Elsa grinned, hitting people with elbows was not something she took lightly, so she still eyed Azura with concern for a few moments. "If you say so.." she declared unsure, poking her lightly to see if she crumbled.

She sighed and quickly recovered her cheerfulness, and a huge grin spread across her face, a twinkle in her eyes "Since all the awkward moments are gone" she chuckled "we can now be friends! Can I tell you a secret?" she suddenly whispered, leaning forward "You're not the only clumsy one" she winked and laughed heartily.

Yep, that was the good part of not being completely British, the Portuguese blood in her veins made her very warm towards other. That she had to thank her father. Well that and her deep brown locks that usually fell around her face but she now kept in a tidy braid in the back of her head. She played with the braid's tip while talking.

"So you're a Ravenclaw! What's that about?" Until that moment she had only established friendship-ish's with fellow Slytherins, and she was eager to know more about the other houses. All about the Hagan-the-cat was forgotten at that moment, and her attention was set on Azura.

Azura grinned at Elsa as she poked her and she giggled a little as she spoke. "I'm sure, believe me, being knocked into a wall by a stray elbow has been the lightest of all the things that have happened to me this year." She said with a serious nod. She had fallen off the wall in charms, broken her nose while falling into a dummy in DADA, the other nose breaks, the nose dive she had done at the lake.. Yeah.. she was totally fine!

Azura nodded and smiled, "That sounds perfect to me! I always like friends!" She said with a happy smile! And a friend who was a girl, Go her! Mostly of her friends were boys.. She wasn't sure why!

"Really?" Her purple eyes lit up for a moment.. before dimming ever so slightly, "We will need to be extra careful together then, but my mom is a healer, so I can heal you." Yes.. Yes she could.

"Its super fun! Everything is blue!! I love blue! What's it's like be a Slytherin? I hear you have Snakes.. in your common room." The word snakes was uttered softly and with great fear..

Elsa mentally cringed when a vision of the two of them invaded her mind: broken bones, cracking, bumping and smacking herselfs into pieces with all the clumsiness - Ouchy!

"That's so cool, I don't know many healing spells to be honest" she crinkled her nose a bit trying to remember some "I think my mum once used Anapneo on my dad when he nearly chocked himself with a chicken bone once" she tapped her chin recollecting.

Then her eyes lit up like it was Christmas eve "I like blue too and I can assure you green is not my favorite color even thou these" she pointed to her eyes "say other wise!" she pondered about the Snakes. Well she hadn't seen one yet but there could always be heard a light hiss sound around the common room, so maybe she hadn't been lucky yet.

"I like being a Slytherin, my mum was a Slytherin! She always told me tales about her years at Hogwarts, her friends, her mischiefs and she made Slytherin sound like the best house EVER!" she smiled "I haven't been let down so far! Everyone is nice to me, even today I met this really nice 5th year and her cat Hagan! But no snakes so far, maybe they're out and about" she wiggled her eyebrows and looked at Azura's feet jokingly.

Azura nodded slowly as Elsa spoke, "That would be the one to use if someone was choking." EEk! Choking on a chicken bone sounded awful! She hoped Elsa's dad was all right!

She grinned at the other girl, "YAY! We can be blue buddies, and don't worry, my eyes would say that purple is my favorite color, and while I like it.. It's not my favorite.. cause blue it." She remembered having the color conversation with Jazz on the train.. Oh Jazz, she missed her best friend.

"My mom was in Ravenclaw and my Dad was a Gryffindor, they didn't know each other here at Hogwarts though, they met when my mom became a Healer." Azura explained. "Isn't it funny, they were in the same year and everything! Azura didn't even know how they didn't even know each other. but.."My aunt Andi was a Ravvie as well, so.. I think I ended up in the right house." Though she tried not to shriek as Elsa said that the snakes might be out and about..

"Fwoopers I hope not!" She said as she quickly looked around.

"Oh he's fine, don't worry" she said, reassuring Azura after seeing concern in her face "He coughed it all out and my mum gave him some fire whisky to help with the sore throat" she shrugged the event out. Her father had been through worse.

Elsa grinned back "Blue BUDDIES!!" she did a little hyper dance, almost tripping over her feed, circling around Azura, making up lyrics as she went by "I like blue, you like it too, we should brew some stewwwwwwww" she ended in a somewhat ridiculous artistic pose, laughing.

Still panting she listened to Azura's family history with a honest smile. "That's cool! My mum only has brothers, I have 3 of them, 2 older than my mum, another one younger and they were all in Gryffindor, so my mum was sort of the black" or is it green in this case? "sheep for a while. My grandma never believed in that sort of thing, Slythering being bad and all, so she kept jinxing their tongues whenever they messed with my mum." she giggled.

There had been one particular funny episode that she could remember when she was around 4years old. Merlin she missed her grandma."My dad's Muggle, I've said that already haven't I? Well, he owns a bookstore, and couldn't care less what house I was sorted. He's a bit of a skeptical one, he even had a really hard time believing my mum when she revealed what she was to him.."

Yep. Any harder and Elsa was sure she wouldn't have been born. After all, he wasn't even religious, and her mother started talking about witches and wizards, magic wood-pieces, as he referred to them, and whatnot. Nearly gave the man a heart attack. After the big revelation they stayed apart for nearly 2 years. If it wasn't for the fact that he was already madly in love with her mother, she was sure she would never see him again after that. But he came back.

Azura sighed in relief as Elsa said that her father was fine. Perhaps it was the Healer in her, but she hated hearing about other peoples injuries without knowing they were fine! "I'm so glad to hear that! And that sounds about right.." The Firewhiskey.. it would help pep him up at least!

The purple eyed Ravenclaw couldn't help but laugh a little as Elsa did a little dance around her! "Careful!" She called out as the girl nearly tripped, but thankfully she didn't and Azura kept giggling at her little song.. "Stew? I don't know if you can brew Stew! She said with another giggle and a shake of her head! She was so silly!

Azura listened as Elsa talked about her mother and her family.. That was so funny, making fun of someone because they were in a different house. It was all what the sorting hat saw in your head anyways.. So perhaps her mother wasn't as brave as the rest of the family! "Well good for her then.. I love all the houses.. I'm just scared of snakes." Hence why she wouldn't work well in Slytherin!

and it did seem scary at times, but Colt was nice as was Elsa.. so maybe it wasn't so bad?

She smiled as she spoke of her Dad being a muggle, it was just like Jasper's Mom! "and how did your dad take the news about witches?" She asked curiously.

Elsa snorted at Azura's reaction. The girl with he wicked purple eyes was cool and she really hoped they could hang out more in t he future. Even with the danger of broken bones and bruised knees hanging in the air.

Ah, it felt good to do something silly for a change. All she had been doing lately is study, study, study and with Christmas around the corner (OOC: right?) all she wished she could do is cuddle up near a fireplace and drink some hot coco.

She looped her arm through Azura's and started walking slowly down the hall. "You shouldn't be scared of Snakes, they're just like every other animal. All they want is kindness and respect. And a baby or two to sink their teeth in!" she have her a toothy grin. She could sense snakes weren't her favorite animal and she understood. She wasn't fond of spiders herself - even thinking about them gave her the chills "I was kidding before, and we only have one snake in our common room. It's our mascote and it never, I mean NEVER, leaves it's tank." she smiled again.


Elsa scratched the back of her head "This braid is giving me a headache" the girl complained pulling the end of it and running her fingers through it, setting free her luxuriant hair "All better!".

She thought about Azura's question for a moment. How to put it into words "He didn't take it two well. From what my mother told me, there was a lot of disbelief at first: He thought she was playing a prank on him and accused her of being some kind of con artist you know? Those people who fool others for money? Even though she wasn't asking him for anything other than understanding.." could she blame him? Being told that there was an entire different world existing next door.. Elsa glanced at Azura and gave her a little sideways smile "Then came the fear. I mean, she just rocked his entire world with this revelation, so he went mad with fear that she had done something to him. By then they had been dating for about 3 months and he was madly in love with her. He thought that maybe she had bewitched him into thinking he loved her." she mentally cringed at the idea.

Her mother always got teary eyes on that part "So he left. For three entire years they didn't hear or see each other. Then their paths crossed again in the UK when my dad went there for a summer internship and he told her that he had been trying to find her ever since he left and that he was nearly loosing hope when: BAAM" she opened her arms dramatically "there she was, cloak and all. Apparently after he cooled his head, he did some research even met other witches and wizards and got used to the idea of magic. All out of love. I guess after that they kiss and made up because a year later or so I was born" she giggled and sighed, a small smile playing on her lips. It was a nice story, a real story of love and acceptance and she really did enjoy telling it.

Elsa smiled at Azura "Are your parents both wizards? Tell me something about yourself, are you an only child?" she craved knowledge after pouring her own heart out.

Azura smiled as Elsa looped an arm through hers and they started to walk down the hall, which was cool as long as she didn't trip over anything! There was always that looming over her head!

Azura made a face though at Elsa's words.. "I can't even with Snakes really, if they didn't look like they wanted to kill you, maybe it would be all right, they just look.. mean! And perhaps the lack of legs is creepy as well." She HATED snakes.. Hated them.. And would freak out and run away if she saw one.. "Well, I'm glad that it never leaves it tank, and I am also glad that I don't have to see it, cause.. It would be bad!" She was sure the hat could see that she was scared of snakes! She made a mental note to thank the sorting hat, for putting her in Ravenclaw!

Azura smiled as Elsa told the tale of her parents, it was an interesting story and it made Azura's heart warm at the thought of such true love. "I hope they are still happy?" She asked her friend. A story liked that deserved a happy ending!

She hoped that one day, love would be out there for her! She had a crush.. [s]or two[/b] but no one really liked her back.. so..hmm.. It was nice to know that love was out there!

She nodded at Elsa's question. "Yes, my mom and Dad are both wizards, my mom had a hard time of it before my dad came along, boyfriends leaving her, things like that. Her mom had had a hard story, and it wasn't fun to tell, so Azura was going to skip that part. "But, she was a healer and my dad came in with his insides literally in knots, and by the end of the night they had fallen in love." She said with a bit of a dreamy look in her eyes.

"Yes, I'm an only child, my mom can't have anymore kids." She said with a nod. Though she had always wanted a sibling!

Afraid Azura would shriek herself with panic over snakes, Elsa conducted the conversation towards a more pleasant direction as they strolled down the hall.

“I like to believe so, at least they look happy most of the times” Elsa knew not everyone was happy all the time, that would be exhausting, but she fairly sure her parents were happy most of the times. 90% of the time perhaps. Specially when it was sunny. Yeah, her parents were happy. She smiled kindly at Azura’s expression. She had a little glint in her eyes, like she was considering love.

Elsa didn’t really imagine herself in that position, yet. She fancied some singers and other sorts of cool people, but she couldn’t imagine herself actually dating someone it was too frightening, the idea. But she had a feeling Azura’s thoughts were different than hers.

She kept nodding through Azura’s tale of how her parents had met, and again the possibility of loving someone to have them leaving made her shake her head. How could she ever trust her heart, feelings, into someone when there was the possibility of them walking away with it all and trowing it in the bin?

“That’s awful” she said with a whisper, looking at her feet, when she learned all the heartbreak her friend’s mother had been through. But, by the end of the story, she was smiling. True love, right? She noted the way Azura her mother couldn’t have anymore kids but didn’t press on it. She was an only child too, but one think she learned was that friends were the family you could choose, so she considered herself lucky to be able to have dozens of sisters and brothers that she loved, and maybe soon she would consider Azura a sister too.

She elbowed her lightly on the ribs, just enough to startle her from the little silly smile she had on “Do you fancy someone?” she fired boldly.

Azura nodded her head as Elsa spoke, that was good. She was glad to hear they were happy. A tale like that needed to have a happy ending to it! "I'm so glad to hear that." She said with a warm smile. Her own parents were happy as well. She loved them so much!

What were they going to do without her presence?

At Elsa's question though.. the purple eyed girl flustered quite a bit and she actually stopped walking for a moment as she tried to figure out a way to answer that question!

Did she fancy someone?

Of course she did!

"I.. uh.. well you see." Words.. not so much at the moment. They weren't coming when she needed them! It was those dang Fwoopers messing with her mind again, making her brain all scrambled so she couldn't talk normally.

"You see.. well." She tried again, before clearing her throat.. "I might.." EEEK!! Her voice was so high and squeak! Get it together Azura!

She cleared her throat yet AGAIN and took a deep breath. "I may fancy a boy.. or two."Or three She finally managed to get out. "But they are both older than me.. and so.. It's not going to happen." And no, she hadn't mentioned Jazzy! Her busy best friend was NOT going in that Category! She didn't care what anyone else thought. She wasn't going to like him anymore. Just Torie and Colt..

Come to think of it.. They sorta looked alike..

Huh..

If wasn’t an evil thing to do Elsa would have laughed. Oh MERLIN who would have known Azura would get so flustered by her question? She fumbled with her words, red crimson creeped up her cheeks, tainting her fair skin and all Elsa could think of was how funny she looked.

She stuttered for a few moments, mumbling incoherent sentences, trying to answer her properly. She almost felt sorry to ask but - Morgana have mercy on my soul - it was too darn entertaining.

Elsa giggled, resting her hand on top of Az’s arm “It’s okey, if you don’t want to tell me, really” sincerity pouring out of her green eyes.

A boy or two? Woaaah, wasn’t she a devilish one Az? “You sneaky gargle!” she exclaimed “ Look at you, all flustered and clumsy and you have two love interests!” her smile spread wider over her lips with amusement. She clearly was messing with Azura. It was totally fine, she herself like more than band members, just none of the boys at Hogwarts so far.

“Would you tell me who they are? Do they fancy you back? Have you ever kissed a wizard before?!” words were pouring out of her mouth like water. No retrain whatsoever. She looked at Azura with pleading eyes. Say yes, please please, let me live vicariously through you - they seemed to say.

Azura shook her head as Elsa spoke and she put her hands up and waved them around as if to ward off the girls words! "No! It's nothing like that at all! Honestly!" She said, she didn't want the other girl to think she was like.. DATING two guys.. She bit her lip a little and sighed a bit as she attempted to calm down her flushed cheeks..

It was all right to have crushes! Wasn't it? So why was she freaking out so much!!

Breathe Azura.. Breatheeeeee She mentally told herself as she took a deep breath at Elsa's next questions..

Okay..

"Oh.. umm well.. They are Torie, he's a 3rd year Hufflepuff.. and Uhh.. well.. Colt.. sorta..He's a 4th year Slytherin." She wasn't going to mention Jasper.. Nuh..uh! It wasn't going to happen! He might go back to Australia next year and she couldn't face that heartache. She had to thank Jace again for helping her figure that out!

"No way do they fancy me back! Me? I'm just a first year, who's clumsy, has a weird name and odd color eyes. It's purely a one sided thing." She said with a nod "And no, I've never kissed anyone before."

Older boys, how exciting! Elsa mused with a smile. She then took a moment to think about what Azure had just said. She must be blind to think none of those boys would like her. Maybe not now, but why wouldn't they? They were what, 3/4 years older? "Uhm, why wouldn't they? You're pretty and your eyes are..exotic!" she said winking "Boys like exotic things!"

"I know of Colt, he's cute, I've seen him around the common room!" she added with another wink "you have good taste!" giggle.

She then looked at her watch, oh Merlin! Time flew, they were about to be late for potions!

"Az, I'd love to meet you again, can we catch up after potions?" she asked hopefully dragging her along to Potions class.

Azura just shrugged a bit.. "Just a feeling I suppose." She said softly as she smiled at the other girl. "Well, I hope so!" She said with a grin as she looked at Elsa..

"Yeah, he is rather cute isn't he? He healed up my nose the other day, I was super grateful for that! She said with a warm smile before looking up at the windows..

"EEEKKK! We can't be late! YESS! Let's hang out afterwards!" She said with a warm smile as they ran together towards Potions class.

"Wheeeeee!" Haddie slid down the final banister, letting the curve at the launch her a foot, and landed feet firmly on the first floor. She turned and waited for her best friend to huff and puff her way down the rest of the steps. Sure, going from the 7th floor to the first, or the ground floor was annoying sometimes, but it never seemed to bother Haddie as much as the others. Maybe because Haddie was three scoops of energy packed in a one scoop container...

The whole way down, she had been trying to cheer her best friend up. Did she think they would be able to change her Dad's mind on this? No. Did she hope they could? Absolutely. But she couldn't just mope about it. Which is why she never wanted to say anything in the first place. Stupid big mouth of hers.

Haddie waited for Rachel to catch her breath. "Do you really think I'm gonna just nod obediently on this?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. "There hasn't been a single rule of my Dad's I haven't not listened to. Not going to start now." Even if she had to sneak out and onto the Hogwarts Express, she was going to try to make it back to Hogwarts. Though realistically, she knew... "So now can we please start enjoying the last few months before summer." She didn't need to finish with what they were both thinking. Because they may be her last few months at Hogwarts for good. "And hey, look on the bright side. You won't have to choose between your boyfriend and best friend..." Never know when to shut your mouth, do you Haddie?

"Okay,"Haddie said, changing the subject quickly. "The first one was by the tapestry, and the second by the painting, so it's probably by one of the portraits." The portraits that just about line the whole of the first floor, no biggie. "So let's find this thing."

Rachel watched apprehensively as Haddie slid down the banister. Why did that girl always insist on giving her a heart attack? But to her relief, Haddie landed safely which let the dark haired Eagle breath properly and normally. Okay, not really. Descending all those steps had left her out of breath and she was clutching a stitch on one of her sides, her cheeks pink as ever.

She joined Haddie on the corridor, gasping slightly. "No.. huff... I didn't... puff. Don't you...huff... go making things...puff... worse by arguing...huff... with him.'' Rachel paused, letting herself catch herself back. "Alright. I'll think positively.'' She then glared at Haddie. "He's not my boyfriend and I did not choose him over you.''

She listened to Haddie and then simply nodded. "This sounds logical. Let's go,'' she said shortly.

"Sure, no problem! I don't tattle on my friends." Esme smiled but she wasn't sure if she wanted to join them. Though... not going into the Forbidden Section seemed like a good idea to her. "Maybe we can ask the Grey Lady! She knows a lot about history." She had even taught the subject last term though it hadn't been too enjoyable. Professor Handsome made the class so much better and it was hard to keep from giggling at the thought of him.

Kitty worked out the problem quickly and it sent them all the way back downstairs to the first floor. "I think that Professor Tanner is trolling us," she said in amusement. That was the only reason she could think of as to why they had been sent all the way to the top floor only to have to go back down to the bottom. Well, it could be worse. They could have been sent to the dungeons...

"Hopefully it's somewhere around here..." Esme said as she looked along the corridor.

Reaching the first floor, Janelle went into the corridor and immediately started her search. Looking over to Zeke, she asked, "Do you think it's in the corridor somewhere?" She had a feeling that Professor Tanner wouldn't put the parchment in any of the classrooms, so that cut down their choices. Moving through the corridor, Janelle hunted for the clue. Things were not going very well, so far.

They had found the other clues pretty easily, this time not so much. Janelle needed to look carefully, but move swiftly. "Hey Zeke", she called out. "Have you found anything yet?" Of course he hadn't because if her had, he would have told her by now. "If we don't find the parchment soon, maybe we should look somewhere else on this floor. Any ideas?" Hopefully, the answer was yes.

The end was near... or so he'd hoped, cause like, finishing was nice.

By this stage he and Janelle seemed to be working like a well-oiled machine, each of them working their way along as they searched for the blasted piece of parchment. Couldn't they just summon it or something?

Sigh.

"No, nothing yet," he called back over his shoulder, her questions answering his own before he had a chance to ask. She wasn't having any luck either.

Pausing and turning to his partner, Zeke shrugged. "I dunno, the swamp maybe?" or like... around? At this stage still had some options. "Come on, I recon it's worth a look," and if it wasn't then she could push him into it. Yep.

So Zeke hadn't found anything yet either. Hopefully they would come upon the parchment soon. Janelle kept looking around, but the corridor just did not seem to be the location. She looked up at Zeke when he spoke. The swamp. OK, why not? "That seems like as good a place as any." Being as though she didn't have any better suggestions, she was going with her partner's idea.

"The Swamp it is", Janelle replied. Following Zeke, she headed toward their next destination.