He had indeed looked horrified... or ill at the very least. So of course this had made Penny absolutely sure he was horrified, mortified, all of the FIED's. All of these things were running through her head as he grabbed her arm. Which was totally fine with, by the way. And then his words. They definitely made her grin wider as she turned back around to face him. "It was?" Nice, she meant. Because honestly she could totally do that again! What she actually did, though, rather boldly, was slip her hand into his quickly and give it a little squeeze. Yes, she was holding his hand. Indeed. And all thoughts of even attempting to study Potions was totally out of the window now.

Could they just stand there holding hands for the next hour? Of course not. They'd get caught showing PDA at some point. For now, though, she was content in this. "Is... that okay?" She did indeed feel as though this was likely the safest form of PDA after all. Heh.

To echo an earlier sentiment: UMMMMM WHAT HAD JUST HAPPENED?!?!?

Benji suddenly found himself HOLDING PENNY'S HAND. ALERT SOS MAYDAY HE SO DID NOT KNOW HOW TO DO THIS.

..............................and they were still SWEATY!!!!!

Despite his inner turmoil, his body filled in the gaps for his brain, and a huge, goofy smile settled onto his face. Was it okay? Darn tootin' it was okay. (Although it was also scary. He had never held hands with a girl before, apart from in, like, kindergarten when they make you walk in a line holding hands.)

"Yeah," he answered her a bit shyly, giving her hand a squeeze in return and hoping she didn't notice the clamminess.

Potions? Who needed 'em? He already felt like he'd chugged some sort of mixture of Amortentia and Felix Felicis, you know.

But now the problem was... What was he supposed to do? Holding Penny's hand was great, wonderful even, but... Was he just supposed to stand there? Was it supposed to transition into a hug at some point? How long was he supposed to hold it for? Was he supposed to let go first, or should he wait for her? How would he know when they were done? Should they just... Talk like normal and pretend it wasn't happening? Honestly, Benji had absolutely no clue how to interact with beautiful, smart, super cool girls who were, you know, holding his hand. This was all new to him!!!!!!

He settled on swinging her hand just a bit. Not too crazy, just a slight rocking motion. Then he second-guessed himself. She was probably thinking it was weird of him to be doing that, after all. But... WHAT WAS HE SUPPOSED TO DO WITH HIS HAND?

Goodness gracious. Nobody had prepared him for this part of adolescence, that's for sure.

"So..." he said, feeling a need to fill the silence between them. "Do you... Still want to work on Potions?" Please say no, please say no, please say no... he chanted in his head. Darn it! What if she says yes and we have to stop and it never happens again? Why was that the first thing I thought of to say? Benjamin Jun-Seo Park, you ABSOLUTE IDIOT!!!!

Penny peeked at the Ravenclaw several times, trying not to stare, but definitely wanting to see if he reacted in a more pleasant way to her hand holding. And evidenced by that big, goofy grin she would say it was going over pretty well. Heh. A smile of her own crept across her face even. This was officially the best day ever! Given that the whole school was going bat poop crazy she was super glad to have a moment of normalcy to cling to... and the boy attached to her hand was DEFINITELY something to cling to.

And then it was as if every thought she had ever had in her head just leaked out... and she was at a loss for anything useful to say. Or intelligent. Or anything at all. It would seem, in fact, that the only noise that would escape her was the occasional giggle that was totally out of her control at the moment. This boy, this amazing, cute, smart, funny, AMAZING boy was stood there holding her hand and smiling about it. Best. Day. Ever.

And then he spoke... and Penny felt her tummy do a weird little flip thing. Did she want to study potions now? "No!" she answered probably too quickly and with too much gusto. But really she wouldn't be bothered to care about that right now. She was totally holding HANDS WITH HER CRUSH! Nothing was going to get in the way of that! Nothing at all! "No... I wouldn' like to do Potions... mebbe you'd like ta go fer a walk then?"

Still nervous as all get-out, Benji had to say that he was pretty pleased with how this was going. Hadn't he just been thinking about Penny holding his hand? (Granted, that was because he was stressed that she would do so and then find that his hands were sweaty, but she didn't seem to notice that after all, thank Merlin.) Anyway, that had actually come true, much to his surprise. So... If that had actually happened, then maybe what he'd been thinking about doing after hand holding... Nooooononono. Not gonna go there!! This was enough for now. And it made him plenty happy, anyway. He really hadn't expected this. He hadn't really anticipated touching Penny at all, and now they were holding hands. He could feel that the tinge of color had spread to the tips of his ears. He wasn't much of a blusher, really. Only around Penny for some reason.

"Sure," he answered, smiling again. A walk sounded nice. (And he was honestly pretty glad Penny had not wanted to study Potions at the moment. Phew.)

After a few moments, he continued, "Crazy to think that with all the stuff going on here at Hogwarts, this kinda thing can still happen." He nudged her lightly with his elbow.

WAAAAIT had he said that out loud? And NUDGED her? NOOO that was supposed to be an inside-his-head-only thing. Whoops. What if she took that the wrong way? Was he being presumptuous? After all, they hadn't exactly defined anything. It's not like they were boyfriend and girlfriend. Oh no oh no oh no.

.....................And what if Penny just held hands with ALL her friends and Benji was just reading too much into it because he really, really wanted her to like him? Oh, Merlin. This was probably not anything. Maybe she just felt sorry for him. Or maybe she thought he would get lost if she didn't lead him because he was SUCH AN IDIOT. Maybe she was having some sort of medical emergency and was going to faint or something so she had grabbed onto him out of instinct? And now she couldn't let go because she didn't want to be rude?

So maybe Benji's comment was going to make her drop his hand immediately, tell him in no uncertain terms that she was NOT interested, and then go tell everyone how dumb he was for thinking that an angel like her who was obviously way out of his league she would ever want to date him.

To summarize: AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Well this was just something else. Totally wild! The hufflepuff was pretty sure she wasn't even properly walking now... instead she was floating just above theground. She had always wondered what elation felt like... now she knew! This was W I L D!

Now it wasn't until he nudged her that Penny "came back down to Earth". Giggles erupted out of her at his remark. "You know you're hilarious, yeah? Always making me laugh," she said with her patented little snort. But but BUT what if he hadn't been trying to be funny?! O M G! What an utter moron she was.

In an attempt to cover her tracks she gave his hand a squeeze and replied, "Me ma says there is always some silver linin. Just sometimes ya gotta look harder than usual." Was that better?! Oh gosh she hoped so! Her mind was racing (and so was her pulse) since she was HOLDING hands with a BOY and honestly wondering what it would be like to kiss him... Not that she had the nerve to attempt such a thing. But yeah... she thought about it.

He was hilarious? ...Why?! What was funny?!

Benji smiled weakly, wondering what he had said that was making Penny laugh like that. OH NO what if she thought he was just kidding and didn't actually like her? But equally OH NO if she thought he did like her! Why was every possible outcome embarrassing for him?! FEELINGS!!!!

(But on the bright side, Penny was still holding his hand and did not in fact appear to be having the medical emergency he'd feared. Maybe that meant... She actually wanted to be holding it?)

"Silver lining..." he repeated, a smile beginning to tug at the corners of his lips. The sentiment cheered him up considerably from the awkwardness he'd been feeling just a moment ago. "Right. Your mum sounds like a smart woman. Definitely a silver lining here."

In an unexpected fit of boldness, Benji gently pulled Penny's hand closer to his side, meaning they were now walking with their shoulders almost touching. Wow. Where had THAT move come from? Usually he was pretty good at filtering out the impulses his brain shoved at him, but not so much with that one. The silver lining comment had given him confidence that maybe, JUST MAYBE, she actually did... Like him? Or at least like holding his hand...

........................Wait, she WAS talking about him, right? Like he was the silver lining? It would be really awkward if she meant something else... Was he just having, like, an ego trip or something? She probably meant the fresh air or the beauty of the grounds or ANYTHING besides HIM, what was he THINKING?!?! OH, MERLIN. He glanced over at her, mustering all his acting skills to present a neutral face, but he couldn't help the slight furrow of worry in his brow. NOW was probably the moment where she told him to buzz off. He knew it had to be coming eventually. This was too good to be true, and it could only go downhill from here.

Okay this was... making her head hurt. All of this overthinking and the ups and downs of her emotions... it was like her whole nervous system, and every other system in her body, was on a yoyo. Or SHE was the yoyo and her emotions were reacting accordingly. Pulling them to a stop she turned slightly so she could see his face. His perfect face. PERFECT. And then in the boldest move of her life thus far, she took a deep breath and opened her mouth to speak...

Only nothing came out right away. There was an awkward pause and an ummmmm noise before shutting her mouth again. Oh gosh... Okay. Let's try again. Opening her mouth and pushing down all of the anxiety, she spoke, "I really like you." Penny Lane Goodman then waited for the ground to open up and swallow her whole. Or for the willow to whack her into next year. Either of those things would be sufficient, really, for she was certain this perfect specimen of a human boy was about to start laughing hysterically and end her life. Metaphorically speaking.

In preparation for the End of the World she closed her eyes tight and even grimaced slightly. Go ahead and get it over with, Benji. Tell her she's the worst.

Benji had been surprised when Penny hugged him. He'd been more surprised when she'd grabbed hold of his hand. But nothing could have surprised him more than what she'd just said.

She....................... LIKED HIM?

Like... LIKED HIM liked him? Or like... liked him as a friend?

Yeah, that was probably it. There was no way she meant that she liked him like THAT. Right? She was too perfect. Way out of his league for sure. Noooo way would she ever go for him. He was just a potions failure with a somewhat neurotic fear of authority. She, on the other hand, was akin to a brilliant and amazing goddess. So.

"I..." Benji said. He closed his mouth after a moment, letting the word hang in the air. What was he going to say next? Not even he knew, to be honest... But apparently his mouth moved faster than his brain, because his brain definitely would have stopped him from saying what he eventually did: "I really like you, too, Penny."

His body continued the trend of outpacing his brain, and without thinking about it for even a second, he reached his free hand up to tuck her hair behind her ear, trailing a finger lightly down her cheek as he dropped his hand. Merlin, she was beautiful.

WHOA. Had he just done that????? Was that real?????? HOLY SMOKES. What was he THINKING? Or, more accurately, NOT thinking? Hadn't he JUST decided that she meant she liked him as a friend and not romantically? So WHY would he go and do a stupid thing like tell her he liked her and touch her face?! IDIOT!!!!!!

He could feel the color rise in his cheeks once more as he braced himself for the inevitable moment of her rejecting him. She was totally going to laugh at how he'd misunderstood her. And then she'd probably slap him or something for touching her face. And THEN she'd spread it around school that he was a creep and a loser. Yikes times a million.

WHY had he done that? WHY had he let his emotions get the best of him? And WHY was he so acutely aware that all it would take was for him to lean just a liiiiiiiittle closer... NONONO don't think about that now! Not when she's about to brutally reject you, Benj. Make it easy on yourself and DON'T think about how amazing and wonderful and EASY if you'd only try it would be to kiss Penny Goodman. Just don't.

He... liked her too? Had she heard him correctly? She was unsure seeing as the blood had all rushed to her face and was causing a horrible ringing in her ears. But she was PRETTY sure that was what was happening... especially since he touched her face so gently.

OH SWEET MOTHER OF MERLIN HE HAD TOUCHED HER FACE! The huge grin that spread said face was one of the megawatt variety, honestly. He, Benji Park, liked HER. This was amazing! And honestly... it was super unexpected. The amount of times her siblings had told her she was gross and no one was ever going to like her (in jest of course, they weren't that horrible) had really stuck with her. She had the tendency to latch onto the negatives of every situation really. And right now... the nervousness that had settled in her stomach was weighing her down like a rock. But it wasn't in a bad way, really. Oddly enough.

And little did Benji Park know... she too was thinking about what it would be like to kis him right now. And how easy it would be. "Y-you... do? W-would you... like to be... my boyf... riend?" she croaked out before stepping closer to him, mouth dangerously close to his. Could he be her boyfriend... and kiss her right now? Please.

Young love, yuck. Why the students always seemed to gravitate towards the tree to express their feelings, the Whomping Willow would never know. It was getting particularly tired of listening to the two nearby (Benji and Penny). To express its feelings, the Whomping Willow first shook the moisture and some dead leaves off, wet dog style, then slammed a few branches on the ground. To further make its annoyance known, and discourage the two from making the tree their romantic rendezvous point, a few more slams against the ground were made, reaching branches out as close to the pair as possible.

Okay, so she was smiling. Like, REALLY smiling. That was a good sign! No rejection! No face slapping! No telling everyone what a freak he was! (At least, not yet, anyway.) He grinned in return.

THEN Benji's eyes lit up at Penny's question. Would he be her boyfriend??? Was Merlin a wizard? You betcha! "Only if you'll be my girlfriend," he answered. That was kind of a stupid reply, but it got the point across. Right? Anyway, the answer was unequivocally YES.

And then she stepped closer. Close enough that only a few inches separated their faces. He looked into her eyes, then glanced briefly at her mouth, thinking that maybe -- JUST MAYBE -- she wanted to be kissed the way that he wanted to kiss her.

He leaned in slightly, finally feeling brave enough to make his move. He could feel her breath on his face, and their lips neeeeearly touched when... *BAM!* The tree whomped the ground near the lovebirds, causing Benji to jump about twenty feet in the air. He had been too caught up in the moment to notice the shaking and swaying and whatnot, but the ground-pounding? Yeah, that had gotten his attention. "Ah!" he yelped, in an extremely manly and attractive way, of course. Soooo... Moment ruined. Which was probably the tree's point, come to think of it.

"Um. Ahem." He attempted to recover some of his dignity after letting the tree scare the daylights out of him. "Well. Penny... I think we should maybe... Y'know... Move away from the tree, which seems kind of annoyed with us presently..." he said, looking over warily at the tree's threatening, swaying branches. BECAUSE kissing was still definitely ON THE TABLE, but he didn't particularly want to be bashed while doing it. Although it would be a pretty nice way to go...

Only if you will be my girlfriend... she heard the words being uttered right before the temperamental tree rained down leaves and dew on them... and then the HUGE BAM! Her elation let go to fear as she too screeched and jumped back away from her BOYFRIEND. And of course there was no way she was going to get away with being graceful...

Yep. When Penny leapt backward she, of course, lost her footing and toppled over backward, right onto her bum in the snow. And of COURSE it was right when he asked her to go for a walk... and WHOA... wait a SECOND... had he been about to kiss her? They had been so close together and his face was so close to hers and then the BLASTED tree had to go and act out suddenly! The Hufflepuff turned to glare at the willow as she scrambled to get off of the ground. Just perfect. PERFECT!

Without another word Penny grabbed his hand and started stomping away, her BOYFRIEND in tow. "That tree has never been mean to me! Why start NOW? Ugh. Come on. We can go to the bridge of sommat," she said with a clipped tone, her ire toward the tree and not Benji. "We was jus abou to snog, weren't we? Stupid tree!" she muttered angrily as she continued to pull her Ravenclaw along with her, unsure of which direction she was actually headed. Ugh.

STUPID TREE!

Willow acknowledgement completed, the Gryffindor started practising her moves, checking her stance every once in a while to make sure she wasn't ruining it all and reversing everything she had learned so far.

That'd be disastrous and Anna wasn't up for it, thanks.

She continued, punching the air a few times, then doing some kicks because they were more fun than the punching. Eventually rotating on spot for one of the kicks - and getting it slightly wrong, NOOO - the fourth year spotted a younger Gryffindor from afar, who also happened to be her friend.

Smiling, Anna waved at the younger girl and kicked the air behind her as if she hadn't just stopped mid-move to greet someone.

As you do.

That was definitely no yoga that Anna was doing. Punching and kicking at the air the way that she was. She most certainly wasn't dancing either. It had to be some form of defense... but there was so many different types and styles.

"Hi!," Rylee called out waving back at her. "What are you doing? Do you need any help?" Whatever it was Anna was doing had to be easier if done with a friend, right? That way she could really see if what she was doing was done properly. At least this was Rylee's thought as she took a few steps closer, Lamb remaining where he was having chosen to lay down.

"Wouldn't it be easier to kick a practice dummy rather than the air?" Just another one of her thoughts that made a whole lot of sense to her.

Mark looked out toward the Whomping Willow from a safe distance away. He couldn't help be remember a story his Father told him during his time at Hogwarts about how he had managed to obtain a bit of it to create a Rune for an Ancient Runes Class. His Dad must have been hit with a Confundus Charm and couldn't remember the event correctly. No way could anyone ever get there.

Plus there was no proof that he had actually done so. The Runes were given to the Ancient Runes Professor, and Dad talked highly of him so much so he knew that he was Dead now so hearing it from that man was long past.

No proof meant it definitely didn't happen. The only way he could see for himself was if he managed to get close to it's trunk and find where his Father said he had taken from the tree.

He heard from some older students there was some spot on the tree that immobilized it. Perhaps if he found a willing Gryffindor to go to it. Maybe Xaria would do it for him. His curiosity was slowly outweighing his survival instinct, but not by much. He was sure Xaria had to be just as interested in this tale their Dad spoke of...if she ever listened to his long stories.

Probably not. Still though. The Whomping Willow was an Interesting Tree.

Gunnar was going to go for a run. Or maybe go to the Quidditch pitch and hit some bludgers. Either way, he needed one of his favorite physical activities to help him clear his mind. There was a lot on it lately.

He was headed out towards the lake, still undecided about what he was going to do, when he spotted a figure near the Whomping Willow. Curious about what was going on over there, he veered in that direction. It wasn't exactly out of his way anyway.

Oh... it was Mark, he realized as he got a little closer. "Hey, Mark.." he started tentatively. "What are you up to?" He shifted his eyes slowly from the younger boy to the violent tree. He wasn't thinking of doing anything too daring, was he?

Katrina was here out here on a mission. One that would hopefully help in restoring Hogwarts back to regime that treated students fairly and didn't force running upon them. But first they needed to secure their evidence that the replacement regime was not helpful in making Hogwarts great again.

Out here with the fifth year, Nora, Katrina only hoped that they wouldn't be interrupted and questioned. But she had done anything to warrant too much suspicion from Scrimgeour and his cronies. Least not in her mind.

She was ready. Nora was ready to get out of the confines of the castle and its grounds, especially now that everything -- the written accounts, memories, and photographs -- had been collected. All were secured in a handbag, which was hidden in the pocket of her robes to not raise suspicion.

Not that there would be any reason for her being out and about with Professor Sabra to be worthy of questioning. Though, if anyone asked, she was simply serving detention for the woman. By the Whomping Willow of all places.

And the blonde was playing her part. Her eyes took note of the tree's branches swaying violently and then looked to the professor, waiting for instruction just in case they were being watched or someone came by.

The whomping willow, as violent as the tree was, was definitely proving to be a worthy place for detention. Or at least that was the story. The grounds were quiet and while she might not have approved of everything about the regime, one couldn't deny the sense of ... compliance that seemed to occur, even if majority of it was out of fear, Katrina would assume.

With a brief nod, a glimmer of hope in her brown eyes, the runes professor glanced cautiously around one last time. Alone. Good. And cast a non-verbal immobulus on the tree.

"You know what you need to do." She said, quietly, by way of giving her approval for the blonde.

Mark's thumb and forefinger were on his chin. His eyes trained still on the Whomping Willow. He was sure there was a way to get there without risking his life but he would need to think on it. It was not worth risking his life running head first at it to see if his Father was truthful.

There was probably a spell he could learn that would freeze the treee. Heck, he was sure there was. was Immobulus a powerful enough spell to work on it? Did he need more training before he even tried it out.

His thought process was taken away from him as someone had came up from behind him.

Oh! Gunnar! Mark actually had not had a chance to speak to him since their Match. "Hi Gunnar." He replied with a smile. "Nothing, I was just checking out the Willow from a distance" Not wanting to bore Gunnar with his idea.

"Um...congrats on winning the other day. I should have said it after the match" but the thought of missing the right amount of saves to keep his team on top was on his mind then.

She certainly did know what she needed to do. The fifth year Ravenclaw watched the professor and then saw that the tree that had been violent moments ago was becoming momentarily calm and nonthreatening. Her blue eyes remained on the willow, watching as it gradually froze in place.

Once it was moving no more, Nora gave a stiff nod toward Sabra. She felt her pocket to ensure that the handbag was indeed still there and then removed her wand, nonverbally lighting it. No further time was wasted as she moved forward toward the large gap in the roots.

A final glance was casted back at the woman, a small smile appearing on her face as a strand of blonde hair turned brunette. Then she was out of sight.