Hadley shrugged. No, it wasn't cool at all. That was a given. "I'm here," she said. "So it is better." She watched Asher for a bit, running and hopping around as he playfully attacked the foliage. He was doing his play-with-me dance. Who else had a ferret here? It would be great to find out and get Asher a ferret buddy to play with. "Things are a lot better now." She was at Hogwarts, with Asher, and Wimple, and all her friends. No more screaming matches with Dad. No more confinement to the house. Total freedom at her favorite place in the world.

Yeah, things were better.

Haddie shifted herself off the bench and to the ground while she listened to Hope. Asher took immediate notice and came running, hopping, jumping, tripping on over to her, so Hadley rolled him on his back and tickled his tummy. This only seemed to put Asher in an even more playful mood. "No," Hadley said, shaking her head. "Haven't kissed anyone yet. Was it nice?" She broke a leaf off a fern of some sort and began dragging one end across the dirt for Asher to chase. He is so gonna need a bath tonight. "Did you see stars or fireworks or anything?"

Prof. Draper~ he isn't Jerkface anymore yay XD
 

Obviously she had been on the pathways before. But that was only to get to her classes. She hadn’t had the time to really explore the grounds yet since she was still getting lost in the castle when going to her classes and she needed to learn that first. But today she wanted to do something different and got outside.

The first year Gryffindor walked around in her muggle clothes. She wasn’t going to wear her uniform if she didn’t have classes. Bec walked on, enjoying the peace and quiet as she looked at the plants around her. The rose bushes reminded her of her first Herbology lesson but she didn’t stop to smell them. Instead, a bench had magically appeared just when she was thinking about sitting down and with a small smile, the first year sat down. As she looked at the roses, she wondered when Fiyero was going to give her his photograph of the rose in mid-transformation.

Or had he only been joking? Bec frowned as she thought. Perhaps she should seek him out later. But not now. The girl leaned back in her seat and placed her bag on her lap. She opened it up and pulled out some gummy worms which she started to eat while enjoying the colorful weather.

He wasn't dumb, and therefore didn't miss the way Azura's voice caught when she talked about her mom. He also didn't miss the the past tense words. He immediately felt the shift in his stomach, that discomfort that came with the understanding of what those things meant; he wasn't sure what the protocol for stuff like that was, though, so he chose to ignore it.

Well. Not ignore it. Just... he wasn't going to ask after it. The last thing he wanted was to upset her or make her cry or something. If she wasn't going to press the thing from Sachiko, he wasn't going to press the thing about her mom. Mutual avoidance of difficult topics for the win.

"I like dittany for how useful it is," he murmured, reaching to touch the leaves of a shrub sitting back from the path. Not dittany, but he liked how the leaves felt against his fingertips. They were sooooooft. He looked from the shrub to Azura. "There's this other plant I like the most though. It's really rare to find, but dad got some, and I get to keep a little of it in my plant patch. It's called niffler's fancy... it's really pretty."

She had mentioned potions ingredients, which was something else he knew lots and lots about. "My plant patch has lots of potions ingredients! I got to do experiments with them this summer."

It had been soooooooooo fun. And he'd even managed to bring some of the experiment stuff with him. It was stashed away in his dorm, just waiting for the right time.

The Gryffindor nodded as the Professor introduced herself. ”It’s nice to meet you officially.” She told the woman with a smile. ”I don’t take Muggle Studies, but Professor Moxley was awesome fun. I hope you like taking over from her.” There… that was pleasant enough when she wouldn’t have the Professor personally.

”Me? Every morning.” She said nodding her head as she followed the path around the grounds. ”I’m on the grounds by 5am. I run until about 6.30am and then I go to the creatures and feed them in the morning if Professor Draper hasn’t gotten there already. I love the morning before breakfast when it is so quiet.” Or… its usually quiet. At least the Professor seemed to be able to keep up with her jogging.

... Silently, she wondered how far she could push her before she couldn't keep up.

we'll see about that *hopes*
 

There were a few places on campus that James had zero familiarity with. For example, Ravenclaw tower, the inside of Paul Myer's office, the Arithmancy classroom. But for every place he didn't know well, there were places he knew like the back of his hand. For example, the Gryffindor Common Room, his own office, the barn, the detention cells, room of requirement on a busy day. And the path leading up from the greater grounds to the castle.

Walking this path back and forth had become somewhat of a second nature by now. To the point where he had gotten used to people sitting around when he had places to be and managed to get by with just quick nods and pass-bys. But today, he had some time. It was a rare occasion, one he chose to cherish appropriately. It'd be a waste to take it for granted. So as he started to make his way back down from the castle to the grounds, he did so leisurely.

Just to find a elf-sized student not in uniform. "Stopping to smell the roses?" He didn't know this one.

Munching on the gummy worms, Bec swung her legs back and forth. She was too small to touch the ground if she sat down. She was looking at the leaves on the ground, the red and orange colours looked really pretty and nearby was a pile of leaves. It took all of her will power not to jump in it because in the distance, she could see the figure of an older man, definitely not a student, walk on the path.

Recognising him as the Care of Magical Creatures Professor, Bec took a bit of another gummy worm and watched him get closer. Thinking he would walk further, the Gryffindor popped in three more of the candies in her mouth when the man stopped and she looked up at him. “Nope” she said with a mouthful. She swallowed the candy , apologized and then rummaged in her bag. Taking out a gummy worm , she held it up. “Just eating , want one Professor Drapes?" she asked, not realizing she had mispronounced his last name.

Jermione Granger, this one's for you :3
 

Nicky had woken early and, unable to get back to sleep, had taken to the grounds lest she lie in bed counting the differences in time zones and wondering what her friends were up to late into their evening. She's put on a sport top and yoga pants, intending to find somewhere quiet to stretch. As she made her way down the pathways, she saw another shape ahead, leaned against a tree. Squinting as she got closer, she smirked to herself as she recognized the shape as Professor Hottie.

Passing by with a nod, she gave him a quick once-over, taking note of the attire and that he seemed to be post workout. "Good morning, Professor," she said as she passed by, looking back over her shoulder as she continued past.

It was only after the blonde got half a dozen paces past him that she stopped, an idea percolating in her head. Spinning in her tennis shoes on the path, she faced him. "Actually, Professor, I've been meaning to come and ask you something. Do you have a minute?"

After all these mornings, Hirsch wasn't at all surprised to see people up and about to do a bit of exercise. Sure, the majority of the population probably preferred sleep to exercise but, as suspicious as it was, it was certainly nice to see some had gotten up earlier than usual.

So, he wasn't surprised when one passed him as he stood there. "Good morning to you too, Miss Iver," he said, returning the nod along with a smile. No early morning conversations, no eagerness and no pressing questions that would cause him to think so early on in the day. Thank you for that, Miss I-

He spoke too soon.

The girl was back before he knew it. Did he have a minute? Uh, wasn't this something that could wait until he had some coffee? No? "Yeah, of course. What's up?" He took a great swing of his water bottle before turning his attention to her fully. Please don't ask him a hard question, okay? It was still early, after all.

With a bit of a smile, Nicky clasped her hands behind her back and retraced her steps toward the tree where Hirsch had propped himself up. "Good..." she gave his attire another look and spotted the water bottle "run, this morning?" She finished her thought, taking a guess at what his exercise routine had been. No sense jumping right into her question, especially when he might just dismiss her as soon as it left her lips.

Professor Hottie was, far as she could tell, the bright spot in the complete grey that was her exile to Scotland. No sense squandering it right away.

"I wanted to ask you about something that I'd come across in a book." The kind wasn't important. She glanced down and their shoes, playing up a sense of hesitance. "About the imperius curse and some... unconventional applications where the target had.. agreed to be under it." She looked back up at him, then, wondering at his reaction.

"It seemed... a bit of a grey area and I wondered as to your thoughts."

He raised his brows, watching her curiously. It was always the Gryffindors that struck him the most interesting. He had been one himself back in the day, but still... Never ceased to amaze him. The variations were endless, but the similarities... There were more of those.

"I stay away from sugar," he shook his head. "It's poison for your teeth." A simple 'no' probably would've sufficed, but eh. This way she wouldn't try to bribe him with candy later on either. You never know with these students. Some try to go to extraordinary lengths, none of which worked on him by the way. And she ought to know now, before she ate too much. "Not the roses then?" He wondered out loud. Of course 'stopping to smell the roses' had only been an expression, but now he was curious. First years always took things so literally. "So what exactly is it that you're doing here?" Surely she couldn't just be out to enjoy the day.

Oh and one more important detail here, "Professor Draper," he corrected FIRMLY after a few seconds. Whoever started this awful nickname had to put an end to it. Because it was infuriating. And if it was meant to get on his nerves, it was working. And it was easy to tell he was bothered. So she better remember it. "Remind me of your name?" That was the PROPER thing to do when one couldn't remember someone's name, by the way.

Azura looked over at Jaemin for a moment, and it almost seemed as if something passed between them.. something unspoken to not mention uncomfortable things.. She wouldn't mention the letter..He wouldn't ask about her mother.. She had noticed he had looked at her for a moment after she spoke about her mother..

But he didn't say anything. Something Azura was grateful for. She would much rather suffer in silence really. People didn't need to know.

Her purple eyes flicked from the shrub he was touching to his face as he mentioned dittany, "That is a very useful ingredient." She agreed softly, as she looked down back down at the plant.. only to gasp softly as he mentioned Nifflers Fancy.."I love that plant, My mom had some in her office at work! I got to see it a few times, it was so pretty."She bounced a little excitedly at the memory of it. "She was trying to experiment on it." And find more of it.. Hence one of her reasons for going to the Black Forest.

"Oh really? What sort of ingredients? Have you made anything? I love potions."

Hope nodded as she listened to Hadley. She couldn't believe her father would do that. Sometimes dads were not fair. Hope made a face, but then Hadley Said that things were better because she was back at Hogwarts. good. I'm glad that you're back here. Now we can hang out and I can keep you distracted. She gave her smile as she watched the cute little ferret play with Hadley.

your ferret is super cute. I wish I had a pet here. I have my owl Annabella but she's not a ferret if you get what I mean. I bet they are alot of fun. Asher looks like he is. She laughed as he flipped over.

She thought about her kiss. It was so... I don't even know how to describe it.it was wet but firm. And I saw stars. But then it was over. And I was grounded. She saw him a couple more times and she had kissed him then too but she didn't want to seem like the she-got-busy girl of Hogwarts.

<3
 

Marsha smiled at the woman as they continued their run around the grounds. "Of course you will... You were hired in the first place, that must mean that you are pretty awesome." She didn't mention the Hag that got the job of Divination's Professor last year or any of the crazy happenings that had happened even in her own short time here. Nope, instead she wanted to instill some confidence in the Professor. Wasn't she nice? "If I ever have any questions, I'll make sure you're my first port of call."

"Of course you can. I start my run at 5am and I generally run for an hour before doing the rest of my training regime before going on to the Creatures housing to get them organised and fed for their day before going back to the castle." She knew that a lot of people would consider her crazy, but she loved her routine, especially since it included a second run in the afternoon after class with her boyfriend, Vince.

"Oh, completely. I hope to work with them in the future." She nodded as they started to run down another slope. "My plan is to get an apprenticeship or entry into University while I continue my running... Then go full time into Creature care when my career has to stop."

Hadley nodded with a smile that was as genuine as it was weary. Asher meanwhile had escaped her tickles of doom, sped away in a tight arc and was now having a blast attacking Hadley's leg. She scooped him up, gave him a kiss on his forehead and cuddled him against her. At first he tried to squirm free and play more but then he decided that he liked this and settled down.

"Owls are great too. I have one too. Wimple." Hadley was a teeny bit distracted by Asher licking her chin. "He's probably the most expressive owl I've ever seen. And obsessed with sharks. I'm going to visit him later today." Neither of her pets she actually paid for. Both had been received on one of her birthdays, Wimple as a birthday gift from her neighbor two years ago, and Asher from the Ravenclaw Raffle madness last year on her birthday. So Hadley didn't actually know how feasible it was for Hope to buy a pet herself. "It just kinda sucks you can't...can't...Asher, what are...you..." The ferret had moved his enthusiastic kisses up from her chin to her mouth. "I'm...trying...to talk..." The more she moved him, or pulled away so she could speak, the more determined he seemed.

When there was enough of a break in his kisses, she managed to suggest, "Maybe you can ask for a pet for your birthday?"

She knew niffler's fancy?! Not many people really did know it, cause it was such a rare potion ingredient, and a rare plant in general. Jaemin considered himself extremely lucky to even have gotten to see it, much less that his dad had given him some. It was so pretty, and so difficult to find...

"One of dad's projects is trying to figure out a way to make niffler's fancy propagate more. Cause then people can experiment more with it." He nodded lightly. "He's got other stuff to work on first though, so he doesn't really do that yet."

What sort of ingredients did he have in his plant patch? Jaemin frowned, trying to recall the list. There were so many, because of how small they were... there was no way to remember all of the names. If she wanted to know all of them, she'd just have to go see it sometime.

"There's loads. They're all shrunk down though, cause it's an experimental plant patch." He grinned. He was totally in his element with plant talk. "It's got asphodel, and wolfsbane, and dittany of course... and a little niffler's fancy plant that dad let me have because he knew I would take good care of it. And there's even little miniaturised trees and stuff, but they're just little saplings yet. And more."

He had totally made stuff with... well not with his plant patch, but with his dad's plant patches, which when you really considered it... were also Jaemin's. All plants were shared plants. HIS PLANTS.

"We tested them in potions this summer and they worked really well." He still had to tell Professor Myers about that! He totally needed to get to the greenhouses soon. "There's one I like, it makes your skin go all the colours of the rainbow and you get all shiny like a gem..."

He might have stolen one or two vials of that one. Might have. For science.

<3 Ali
 

Marsha didn’t know why… ‘cause she was just energetic and happy and liked to give compliments and be honest…. But then the new professors probably hadn’t learnt that about her yet. So, she gave the Professor another smile and let her leave the conversation at that. She liked making people happy.

Nodding her head, Marsha agreed with her. ”Definitely, but mostly I just need to keep up with my training - and so that I can continue to run with the clubs outwith school I need to keep up my grades…. And the grades will help me with University.” She couldn’t help but laugh slightly, she knew it sounded insane for a fifteen year old, but she just knew what she wanted to do with her life. Animals and Running. And Vince. Vince was a major part of everything now.

And just like Marsha had done to the Professor, the Professor gave her a compliment with little to no evidence of what she was saying - yet it made the Welsh teenager feel good, like she could do everything she hoped to do. Well, she knew she could - but at the same time life could be mean and she needed to find a way to stand out so that she would be able to complete those goals. She had time, but at least she was starting to get prepared now. So much to do and so little time. She cut across a few rocks so that she could lead the Professor on one of the side paths.

Blah blah sugar bad. Blah blah poison for teeth. She heard that story before but that didn’t stop her from eating them. Besides, her mother could fix her teeth in a zap if needed. Literally. So Bec put another gummy worm in her mouth and chewed on it. “You can stop by and say ‘I told you so’ if my teeth get bad” she said. But for now she was going to eat sugary stuff.

Swinging her legs again , the Gryffindor looked around. What WAS she doing here? “That’s a good question actually” she said without looking at him. “I wanted to explore the grounds. I’ve only passed this place when I went to classes but I haven’t had the time to really look around” her eyes went back to him and she realized she was in the middle of the bench. She shifted to the right so that he could sit as well if he wanted to and ate another gummy worm.

……….Draper. His name was Draper, not Drapes. Bec laughed awkwardly, especially since she could see he hadn’t found her mistake funny. “I’m sorry Sir. I honestly thought that…that was your last name” which was the truth. “Meadows, Professor Draper” she answered. “Rebecca Meadows. But everyone calls me Bec except for my parents who call me “Rebecca-Cynthia-Meadows-clean-up-your-room-right-now” –mellow-

“How long have you been teaching here?” she asked suddenly. “What’s the funniest thing that ever happened in your class? What’s your favourite creature?! And you can’t pick all!” important questions, all of them.