maggie a look and asked, "what's up, Maggie?"

Because he was sure something was up.

That sounded about right yes. That Flamsteed would need more convincing than Moxley. But then again, Moxley was also Noel's new Head of House and they were supposed to support the people in their house, right?

Yah. Right.

Maggie was nodding some more and then took his arm to sort of drag him to the corner of the room. Just in case, you know. Nope. She was NOT being paranoid. Not at all. But this was embarrassing. "He gave me detention. Sooooo..." She dragged out the word a little, giving him a sheepish look. "Like I said, I don't think I'd be any...you know, help."

Noel was really very confused and he needed Maggie to clear up his confusion. Please.

And then she was dragging him into the corner - DETENTION??! But it's only the first week. Besides - she was Maggie. WHY would any professor give her a detention? Let alone Flamsteed! "What do you mean detention?? Did he wrongly accuse you something? I'll go talk to him! He can't do this" Justice for Maggie Traulton!

It would've been so easy to say that she'd been wrongly accused. And the fact that Noel was all ready to go defend her honor was just the most adorable thing ever. So for a long moment she just smiled at him.

But she really couldn't get out of this one. PLUS she didn't want Noel to get in trouble.

"No. Not wrongly. It...doesn't really matter. But so, you don't want me there."

"That smile is not helping, Maggie. You need to tell me what happened so I can help you" Noel urged. But then - she dismissed the idea that she had been wrongly accused. So she had done something? It seemed very unlikely of her. Noel was really puzzled.

And it seemed like she didn't want to share what had she done.

...

That ... was odd. Now Noel wasn't sure what to say. Of course he wanted her there and to be detention free. But ... yeah. So he said nothing - just sort of gave her a 'I-am-not-sure-why-you-wont-share-but-I-still-want-to-know look'

That smile?

Oh. Right. Said smile turned a little sheepish when he pointed it out. And then she looked away briefly, almost as if she was embarrassed. At least she wasn't blushing. "It's nothing." At least not the smile thing. Maggie did reach out to give his hand a little squeeze. "Thank you though." For you know, offering to rescue her.

Or whatever.

The silence between them dragged on and she glanced back at Noel to find him looking at her. GIVING her LOOKS really. Ugh. Why was he doing that? "Zeke and I BOTH got detention." She eventually elaborated a little. "So I won't be...by myself." So he didn't have to like worry about her or anything.

Noel never liked pushing people. So yeah .... he wouldn't.

....

But then.

"Zeke who?" Noel found himself asking at once. He'd never heard of a Zeke. Or had he? Noel could bet it was Zeke's fault she had gotten detention. Whoever this boy was - he sounded like trouble. "I am starting to feel like we haven't talked in a long while"

Detentions. Boy named Zeke. He had missed out on a lot.

Sometimes Noel was SUCH a Hufflepuff.

He wanted to know Zeke's last name? How was that relevant? He better not go talk to him. "Browne?" Maggie replied slowly, giving her friend a confused look. "Why?" Maybe she shouldn't have mentioned the Gryffindor. His next words earned him a sort of half-shrug. "You didn't, like, MISS anything." Nope. He hadn't.

Nothing to see here.

No, he did not want to know his last name. She had the right to be confused - he should have phrased the question better, and so he did. "I meant - who is this boy Zeke, and why is he getting detentions with you?" Elaborate Maggie, please.

...

Yes. But he had. Clearly. And speaking of 'missing out on things', she had missed out on his things as well, but she didn't know - of course. He wasn't sure how to bring it up when they were talking about this boy named Zeke. "Um"

Noelle looked after Sabbath. Wait! Owen had the right idea when it came to trying to learn how to play an instrument. She would have to pull Sabbath aside one day and get him to show her more on how to play. Well... Play more since her papa had shown her how to play the guitar a little bit.

Owen said something about changing his shirt and Noelles eyes drifted to his shirt. Oh. It was sweaty. Noelle giggled and cocked a brow. "Did you get a little workout in O Bear??" because that was his new nickname.

Wait, why did she need to change too? Noelle looked down and saw a little bit of sweat around her collar but it was drastic enough for a shirt change. "[b]i think I'm good for right now. But I can meet you in the Kitchens??[B]" Because shirt changing did not require two people.

Oh.

Maggie wasn't sure how to answer that but tried. "He's in my year. Gryffindor." Pause. As for his last question Maggie wasn't sure if she should put on an embarrassed or a smug face. And she also wasn't sure how she really felt about the whole thing.

So eventually she went with sheepish which was basically a mix of the two."And we got detention because we...well he caught us, like, mak-" No, not making out because apparently that was something else. This was really confusing sometimes. "-kissing in the observatory." Yes. That.

His 'um' went unnoticed, it was subconsciously dismissed as just another sound. If he too had something to share he'd have to do better than 'um'.

Yeah, she should never do that again. She was just sorry that Dante had to be there to witness that. Had he gone deaf yet? Her ears were ringing. That wasn't normal right?

"Ha. Art is pretty much the only I'm good it." shrugging because it was true. And she was proud of it. There wasn't anything she liked better. "What do you do then?" wasn't much of a musician and only drew stick figures.

That was not THAT terrible. Dante had hardly even winced through the whole thing. He might have thought about covering his ears with his hands. But he hadn't actually gone through with it. So there was that.

"Only thing, huh"

He doubted that was true. Most people at least had a couple things they were good at doing. Though drums was not one of them. That was a fact.

"Well besides drawing awesome stick figures of course. I mostly do tricks on my bike and skateboard"

It was what he like to do.

O Bear?

Blink. It took a moment for it actually register and when it did, Owen laughed. "O Bear? That's me, right?" That made him miss his mama because she called him Thyagobear. "I don't have any particular nickname for you." He wasn't very talented when it came to giving people nicknames.

Hearing her suggestion, the Hufflepuff nodded. He could do that. Meet her at the Kitchens after he changed. Yup. Maybe he can even teach her make a no-bake cheesecake, if she was up for it, or you know, if she didn't already know how. "Sure. I'll see you then."

She shrugged. "Well I do make some pretty famous cinnamon rolls." NO PUN INTENDED. Haha. There was some things. Like she was a mad cartwheeler too.

"Art is more than just drawing you know. Skateboarding though! It had been years since she had been on one. That had totally been her thing back in the day. This reminded her of something from last year. She still had it in her dorm. "Would you like to work on a art project with me. I promise it's easier then drawing more than just stick figures and it will be fun." A lot of fun.

CINNA and CINNAmon rolls. Yeah there was definitely a pun in there. But if she was not going to make it. Then Dante will just shrug and move on. But still it was a good pun. "Really cinnamon rolls. I bet they are delicious"

Dante can not even remember the last time he even had one.

"A Fun Art Project?"

Well Dante could not think of anything else he had planned in the future.

"Sure. What is it"

Nemo nodded in approval. "I wanted to be a Slytherin.. But Alas." He made sure to put the last bit in a little fancy accent. Well, fancier than the one he had. Nemo Grimm was a boy who'd always been given the best of everything so of course his accent sounded extra fancy.

"You'll get used to it once you get past the idea that they wanna murder you." This was a joke, but it was also something the Seventh Year had thought quite a few times. "I bet you get a brilliant view of the lake from your common room, though." There was still the curiosity over the other common rooms. "Well, i'm not sure what to play." He said with the crack of his knuckles as his mind went flipping through his mental songbook.

Squishysquishysquishy huuuuuugs.

Marsha loved being back at Hogwarts for all of the hugs. Yup, hugs were awesome.

EEEEEE. Squirming around on the piano stool as Adi tickled her. Laughing, loudly as he tickled her sides, she moved this way and that trying to get away from the offending fingers. ”Aaaaddddiiiiiiiii!" She went forward and back, left and right and finally, just when she was laughing so much she couldn’t breath, he stopped tickling her. It felt like an eternity had passed, but really it was only a few seconds… Sha was simply extremely tickly - especially over her ribs.

Gasping for breath, the redhead attempted to scowl at the man… like SCOWL. SO HARD. Her eyebrows furrowed inwards and her mouth clenched into a tight line…

THE ONLY PROBLEM WAS THAT SHE COULDN’T HOLD THAT SCOWL.

……..

Like, not even for five seconds. Heck, Sha figured she was actually lucky if she had managed to hold it for about one point two seconds. IF she was lucky. ‘Cause just like that, and the innocent look on Adi’s ace, made Sha want to grin. And the best of people know that you can’t grin and scowl at the same time. Physically impossible!

Oh. So he was teaching her NOW? She blinked a little as Adi got up, but she shuffleshuffled over a bit so that she was sitting at the middle of the piano - where Adi had been sitting and playing so beautifully - and now it was her turn? What. How had that happened? Frown.

Though, even Adi apparently realised that she didn't frown very often as he told her to stop frowning. Giggling. Giggling happened as she smiled up at her big brother. "Fiiiiine," she drew out, once again attempting to keep a straight face and failing dramatically.

Okay. Piano.

She could do this.

She watched as Adi placed her fingers on the piano. C, D, E, F, G. Okay... So where is the a and the b key? if it's a scale, does that mean these two are those keys? She moved her left hand to point to the next two keys to the left of her thumb. It was logical, right? She thought so anyway... Who started a scale of any kind on c?

"You did? How come?" he titled his head in curiosity. "I mean I wanted to be Slytherin too because I heard it was a cool house. It just fitted my personality." Truth be told he asked to be put into Slytherin. Kace was right the hat took your choice into account. He smiled at his accent attempt and it was alright. The kid had an accent though you can't deny that. "Wait a minute...the stairs wanna murder you?" he laughed that off he was sure he was joking. "I know the staircases lead you to floors your not supposed to go on. I heard some floors are haunted." Let's see what Nemo's opinion on that topic is.

"Oh yeah my common room is soo cool! I mean you do get a view of the lake like you said. Even the fireplace is huge which is a perfect place to make s'mores. I heard though we can see the giant squid from our common room. I haven't seen it yet but I hope so soon." He might be scared to see him the first possibly poop his pants but he will get used to him. He raised his eyebrows at him when he cracked his knuckles like a professional piano player will do. "Hmm I don't know. I am not much into classical music."

Nemo shrugged. He knew and he was over his reasons for wanting to be a Slytherin. "My dad was a Gryffindor and i didn't really like him.. or want to be like him. It was stupid." He didn't care anymore though. Nemo was a Gryffindor and the thought comforted him now. He knew who he was. "Murder might be a bit strong of a word but i'm pretty sure they wanna mess you up." He'd never been turned the wrong way by one of the staircases and things turned out for the better. "Well, yeah. Technically the whole school is haunted.. The Houses have Ghosts.. You didn't meet the Bloody Baron at the feast? He's your house Ghost." Honestly he found Nearly Headless Nick to be the most pleasant of all the school's Ghosts, but that was just his opinion.

"Sounds pretty cool, Mate." He'd never seen it but had obviously heard the same thing about the view. But imagining a place as warm and cozy as Gryffindor Tower sounded crazy. "I was never one for classical either but you know how Mums are. Making you learn some junk you don't want to." He much preferred his fencing lessons to his Piano when he was younger. Nemo switched it up and played some Coldplay instead. The Scientist.. But he didn't sing, he wasn't sure if he was awful at that or not cause he'd never really tried.

So far he was just glad this kid hadn't asked him if his name was 'like the fish.'

She supposed that a girl making Cinnamon rolls was pretty funny, right? "Oh they are. Maybe I'll make some and I'll let you try one." She shrugged chances were she'd make another batch soon.

"I filled water balloons with paint. I was going to throw them at the canvas and see how it works out." She had wanted to try this for a while now. She was so excited to get to try it out.

"That would be awesome" Free Food was cool when he knew the people who were making it. And free cinnamon rolls sounds really really delicious right now. Wait, did she just say water balloons? Dante was paying extra attention to what she was saying because anything with water balloons had to be a pretty cool idea right?

And filling water balloons with paint just sounded brilliant.

"That does sound likes a lot of fun. Just throwing paint filled water balloons at a canvas. I'm in."

That was one thing Dante had never done before or hadn't even though of doing.

There was that laugh Adi loved to hear. He grinned as Marsha got some more tickling. Hehe. Look at the second year try to escape, moving all over the place. Nooooo! You can't escape the big brother! But maybe he had tickled her enough for now? He pulled back his hand, still grinning. "Your laugh sounds like music, Marsha.'' And what was she trying to do? Be sulky at him? Awwh! It was cute but obvious she could feel that way towards him. You love him too much, Marsha!
...................

Yep, Adi was going to teach Marsha at least a little about this instrument. "After I graduate, you could always come here and play when you miss me,'' he told her with a wink. Yes, he knew he would be missed. But hey! That frown was gone and giggling was happening. Adi was quite tempted to dig his fingers into her side for fun but no need! Marsha was giggling on her own again. "Did someone cast the Cheering Charm on you?'' he wondered aloud jokingly.

The Hufflepuff grinned at the Gryffindor's keen observation. "Excellent question!'' Adjusting himself more comfortably, he pointed too the two free white keys between Marsha's thumbs. "Those are A and B respectively.'' Did that put her keen mind to ease now? He supposed it would. Happily he went back to explaining the keys. The black ones this time. "For the black keys, you get to them by moving the corresponding finger up and to the right except for thumbs since you'll ruin the positions of your hands."

Adi gently tapped the little sister's hands. "Want to try out moving those fingers to the black keys?"

If only Dante knew just how yummy her cinnamon rolls were. She was kind of wanting one right now. "Next batch I make you'll get the first one." But the art project had been nagging at her since she made those paint balloons. And now she was getting ready to make it happen.

"Great. I think it will be a lot of fun." At least she though that the concept of it sounded great. "I've got the supplies in my dorm. I'll have to go grab them. Do you know where the spare office on the sixth floor?" Clearly a nice music room like this wasn't the best place to be throwing balloons filled with paint.