Sammy was wandering aimlessly around the carnival. It was just so cool. It had tons of sugar AND lots of awesome things to see but this was definitely the most awesome. A Hogwarts jumping castle. If the blonde had the ability she would have front flipped, but Sammy's ninja skills were still progressing.

She was about to dump her shoes and bag before she realised something. She had been at Hogwarts for the past 4 years and she still got lost, how was she gonna manage a jumping castle of Hogwarts on her own? She probably wasn't going to be able to, but she really wanted to. So there was a blonde Hufflepuff standing outside this bloody castle deciding whether or not to go in because she was scared she wouldn't be able to find her way out and see her baby-fat-kitty-cat ever again. Typical Sammy right there.

Damon let out a little chuckle at Alex's comment on that bouncy castle. "I suppose they're kind of exciting for kids and stuff, for adults...well... The castle was huge but at the same time Damon figured he was getting to the age where something that like that would end hurting him. One wrong bounce or landing and he'd be out of commission.

Damon looked at Alex, not entirely sure how to read her facial expression as she commented on him picking up the trash. Was she making fun of him? Damon looked back at the castle, but relaxed a little bit when he heard her say it showed he cared about the environment. "Being an outdoors kind of guy I can't really help myself," Damon said with a gentle shrug of the shoulders. "Sometimes I think muggles do a better job being eco-friendly than we do, and they don't have the advantage of being able to use magic."

Damon gave Alex a little smile, deciding that he should probably change the subject. Sometimes Damon got a little...well...carried away when it came to these kinds of things, and there was really no need to frighten or annoy his friend. "So how are you? It's been a little while since our last get together. How are things going on the home front and such?"

Everett was excited for Hogwarts, and this bouncy castle was going to be his one chance for weeks until he'd be able to see Hogwarts. It looked pretty realistic in a way. Andddd, it looked fun, as all bouncy castles did. So Everett took off his shoes, and just before he was going to leap at the entrance, he noticed a blonde standing outside of the castle. Weird. "Uh... What's with the reluctance to go in the bouncy castle?" Because really he didn't understand. She even looked the sort to enjoy bouncy castles.

HUH. WUT. PEOPLE. INTERACTION. WUT. Sammy jumped a bit when some dude she'd never seen before asked her a question. Reluctance to go into the bouncy castle? Oh yeah. "This is going to sound stupid but, I still get lost in the normal Hogwarts, I'd be completely stumped in a bouncy castle replica" she said cringing a bit as she said it. It was stupid and embarrassing and this guy wasn't half bad looking. AND SHE REALLY WANTED TO GO ON THIS DAMN CASTLE, but the idea of getting lost without her kitty was more frightening than doctors to Sammy.

Steven was pleased on the amount of children lining up to go in "Just a few minutes everyone" he said. he stuck up a poster for everyone to see

Selina crossed her arms and sighed. Okay maybe it was Elektra's fault a little bit, but she was still quite convinced that Violet had been the one to go Harpie on the pair of them- not Elektra. So really it was hard for Selina to say whose fault it was in actuality. BUT THIS WAS NOT ABOUT THAT, "Stop trying to distract me, I no like bouncy castle!"

As Emma watched Alfie stare at the ceiling, Braeden was talking to her. Turning around to face him, she flashed him a smile. Fancy seeing you here? The Malfoy nodded. "Yeah, fancy that...." she began and felt a bit weird when Braeden gave her that look. Merlin, only her PARENTS gave her that look when she had been plotting something truly evil. The blonde raised her eyebrow, suddenly confused. She shook her head quickly at him and shot him a quick What-could-I-have-possibly-done-NOW? glance. The poor Malfoy was confused. Deeply confused. Why was her boyfriend acting like this? And before the blonde could bounce towards her boyfriend to ask what the matter was, Theo was addressing her. Yeah, he was agreeing with her. The Malfoy nodded again because truly this place was breathtaking. Merlin, she wanted to have this AT HOGWARTS this year in the Common Room. T'would be nice.

Aha, so her fellow Slytherclaw was suggesting a bounce race? Was the Raven feeling a little competitive? A bit more cunning? Oh Merlin. Cue for a wiggle of the eyebrows. Just what Emma wanted a race. Though, how could Theo be reading her mind all of the sudden? Did he have secret mind powers that no one knew of? The blonde quickly shot Alfie a Be-careful-they-have-super-bromance-powers-look. For all the blonde knew, Theo could have just read her mind. Scary. But cool at the same time. If Theo did have this power then Emma would want to learn the ways of mind reading from the fellow Slytherclaw.

The blonde smirked her famous Malfoy smirk and folded her arms and looked at her fellow bromance bouncer (Alfie). There was no way that the boys were going to win. "Boys against girls?" repeated Emma. Hmm.. Clearly that was not fair because the boys were taller.. Though on the other hand, they didn't have two cunning, attractive, and fast Slytherclaws. No. The boys team was Ravendor or Gryffinclaw, which in Emma's opinion was not as cool as Slytherclaws.

Emma smirked again and nodded in agreement with Alfie. "All right. Boys versus girls. That's a deal... Now are you guys SURE you want to do that?" she asked, raising her right eyebrow slightly and giving them a rather intimidating look. Were the boys sure that they could take on the female Slytherclaws? Cause we all know who run this world. Gurls. And the fifth year was pretty sure that Alfie and her could win.

At the sight of the bouncy Hogwarts, Mina's eye lit up. It just screamed for them to come to it and have some fun. Glancing around for Evan, she smirked slightly to herself. The inner little kid was really starting to come out in her again, but that was okay given that the last four days they have been acting like their were young and carefree; which they should, but not with the threat of being separated looming before them. Shaking those thoughts from her head, she looked back to the castle.

It looked so much like the castle that she would be returning to and it would be fun to have a bounce inside with her Evan, she just hoped he would be up to it. She had been leading her boyfriend around doing things that a respectable pureblood couple would never do, but they were having fun and she hoped they would have fun with this as well.

Evan had had some fun the Muggle way with Mina for the last four days in London, and he was glad for having such a girlfriend that taught him a lot about the way of Muggles. They had fun, they laughed, they learnt a lot; but he knew that a magic carnival at Diagon Alley was too much to even think about resisting. So, on their fifth day, they just had to check. And of course, Mina had that ability to find the most fun toy.

Grinning at her as she stared at the bouncy Hogwarts, he said "You know we both want to do that." Because they both needed a stress-reliever because of the little pressure of the knowledge that their days together were about to end. Plus, he needed a childish time with her alone. Because only she would understand how much he needed a relief.

"Shall we?" More grinning.

Mina looked back at Evan and nodded. Being that they had spent so much time together in the past few day, it was clear that he would know what she was thinking now. "It's so bouncy!" she giggled. Who wouldn't want to have a bouncy castle to play in. Grabbing his hand, she squeezed it. "You know our parents would have a fit if they saw us like this," she smirked.

This clearly wasn't how they were to act, but this was the last true summer of their childhood and they were planning on living it to its fullest. Noticing the slight line and the poster just posted by the man ahead, she leaned down to remove her shoes.

Evan chuckled at her reaction. True, it was bouncy. Which meant they would have much fun, and he would get his daily training done. Hehe. Shrugging at the parents comment, he said "I don't really care what they think about me anymore." They probably called him a 'disgrace' to family, after his carreer choice, and it didn't annoy him the slightest. He'd grown not to care about them.

"But we probably have to hide it from your parents." He chuckled and patted her arm playfully. Then, seeing that they had to remove their shoes, he bent down and got them off, holding them in his hand to see if there was anywhere to put them.

Mina shook her head and frowned. She was very aware of how his family felt about what was going to happen, but they were still his family. "You really don't mean that, handsome." she replied as she patted his hand. "They'll come around and if they don't, it's their lost. Besides you have me and my family adores you." Her family would welcome him with open arms and it wasn't hard to see that Jade liked him, even if she did like to give the couple a hard time.

"Well, you know my mother would have a right fit if she knew I was about to go in that thing," she giggles as she tried to lighten the mood. Her father would so be in there with her but her mother would die if she even suggested it. Shaking her head at the thought of her mother in such a castle, she giggled and held her shoes in one hand as they waited.

Evan grinned, although a little crookedly. He did mean it, since they refused to send him to Liverpool's camp. The life was more upwards then and he met Mina in the next term, but that still meant his future was pretty much in doubt now. Kissing her on the cheek, he said "I hope they'll come around." It wa unlikely, but he could always hope. "Yeah, I have you to thank them for. I met you the other term after I was denied the camping of Liverpool... and thanks, your family is kind." He LOVED them too, although he still couldn't come to forgive her mother for sending her to France for two bloody years. At least they accepted his decision.

Chuckling, he said "That's why this will be our secret." They wouldn't want the woman to disapprove of them now, would they?

Fee was waling through the carnival,smiling like an idiot.She really loved stuff like that and never got enough.The blonde would probably come here everyday from now on. She wasnt sure what she should do next,there were sooo many cool things. Actually she wanted to try out everything.

Looking around the girl found the bouncy Hogwarts castle.Now that was the funniest idea ever.The image of Hogwarts being all bouncy and students jumping to their classes popped up in her mind and she giggled a little. Approaching the castle the Slytherin noticed the tall guy standing in not far away,with another girl.With a grin on her face Fee approached them."Well look who we have here",she smiled,"heey Jasper."Mr.Confident on abouncy castle,the blonde really,really had to see that.Hehe.

As the blonde turned around she searched for the guy that would let her in.Waving after she found him the girl smiled."May i can go in?"Come oooon,what could happen in a bouncy castle?No onqe could get hurt.It was all soft.

And than the Slytherin remembered there was a girl too.Ohhhh how rude of her."Heeyy over there",she smiled sweetly and waved," i am Feenella."The girl couldnt help but grin,she knew Jasper would make friends easily.

Mina smiled sweetly and nodded. She know what it meant for his family to accept what he was doing, but did hate how they didn't seem to want to understand at all. His family was nothing but nice to her and she did like them, but she was still disappointed in their behaviour. She figured they liked her due to her blood and that was a point for her at least. "They will I'm sure of it." If it meant she would have to go talk to them herself once he was at training, she would do it. Blushing a bit, she shook her head. "That term was special for both of us." Merlin, was that term a roller coaster for her. She was so angry that term and it wasn't the person she was, but she found him and things did get better. "Jade does like to give us a hard time, but you know she adores you and daddy is very happy that I'm happy," she replied with a smile. Her father wanted to meet her young man, but Jade had told him all was well and maybe once both of them had graduated, the time for a formal meeting would be okay. It was moments like that, she was glad her cousin was so quick thinking on her feet.

"One of our many secret," she winked. It wasn't like there was much a secret that they weren't the typical couple, but it wasn't like she would tell her strict pureblood mother all the muggle things the two of them have done in the past week. "I'm sure a secret like this would send her and grand-mère into fits, but a secret it will be for now," she added with another wink.

Sarah turned around, to see a girl behind her, "Oh, hi Feenella, I'm Sarah Oliver. I guess you already know Jasper?"

"Yeah..I mean, it looks fun and all but I'm not sure I want to jump around like a five year old.." Well, she did sound a bit like a wimp but she had no intention of bouncing in a castle. It was for little kids..NOT for adults. She eyed Damon and gave a little smirk. "Scared, eh?"

Alex gave a quiet sigh of relief. Thankfully, he didn't seem to take what she said as an insult. She smiled and said, "Yeah. It's great that there are people around who are genuinely concerned about the nature." She nodded when he said that muggles were more environment friendly than they were. "I agree. But..I've heard that the new Minister is eco-friendly?" Alex asked, raising her eyebrows.

"I've been good. I--" Alex couldn't help but remember her argument with her parents just a couple of days back. Why couldn't they just try to see things from her point of view? "It's just the same, really. I'm looking for a job right now.." She gave him a small smile before turning away from him. She didn't feel like talking about the subject. She could feel the tears start to prick her eyes but she didn't let them fall. She looked at the castle for a little while before she turned towards him again, with a small smile on her face. "So..how have you been?"

Braeden, who had the attention span of a five-year-old, as everyone already knew, had soon distracted himself bouncing around the place like a kangaroo as the other three talked about... what was that? A race?
This caught the lion-maned boy's attention.
He wasn't usually much into competitions, due to the fact that he lost every single one, but... this wasn't JUST a competition. This was a brilliant chance to get back at the girls for speaking ill of his bromance with Thumper!

"Race?" the boy suddenly butted in, landing right in the middle of the group, beside his beloved Theo, around whose shoulder and arm he wrapped a hand in an almost protective sort of way. Yeah, chu crazy gurls better not have been hurting his boy while he was away!

"Alright, let's do this, then!"

And then he just bounced off.

No countdown, no preparing, no nothing.

No one ever said head-starts WEREN'T allowed. :|

Clapping his hands and rubbing them together, Theodore thought that it would be best to limber up before this bouncing race. He wasn't a wee flexible child anymore; the old man had to take care of his joints if he wanted to keep healthy! Lifting one leg and the next in succession, he did a small jumping jack and had begun to crack his neck when Braeden simply shot off like a bullet. Typical.

It was on. -cue the fast music for the hopping race-

They were in the lead, as long as Brae kept it up! Those gangly limbs, when they weren't getting tangled with each other, were fast. Shooting off after him, he left his dear girlfriend and the lovely Emma behind, who would probably catch up sooner than later by means of some devious trick. He thanked his lucky stars for having been on the quidditch team the year before; it had probably helped him with his minute amount of stamina. Theo also had to suppress a snicker as he ran, which was easy enough, at the thought of the height advantage that the guys had over the girls. Longer legs for the win!

It was when Theodore began to slow slightly, his breathing becoming more ragged, that he cupped a hand over his mouth. Where had that dastardly lion boy gotten to? He had been so fast that he had disappeared. "Brae?!" Theo called as loudly as he could manage, trudging along.

Everett rose an eyebrow as the girl jumped slightly. "Still get lost? How long have you actually been at Hogwarts for already?" He asked, not really believing someone still got lost at Hogwarts if, as he was assuming, they went there for all their schooling years so far. "Well anyway, I've never even been to Hogarts yet, and I'm gonna brave it to go in. If you get lost it shouldn't be hard to just try and get to the bottom part and in the direction of the door, eventually you'd probably find your way out." Everett was surprised how freaked out at the thought of being stuck in a bouncy castle this girl was.

"If you're really that creeped out at the thought of getting lost, I'll go in with you, then if we get lost one of us would have to be able to find a way out." He offered. Which was sorta odd for him...

"More like terrified of the permanent damage it could inflict my limbs," Damon said with a little chuckle. "I'm just not as spry as I used to be." Damon wasn't old by any means...he was only 26 after all, but he felt much older than that his body definitely felt even older than that.

Damon couldn't stop himself from letting out a little scoff when Alex suggested it was the Minister who was being eco-friendly. "I guess you could call him that, but really it's my Department Head that has been on top of these things. We're starting to work with the Maintenance Department to try and get the Ministry to be more environmentally aware. Whether or not our Minister of Magic has wanted to contribute or not, I don't know, but as far as I've seen he doesn't even recognize the Environmental Department as being a real Department." At the end of Damon's rant, that came out much calmer and matter-of-fact than he felt, he let out a little sigh of frustration before turning to Alex and offering a little grin of apology. "I'm sorry...got a little carried away."

As Damon looked at Alex say how she'd been doing he thought it looked like she was about to cry. Turning so his body was no longer facing the bouncing castle, but facing Alex instead, he put a hand on her shoulder. "It's alright Alex. If you need to get it off your chest, I'm here." Damon figured something must have sparked the sadness towards the situation that Alex didn't have back when they were discussing it over coffee. "Did you end up looking at Diagon Alley at all for any open positions?" Damon asked, not sure if that was the trigger for the dangerously close tears or something else.

Not wanting to push it if Alex didn't want to talk about it, Damon answered her question on how he was doing. "I'm doing well," he said with a little smile. "I'm glad to be getting some environmentally oriented tasks at the Ministry, and to be working with other people that are as passionate it about it as me." Well...except for that one older woman that thought going green meant making the Ministry literally more green, but she wasn't in his department so to heck with her. "Plus this carnival is a nice distraction from things," he said with another smile.

"uhhhh.... 4 years" Sammy admitted. She should probably have the castle down pat but in Hogwarts her cat was always with her and eventually the cat would get hungry and go back to the kitchens and her common room was near the kitchens so voila. Problemo solved. Was he talking about instinct? Because Sammy was basically never right when she followed her instinct, her nose was more reliable. But unfortunately this guy was making her sound like a little first year, AND SHE DID NOT LIKE THAT ONE LITTLE BIT. But she didn't have any idea how to defend herself.

Then the damn boy tried to offer his assistance? AW HELL TO THE NO. Up with this she would not put. But might as well have a little fun "I'll take up that offer - BUT" she paused for a moment here to add what they call .... dramatic effect "how do you know I'm not some sort of crazy killer and just using 'getting lost' as an excuse to get victims?" She asked raising both her eyebrows because she couldn't do that stupid thing where you just raise one. Unlike Amy. And basically everyone else she knew. But Amy liked to rub it in. Meanie.

Everett stared in surprise. Four years? Dayyyuuummmm.... "Well..." Yeah he didn't really have much to say about that. Moving on. "You some kind of killer? Please, I doubt you'd even be the sort to kill off sea monkeys!" It was hard to kill of sea monkeys. He once left them with no food for like 2 months, and they kept living, being all cannibal eating each other to survive. "Besides, I think I can protect myself." He totally could. His 5"4-ness wouldn't stop him.

No. Merlin's Beard. No way in Merlin's pants did Braeden Stonem just zoom of the starting line. CHEATER!!! No one said 'Go!' or anything. Pouting a little, the blonde crossed her arms and before she could say anything, Theodore Dumble was off the line too. Merlin, why hadn't the Malfoy thought of something like that? Oh Merlin, she desperately hoped that she wasn't turning into a Puff no offense to Puffs, she was supposed to be an evil Slytherin.

As the boy's figures disappeared from sight, Emma narrowed her eyes. Oh, she wasn't going to let them WIN. Merlin's PANTS, No. No, no, no, no, no. The blonde turned to Alfie, "So did we give them a big enough head start?" she asked, with a wide smirk across her lips. The blonde think they did. Emma began calculating options to catch up to the boys in her mind and win.

If Team Slytherclaw wanted to catch up to Ravendor then they would have to do something extremely cunning. ATTACK WITH CAKE CANONS. But, how would the girls catch up to them. Short-cuts. The Secret Passage. But perhaps there were no secret passages here. Perhaps they should just storm the boys and take them by surprise. Or capture the slower one out of the boys and hold him for ransom!? "Alfie, you ready?" said Emma with her brown eyes looking at Alfie's eyes. So they would win. The blonde started jumping up and down, and then started running in the direction that Theo had run in. "Come on Alfie!" she cried.

And Well, well, well, she saw Theo or what looked like Theo, jogging ahead. Smirk. The blonde slowed down slightly and waited. Waited for Alfie so that they could plan their attack. Theo would never see this coming.

This carnival really did have everything! Ari had missed Hogwarts a lot over the summer, but all that was forgotten when she spotted the carnie-version of the castle, and couldn't hold in her enthusiasm: 'Merlin! There's a bouncy Hogwarts!'

For anyone who knew her, this outburst was most uncharacteristic, and Ariadne blushed, hoping that not many people had heard her, which was highly likely, as Diagon Alley was noisy and busy.

But however great this replica of the castle was, it still missed some significant details: the girl's friends. She had seen a few of them on the street already, yet was discontent, as she hadn't spotted Melina so far, although they had promised each other to meet on Diagon Alley. She must be here somewhere, Ari thought, hoping her friend would join her at this fantastic carnival attraction.