Now Professor Newton offered an awesome idea to Olivia's semi-dilemma. She didn't have to settle on or choose a career just yet. She could pursue one and always have another on the side. She liked the sound of that. It sounded like Ethan and Simon's consulting detective agency that they had started back at Hogwarts. "That's a brilliant idea!" She didn't have to choose just yet. What a great idea. "Yes I'm lucky that I still have more time. My brother knew that he wanted to go into teaching when he was thirteen. He had it all figured out." She had been envious that he had figured it all out so quickly or it seemed that way. She nodded to her comment about history. Yes there was so much they could learn from history. The subject provided a way of looking at the world. She enjoyed it throughly.

Two different careers? Impressive! Wow. Olivia nodded. She understoood what she meant. "I see what you mean. That's how my brother felt. He loved helping people understand and learn which is why he's pursuing teaching." Her brother was also more academically inclined. He enjoyed his research a lot. "Im glad that I have more time to figure it all out. I don't know what else I could do for a career as of right now."

*inserts poop!emoji*
 

....And this was why Olivia had chosen to suffer in silence. That happy, beautiful face Rooney was making right at this instant. It would've killed her to disappoint him. Had killed a part of her when Takeru had figured it out. She hated hurting anyone. HATED. IT...especially when she loved him just as much as she did Rooney, but this was something she could've never told the boy standing in front of her right now. He wasn't rational in the way that Tak was. Roo would not have understood. He wouldn't have even tried to.

...but as long as Rooney Bronwyn was happy, it was okay if she wasn't. Olivia didn't care about herself. Misguided selflessness.

In response to his flattery, she snorted; squeezing him in return. "You really have gone all out today, haven't you?" If this setup was anything to go by, he had put hours into creating her surprise. He was perfectly thoughtful in that way. Thoughtful and too pure for this world. "Rooney, I'm warning you... Whatever is in those boxes had better not be expensive." Mhm. WARNING YOU.... but the food was okay. Yes, she'd like some food.

Taking a seat, the blonde primly crossed her legs. "So, about that drink?"

...from the Entrance Hall.
 

He was standing still because he was FOCUSING REALLY HARD on standing still. It wasn't easy. But somehow he was successful. For now. Who knew how long that would last. Also it apparently meant that his tone of voice sounded even more EXCITED that unusual. Like, maybe he should balance it out a little. Let himself fidget excitedly just a liiiiiittle bit.

Was he going? WAS HE? "Of course!!" Not that he'd asked but really, his parents couldn't say no. And every single year he was going to hope that they might bring Quidditch back to Hogwarts too. He was endlessly optimistic, clearly. "Are you going?" Because really, THAT would be so cool.

Following Jessa out the door, Cameron nodded enthusiastically. It WAS quite heavy. Yet, he could e a s i l y carry it (okay, not for tooooo long but he was getting better). "I'm working on that!" He looked down at his own arms. Could she tell? COULD SHE? Maybe he would have to get some of those exercise equipment...like weights...some of the older kids had.

Because she was right, the bat WAS heavy.

Bludgers? "No." His parents would get him those. "I'm still practicing with tennis balls." He procured one from his bag and held it up. "They're roughly the same size. AND they don't attack you just yet." Which was quite handy if you didn't want to break anything, you know.

It occurred to her, while they walked, to ask why they were heading for the Courtyard instead of the Quidditch Pitch but with all the excited talking she was doing with Cameron, the question kept slipping right out of her mind. Take just now for instance, right before she asked, Cameron asked if SHE was going to Quidditch Camp. "I've never actually thought about it, but I'm sure my Dad would let me if I asked. You should send me an owl when the summer comes so I can get more info on the camp and where I should be." Because why NOT spend some of her summer at a Quidditch Camp with Cameron. If nothing else, it'd be brilliant fun.

"I'll need more Quidditch gear if I do end up going. Wanna help with that once we hit Diagon Alley again?" Left up to her, she would likely grab the first thing she saw on the shelves and call it a day.

"Are you?" Much like Cameron had done, Jessa also glanced down at his arms wondering how long he'd actually been working on them. "D'you have one of those workout routines like some of the older kids have?"

Blues eyes followed along as the Slytherin reached into his bag and brought out tennis balls. "Oh!" The thought pleased her more than she thought it would. " Alright! Will we be practising in the air?" That was the part she was most looking forward to.

Apparently Cameron got his sense of direction from his mum. Or he just liked taking the long way round to spend more time with Jessa. They'd never know, would they? He definitely liked the courtyard though and it WOULD lead them to the Quidditch Pitch eventually. They could just appreciate the castle and the grounds more this way.

AND plan out the next summer holidays. Heheh.

Her dad? "Did your dad play Quidditch too?" But more importantly,"You should definitely come!" He grinned at her excitedly, casually passing his beater's bat from one hand to the other. Okay, yes, it WAS heavy. Don't show it, Cameron. Conceal, don't feel. "I'll give you the details in spring because you have to tell them you're coming beforehand." So they could plan accordingly, you know. He was so clever. And her go-to guy about Quidditch things apparently. He felt very important now. "Of course I'll take you! It'll be fun!" So much fun. Yes. Now he really wanted summer come faster.

Noticing her looking down at his arms too, Cameron casually swung them so she wouldn't be able to tell whether or not he actually had muscles there. Like, of course he had MUSCLES but you know. Trained muscles. Muscles that grew from working out. With like weights or something. Because lol he definitely didn't have those. Yet. Workout routines though? "No." He shook his head, considering her words for a moment. "Do you think I should?" Probably. That actually made a lot of sense.

Back to their practice though.

"Maybe." He smiled at her, putting the balls back into his bag for now. It all depended on how skilled she was on a broom to be honest. MAYBE they would practice in the air. Or maybe they would do the flying and the Beater-practice separately for now. They'd have to see. They had all year to perfect it after all, right? This wasn't just a one-time-thing, right?

HOW EXCITING WAS THIS DAY TURNING OUT????? Now she had summer plans and it wasn't even the end of the first bit of the year yet. Keep it calm Jessa....just....remain....CALM.

"He plays, yeah but never professionally. My sister was on the Gryffindor team but she's an Auror now, never really took Quidditch professionally eithe--Oh! She was a beater too before her Captain switched her to Keeper." So maaaaaaybe she already had some beater blood in her and this wouldn't be as difficult as she was telling herself. Of course, she knew it probably didn't work like that for real but shhhh. "Spring?" THAT WAS SOONER THAN SUMMER! The camp wasn't in spring but starting the prep from then was sure to leave her all the more excited. "You can go ahead and confirm I'll be there. I'll owl my dad to let him know we gotta plan summer around it, then when spring comes you can gimme the info." Her mind was made up, Quidditch Camp with Cameron was definitely something she was down for.

Jessa was still beaming 'cause he said he'd help her with quidditch shopping when she caught sight of his flexing muscles...muscles in the making. They were there but not in the 'you, you're definitely a quidditch player' sort of way. "I think you should, yeah. We can start one, kinda like that Genny girl posting about a running thing for quidditch players. I can get in shape and you can get in better shape. Then maybe I won't make as big a fool of myself when Summer rolls around." They'd already be practising Quidditch together. It only made sense they work out together too, right? Right.

His smile had her smiling too. Cameron had one of those contagious smiles that made you feel like there was just no reason NOT to be smiling too. The nice kind of smile. "Weeell if we do, can we start with swinging at nothing before bringing the balls into play?" Ease her in to focusing on more than one thing at a time. Concentrating was hard sometimes when you tried processing everything at once.

Kay nodded and took a seat. It was going to be rather chilly soon so she was going to make it her mission to enjoy the great weather for now. She cast a glance at Kimi. Did he want to talk about what was bothering him? The woman wasn't going to force him into anything if he didn't want to. He possibly had other persons he's rather talk to anyway. So she remained silent for now.

Kimi saw Professor Stewart looking at him and said "I haven't been keeping too well lately that is what has really been on my mind lately" Kimi knew it was better to tell someone what was going on

Naturally, she wouldn't complain or even mention to anyone that she'd seen Dobby outside the barn. Not that she thought Stasya should get in trouble even if Professor Wayland did find out that he was missing, maybe the same way she had. It wasn't like she was keeping Dobby anywhere else or anything, though Emmeline felt bad that her friend couldn't have him in the dorm. She grinned at the thought of him getting on top of the four-posters and running around as high up as possible.

She beamed at Stasya when the other girl said that Dobby likes her, which he soon confirmed by jumping onto her hand. Making sure to keep that arm super still, so as not to scare him, she reached over and stroked the squirrel's back with her free hand. He was super fluffy and cute! "Curious little guy, isn't he?", she observed. She was so excited to be able to pet him! One of her temporary missions at Hogwarts was to pet every creature in the barn, and she had never gotten to pet a squirrel before. "He's super well trained, Stasya. You did really well,"she added with another big smile at her friend.

Albus definitely sounded awesome to Emmeline. She wished that he could play with her crup, Sirius, but the puppy was still chasing stuff right now and she didn't want him to scare Albus or anything. "Has Albus attacked your ear yet?"She made sure her tone was playful so that Stasya would know that she didn't mean actual attacking, but rather getting into her ears gently. Emmeline had grown up with Nanny's pygmy puffs and they did the same thing, naturally. In fact, sometimes it was hard to "fend them off" of her ear. "Nanny's pygmy puffs were crazy about ears, but they were sooo cuddly all the time. Especially if they actually got you," she made a face playfully as she talked about their ear habits. It was kind of gross but super cute, actually. And it was really funny when it was Nanny they were after, and she got to watch their antics."They used to sneak up on Nanny. They'd be on her shoulder all quiet and stuff, and then go for her ear out of nowhere!" So now Stasya knew that trick if Albus used it, yup.

Rooney could only smile at the recognition of the boxes and shrugged. "I make no promises." But honestly, he'd barely spent anything on them and the gift boxes were just transfigured garbage that weren't going to last until the end of the day. So they had to get opening soon for sure. As he joined her sitting down, Roo reached into the picnic basket and took out a pitcher of pumpkin juice, a pitcher of apple juice and some cartons of other things. "Which would you like, my love?" Because Olivia Phillips could have anything on earth and it wouldn't be too much. Especially if ti was coming from this boy who made her his priority as often as he could.

He looked back at the gift boxes and then to Olivia as he poured himself an apple juice into heart patterned cups. "The right box is for last. The others, it doesn't matter." Because they were all going to link up to the same endgame no matter the order.

The left box contained a bag of coins, all different shapes and sizes, the middle box contained a multi-pack of markers ready to write 'RB ♥ OP' on one side of each coin and the date on the other and the final box was too big for the actual gift inside but Rooney Bronwyn like uniformity. The box was the same size as the others, but only contained a slip of paper that read 'The fountain doesn't have a visible end and neither does our love story.' It made sense, right? That they'd wish with the coins in the fountain. It made sense to him.

It was sort of an unspoken agreement with their little group. Nobody would turn the other in for sneaking their creatures out of the barn temporarily. Honestly, Stasya sort of envied Derf his pockets where he could hide Scamander and probably Picketta now too. She just also knew that both Dobby and now Albus were much too active to hide in a pocket. That didn’t change her wanting them to see the world outside of the barn, and knowing she could trust her friends to understand was nice. Plus, she figured Professor Wayland would only complain if she didn’t bring Dobby back after her walk.

She had watched Emmeline to find out how she would react when Dobby had scampered over to her. Not everyone was okay with his sharp little claws and everything, after all, but she’d beamed back when she’d only slowly reached over to stroke his back. “Yep. He likes people, too. Kind of like me,” she replied. She was a good squirrel mama, and she’d only beamed more at the compliment. “Thanks. D’you think that maybe the headmistress and Professor Wayland just don’t know that yet and that’s why he has to stay in the barn?” It was a theory, anyway. Better than any of the others she’d had before now.

The question about Albus had made a giggle slip out of her, too. Even without the explanation, she knew what Emmeline meant. Not a real attack. “Mhm. It feels really weird when he licks my ear. Kinda tickles.” It was the one thing she didn’t really understand, but she also didn’t know if she really wanted to try to train him not to either. Maybe she’d break his spirit if she tried to make him stop, and she didn’t want to do that. “Your Nanny had pygmy puffs?” Honestly she hadn’t really considered having one before the extra-credit assignment, but now she was happy she’d signed up. Even if she hadn’t gotten a Granian foal. Albus was fun too.

Kay nodded. "I suspected that you were. Do you want to talk about it? It would help you a great deal, you know.'' She needed to ask first. "It's fine if you don't but you should have someone to confide in if you haven't already.'' As she spoke, she couldn't help but enjoy the light breeze that hit her face. What a great day to be outside!

Olivia didn't mind all the questions, especially when she could answer them easily. She knew her brother very, very well. They had practically been partner in crimes since she could walk. She grinned. "I think he's deciding between Astronomy and Ancient Runes. Those were his strongest subjects at school." She always remembered him coming home and talking about those subjects. She even remembered hearing about a research assistance meeting between Flamesteed and Botros where Zander Adair had tried to convince her brother that the Defense Against The Dark Arts Professor was a Cold One! Oh the nerve. Simon never let his friend forget that moment and would recount that tale whenever Zander came around for coffee. Though Zander had plenty of stories about her brother. "He is currently Assistant Teaching at Beauxbatons. He's got one more year before he can teach full on classes!" She beamed. She was so proud of her older brother.

Speaking of schools and teaching.... "Professor, where did you go to school? Did you go to Hogwarts too?" she asked curiously with a slight tilt of her head to the right.

The library had suggestions too? Merlin. The library was becoming ever more helpful as she got older. Besides Mr. Kennedy was very nice and helpful. She had appreciated his help the other day. "Alright, I'll definitely take a look there," she grinned. Any help would be fantastic on this as she would be the first person in her entire family to go into the arts.

Emmeline had often been envious of Derf's pockets for his pets as well; sneaking them out of the barn would be super easy with those. She was also glad that he got to do that without getting caught, though. Scamander and Picketta deserved to get out, but then so did Dobby and Albus and Sirius in the first year's opinion. She sort of understood where Professor Wayland was coming from, though. Grown ups never expected kids to be able to be "responsible" -- as Mum called it -- all the time. And they'd have to be to take care of the babies outside the nursery.

The Gryffindor didn't mind Dobby's claws. They weren't as sharp as her owl's or even as Sirius's nails. She wouldn't really have minded much anyway, though, because Dobby was letting her pet him! She continued stroking his back slowly as she glanced up at Stasya: "Yeah, I hope so. Sometimes grown ups have to see proof to bend their rules." She grinned at her friend and added: "So hopefully he'll be in our dorm soon. We just need them to notice over time." That was what Nanny always said about creature-related things. Emmeline couldn't feed the pygmy puffs by herself until she'd shown Nanny that she could do it right over and over. She hoped the professor and headmistress would come around soon when it came to Dobby, though. It was obvious to her that Stasya had been taking care of him for ages already.

"Mhm, Nanny has two." She giggled a little bit too as Stasya described the tickling. "They neverrr grow out of it. At least, Nanny's are five whole years old and they haven't yet." So Stasya had years of Albus' ear-licking unless she trained him not to do that. Seeing as the pygmy puffs ate ear wax, though, she thought maybe normal-sized puffskeins would be even more reluctant to stop. It was just their nature. "Were puffskeins first on your list?" Not that it mattered; she was sure Stasya would love Albus soon if she didn't already. She was just curious.

EXCITING WASN'T IT??????

It was then that he realized that he knew next to nothing about Jessa's family. Oops. But she probably didn't really know a whole lot about his either so that was okay. Maybe he could invite her over over the holidays some time so she could meet them. "Your sister was a Beater too? Where? Here?" Had her sister also still been allowed to play Quidditch at Hogwarts?! How LUCKY!!!! And their plans for summer sounded AMAZING too. He'd have to ask if Hazel would go again too. "Okay. I'll tell my parents." So if they got into contact with the organizers they could already sign them both up.

Wait. Who'd posted about what? So she DID think that he should start a real work-out routine then. Interesting. "Genny...Tate?" He hadn't seen that.
But if that was still happening they should both totally sign up! A regular time to go running sounded like a good idea. Plus then they'd also meet some of the older kids maybe and they could help them out with extra things they could do for their arms. So they could hold the bats more easily. Not that he had problems holding his, of course. He got this.

But it COULD still be easier.

Heading in the direction of the Quidditch Pitch, Cameron nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! That's what I was thinking too. We'll do all three things last. Once we've perfected the flying and the swinging the bat parts. And maybe do hitting the balls on the ground first. But eventually we'll do all three." He had faith in her. Which was quite obvious but the way he was grinning at her. This was going to be G R E A T!

Astronomy was very fascinating indeed. So was Arithmancy but Arithmancy had been a difficult concept for Olivia to wrap her head around. It was mathematics meet Divination. It was very interesting. So Professor Newton had done her Assistant teaching at Durmstrang. "What was Durmstrang like?" asked Olivia with curious eyes. To Professor Newton's question, she nodded. Her brother was loving his time at Beauxbatons. "Oh yes, he's loving it. He really loves the school and hopes to teach their for as long as he can." She had only heard good things from Simon. Nice people, good students, and a school that wasn't trying to kill you. She had chuckled at his last statement. Though he had complained about a lack of mysteries to solve. He couldn't have it all.

So Professor Newton was a Ravenclaw? She could definitely see that. Hmm.. She wondered if Professor Newton and Healer Reed had attended Hogwarts at the same time. If so, she was sure that they would have some stories to tell perhaps. "That's amazing that most of you came back to teach here." It must have been weird coming back here and not being a student though. "Is it strange returning to Hogwarts and not being a student?"

The library was a good place to start for sure. Start there and then work her way out. Now that sounded like a brilliant plan.

Valerie.
 

+Jesús mention