"You're welcome, Sir Nicholas. I hope you're able to be successful in all your upcoming ventures." It was said with a touch of her dramatics, accompanied by a lovely smile, because absolutely ghosts could have 'ventures'. Whatever it was they got up to all day, Liv couldn't be sure, but she was SURE it was deeply fascinating.

Ahem, but anyway. Tugging at the ends of her hair, she turned to the Ravenclaw boy.

"Would you like to have a tea with me sometime?" She was still smiling brightly.

He hoped so too. Seriously. If he was going to stay at Hogwarts until graduation (which Tak sort of wanted to) he would have to learn to get along with the people he would see every single day. It only made sense.

Turning to face Lucy, Tak held out his hand. "Is this how you do it?"

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Originally Posted by Kaos.Doodles

He hoped so too. Seriously. If he was going to stay at Hogwarts until graduation (which Tak sort of wanted to) he would have to learn to get along with the people he would see every single day. It only made sense.

Turning to face Lucy, Tak held out his hand. "Is this how you do it?"

Lucy giggled. "I don't know anything yet!" But she took his hand anyway and turned it palm-side up. "My friends played around, though. This," she used her other hand to run her finger along one of Tak's creases, "Is your life line? Or age line? Or something... and...," she examined his, "You're healthy and you're gonna live a long time. I think." She nodded confidently.....then burst out giggling again.

"I promise to read it for real when I've learned how!" Promise!

Sir Nicholas grinned at Harvey's amazement. "Well, dear boy, Sir Nicholas always remembers a face and a name. Even after all these years, that talent has not diminished." He was rather proud of it, of course.

"Many thanks to you, Harvey," he said, giving the young Ravenclaw a bow, which ended in his head flopping off his shoulders. Once he stood, he popped it back on top where it belonged.

"I hope I will be too," Sir Nick said, enjoying the way young Olivia was speaking with him. Dramatics were something the ghost appreciated, and it wasn't lost on him.

When Olivia turned to Harvey to organise a get-together, he knew it was his time to leave the young students. "I bid you a farewell for now, good day," he said, and floated off, hands clasped behind his back.

"Good luck, Sir Nicholas!" he said with a smile, successfully (thankfully) managing not to laugh as the ghost righted his head.

When Olivia invited him over for tea, Harvey found himself almost stammering. A third year? Wanting to hang out with him?

"Tea? Erm... Yes, that... yeah... that would be great, thank you!" he managed, still not quite believing she'd asked him. She seemed so... well, Harvey wasn't quite sure what word to use to describe her. She was different. And perhaps a little bit intimidating because she was different. But not in a scary way, exactly. Just... unpredictable.

And Harvey relied on logic. Anything unpredictable was... risky. But perhaps making a friend like this would be good for him.

Dora had offered to choose the spot for she and Paige to meet this week, and for some reason this spot particularly appealed to her. Maybe it was the sparkling gems or the relative privacy she felt there. In reality, there was not one single place in the whole blasted castle that was PRIVATE, though. Not really. To be expected with all the other students, really. So the blonde sucked it up and plopped down in front of the Gryffindor hourglass and pulled a sketch pad from her bag. She wasn't particularly good at drawing, but she enjoyed the act of getting lost in a picture.

Mhm.

So as she waited for her friend to arrive she began to sketch a rather large flower. Probably because Paige was in the forefront of her mind and she knew that they shared a love for flowers, ya know. Perhaps Dora would make it PERFECT and color it in for the older girl. The Hufflepuff was a Merlin sent saviour to her, after all.

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Originally Posted by Eriin

Dora had offered to choose the spot for she and Paige to meet this week, and for some reason this spot particularly appealed to her. Maybe it was the sparkling gems or the relative privacy she felt there. In reality, there was not one single place in the whole blasted castle that was PRIVATE, though. Not really. To be expected with all the other students, really. So the blonde sucked it up and plopped down in front of the Gryffindor hourglass and pulled a sketch pad from her bag. She wasn't particularly good at drawing, but she enjoyed the act of getting lost in a picture.

Mhm.

So as she waited for her friend to arrive she began to sketch a rather large flower. Probably because Paige was in the forefront of her mind and she knew that they shared a love for flowers, ya know. Perhaps Dora would make it PERFECT and color it in for the older girl. The Hufflepuff was a Merlin sent saviour to her, after all.

Paige had never really spent all that much time around the hour glasses seeing as the competitive nature that was the race to the House Cup had never been appealing to her, so she was intrigued as to why Dora had selected the location for their weekly meet up. Then again, the Gryffindor had a vibrant personality that could rival the sparkle of the gems contained within each hourglass...so perhaps it was not all that surprising.

She had been writing mushy poetry all morning, okay? Her mind was romanticizing a lot of things and projecting flowery thoughts abound.

"Dora!" Paige called from just a little distance away, holding up a small box of chocolate dipped crisps she had brought along with her as per usual and giving it a bit of a wiggle. "What are you drawing?" she asked as she plopped down next to the younger Gryffindor and removed the lid on the box, setting it down on the ground between them.

The Gryffindor had gotten lost in thought and the drawing so she didn't actually notice Paige until she called out her name. Nothing new, that. She was usually so caught up in one thing or another, to be honest. Tilting her head to smile at Paige she promptly went back to the drawing. "I think... it's a peony. I'm not sure yet. It's definitely a flower, though. That's all I can be certain of at this moment, " she offered, laughing at herself. And that was the difference between Dora and most other people, she thought. The ability to laugh at oneself was not a popular thing amongst the Uber serious... and somewhat self absorbed Hogwarts kids.

Oops. SHE was being judgey again. Mentally berating herself, the blonde stuck the pencil back into her hair and flipped the sketch pad closed. She would go back to that in a bit. RIGHT NOW THERE WAS CHOCOLATE TO BE NOMMED, YOU KNOW?!

"Excited for your birthday, " she asked with a BIG SMILE as she plucked a crisp from the tin. DORA totally loved birthdays and had already made a gift for her older friend.

Leaning over a bit so she could better see the sketch Dora was working on. "Peonies are a good choice," she mused while teetering over the edge of floromancy rambling. "Represent romance, prosperity, compassion, honor, fortune, and a happy relationship. There is even an omen with their blossoms. If your peony bush is full of flowers, it will bring good luck, but if the leaves dry up and the flowers fade or become discolored it’s a sign that you should be prepared for disaster. Also, an odd number of blooms is also considered bad luck."

Puffing out her cheeks once she realized the copious of unsolicited information she had just shared, taking a moment to laugh a bit shyly at herself as conversation turned towards other things.

"Oh...gosh..." Paige flushed, her eyes shifting to her bracelet and idly twirling it around her wrist. "I'd...almost forgotten about it, to be honest." Like she had completely forgotten about Valentine's Day (and daddy's birthday) this year... which had been mutual and yet ironically worked out with a well-timed mirror call that then resulted in a spontaneous late night rendezvous. "I get my university results soon," she explained. "Well, one of them at least...the important one. Been rather difficult to focus on much else."

Divination was alright, but Dora really only like the Pyromancy lessons, to be honest. But she listened and nodded as Paige spoke. She was adorable when she started talking all smart and stuff. In fact, the younger Gryffindor patted her hand as she puffed her cheeks out. "But don't all plants die at some point? Or wilt some of their leaves and petals? " She felt like most things in her life ended in disaster, so maybe she needed to pay closer attention to her plants. SHEESH.

"Welp, I'd never let you forget. Birthdays are supposed to be celebrated and done so vigorously! " she said with gusto, a little laugh leaving her. DRAMATICS were a Gryffindor thing after all. "Ohhhh. That is a HUGE deal, Paige and I get it, but you have to relax and have fun sometimes too. I could help with that, you know, " she offered with a grin. No one better than to find a little adventure with than a Lion!

The blonde quickly deflated though, nibbling on her crisp absently. "So, how did you know... you were straight?" No Segway to the conversation, let's just dive right in.

Dora's spot on observation elicited a amused giggle from the Hufflepuff. "True point," she smiled. "Floromancy is not exactly an exact art." At least not unless one possessed the Inner Eye she supposed. "No need to look for bad omens at every corner."

Dramatics certainly were a Gryffindor thing, and Paige was pretty sure that Dora took the cake. Although her selection of Gryffindor that she knew well was quite small comparatively. And it always seemed that Gryffindors were the ones telling her to relax and have fun. She wasn't a hermit or anything! "I do do all that," she assured Dora with a small, but amused, shake of the head and laugh. "And once I get these results a weight will be lifted from my shoulders and I can stop feeling like a squished shrivelfig."

Well...hopefully. That was assuming the contents of the pending letter were favorable. Otherwise....

Absently reaching for a crisp herself, the seventh year nearly choked on it when the topic of conversation changed. Not just changed...but changed to something completely unrelated to floromancy and birthdays. Good Merlin.

Well, alright, perhaps there was a rather poetic link to be made between sexuality and birthdays...but Paige was not thinking along those lines at the moment.

Coughing and eyes watering a little, Paige managed to catch her breath and look at Dora with flushed cheeks. Her initial response was to simply go with a feeble 'pardon?' and hope that she had misheard, but this was Dora. It was hard to mishear anything with her. "I...am actually not sure that I am." she confessed, chewing on corner of her lip. "My first crush was actually on one of my best girl friends...I...haven't felt that way about another girl since...but I also haven't felt attracted in that way to many people either. Really...only four in total..." She was rambling a bit again, and slowly at that, but this was something she herself had not really thought through all the way herself. "...although of those four the number is predominantly male."

"Sometimes I feel like that is all Divination does. Tell us the bad things that are coming... or even just reveals like sad stuff," she said with a frown. She remembered something that had freaked her dad out... long time ago. Something that had landed her in years of sessions with Mr. Kapoor. Not that she minded that aspect of it, but you know. Sighs.

ANYWAY. No need for sads right now. Nope, nope, nope. "When you get your results we should celebrate! I'll throw you a party even! How fun would that be?!" The correct answer? SUPER FUN! And this made Dora pretty excited as she already started to make plans in her head. Grand plans! Quills and parchment themed decorations. Yasss. This was a thing that was going to happen. It was decided whether Paige liked it or not. Ha. That was what she got for having a Gryffindor as a friend, you know.

Oh MERLIN! Was she killing Paige? Dora looked over as the older girl almost choked, eyes wide, poised to pull her wand from her holster if need be. SHe wasn't going to let her choke to death after all. Her brown eyes widened even more as her friend spoke again. This... this was interesting stuff right here. It also made Dora feel better that someone so seemingly well adjusted had the same kind of struggle. Chewing on her crisp, she listened as Paige continued. "I know I like girls, but I like this one boy, too. Like really like him. And well, there is this one that I quite like to snog, but I can't say that I am necessarily attracted to him. Which makes things even harder to figure out. I really thought I was... gay, but now I am not so sure," she said in what seemed like one breath. She never was one to mince words, really, so why start now.

Busying herself with a ball of lint on her sleeve, Dora chewed the inside of her cheek and sighed. "I thought it was going to be easier when I embraced that I like girls, Paige. Why is it so much harder now?" And why was Casper the first person popping into her brain as she spoke. Sheesh.

Paige couldn't mask how accurately Dora's words stung, inhaling sharply as if on cue and eyes widening. It was precisely that reason that the seventh year was afraid of exploring her so-called gift and it was really only recently that she had had her first glimmers of positive visions. "...yeah..." she nodded softly while looking down at her fingers that she had now knotted with one another.

She did perk up a bit and nodded with a smile in confirmation that she would inform Dora about her results. Could not promise that the Gryffindor would be the first or even know the day she opened the letter, however. "Fun...but not necessary," she laughed sheepishly. "Save any big celebrations for the end of term maybe." Graduation and everything, which could come soon please.

Listening carefully, Paige wished she could offer some sort of clear reason or insightful words of wisdom to the Gryffindor...but truth was that she herself had only recently really begun to explore this side of herself as well. While feeling incredibly sympathetic to Dora's confusion, the Hufflepuff couldn't stop herself from laughing softly at her final question. "Because feelings are never easy," she replied. "Sometimes...you just cannot explain what it is you see in a person that draws you to them. Like you and this boy. Maybe he feels like a safe place to you and it's not so much him you are interested in but the idea of him and what he represents to you." Words that made her pause and reflect for a moment, her own cheeks rising in color recalling and very tense and confusing conversation from the summer once again. One that had challenged and pushed her past her limit and forced her own eyes open. "It's possible...you could be bisexual though...perhaps...that doesn't mean your preference is a clean 50/50 split....it could be 90/10 in favor of female partners but if the right guy comes along you feel the same sort of way towards them..." she continued, considering her own confusion with that. "I thought I was for a time...but I came to realize that I don't really see gender...I see something else..." Which was hard to explain right now and she really did not want to make this conversation about her. "It...drove me mad for a while...trying to figure out what was going on in my head and my heart...but I eventually just tried to go about life and let myself develop deep feelings for people naturally ... see where things took me...without trying to analyze why..."

But then again she had always lead her life with her heart leading over her head, especially when it came to matters such as these.