With all the chaos the school had been giving them there was one place that Chloe felt she could go and things would be the same. It was one of her favorite places at Hogwarts and one that her mother and father told her had something special in. She had visited it a few times last term but decided maybe visiting today would make her feel better.

Sending a message to the Slytherin dorm she had even asked Gunnar to meet her there. Their mother would love to maybe get a picture of them near the Jacob's Ladder. The purple plant was always so pretty and knowing her parents planted it so many terms ago and it was still there was a great feeling to Chloe.

Heading in she found a bench near the plant and sat down.

Chaos? Nah. As far as Gunnar was concerned, all that was going on with the school was the very opposite of chaos. He certainly didn't mind a little order and discipline - it was probably what this school needed. And he had already been in the habit of running almost every morning with Alessandro last year, though he didn't really care to now have the entire school out there with him. The rest of the rules were easy to follow enough too, even if there was a thought or two attached to a couple that he had to push down to suppress.

But he sure didn't mind meeting his sister out in the student garden area. He was busier than ever in his third year and hadn't had a lot of time to see her. This would be a good time to catch up a little and see how she was doing. Gunnar knew that she wasn't as okay with some of the rules that he was, given by the letter he got from home.

The nearly fourteen year old made his way inside shortly after she did and spotted her almost immediately. Heading toward the bench, he took a seat next to her and gave her a grin. "Hey, Chlo."

Sitting and looking at the ground her green eyes snapped up hearing her name and knowing who had said it. "Gunnar!" This was a face that made her relax a little more, he was family and family is what she wanted at the moment. She was feeling very jealous of Morgan right now getting to be at home with their parents. Chloe felt a sense of homesick she didn't remember having last term.

"I'm glad you came out here. There have been changes in it, but mom's flowers are still here." She pointed relieved that some things hadn't changed.

"You haven't gotten in too much trouble this term have you? So many are getting yelled at more." She hated seeing them run and get scolded every class with those people.

Gunnar's blue eyes followed the line of Chloe's pointed finger and fell on the clusters of blue flowers. He remembered hearing about those flowers and finding them soon after he came here - the ones his parents planted when they were students in memoriam of the uncle they would never meet. The one whose name he shared. "It's so weird to think they planted it when they went here.... so many years ago." It was hard to think of their parents as teenagers, not much older than they were now.

"I haven't gotten into any trouble," he said, looking back at her. "Have you? People just need to get used to the rules and they'll be fine." Or at least that was how he saw it. Nothing wrong with having a little order and discipline. "It's better than having to risk your life because of an army of dark creatures, isn't it?" If these rules kept him and the rest of them safe, then how bad could they be? He only hoped those weren't famous last words. It was starting to feel like going from one extreme to the next.

She looked at the plant for a bit longer, "Think they really thought it would be here this long when they planted it?" Chloe was glad it was there, it made her think of her parents and how they were both in this exact spot once. "Didn't mom say they did it when Uncle Jacob would have been the first year?" She felt a little sad thinking about how he never got to come to this amazing castle and she couldn't help but wonder what he would have been like. They had plenty of Uncles with her dad's side, but they were really great uncles and then some of her parent's friends, but they didn't have any actual regular uncles like other people.

Though she really didn't mind that either so she turned to Gunnar as they spoke about the term. "I think both have their downfall. I am glad I'm safe and I'm not looking like a complete idiot because I can't defend myself, but now everyone is getting in trouble and they expelled my friend." She was upset about Reese even though he might have deserved it for how much he pushed them.

"I just want to look like a smart witch like mom was and like you and daddy are. I don't think I should have been put in Ravenclaw..." She had felt that way for a while and she felt embarrassed admitting it.

Gunnar's eyes were on the flowers but his mind drifted a little. He shrugged. "Maybe? I really don't remember," he answered honestly. Sure, it was sad that their uncle had died when he was young and they never got to even meet him. But that was just it. They didn't ever know him so it was hard to be sentimental about someone he didn't know.

The young Slytherin nodded a bit as Chloe continued. He could agree with that. "It's too much all at once, I think," he said after a moment's thought. "It was pretty lenient before, but now it's really strict and a lot of people are having a hard time adjusting." At least that was how he saw it. If people just tried to follow the rules, maybe it wouldn't be so hard. Maybe there wouldn't be so many detentions and point loss and that one kid getting expelled.

He let his eyebrows knit together as he looked at her. "What are you talking about? You are a smart witch..." She sure wasn't dumb, if that's what she was meaning.

She listened to her mother's stories and asked her grandparents questions all the time, she just couldn't wrap her young head around the fact that her mother didn't grow up with her parents. Chloe couldn't imagine how that was and how she could ever have handled it. "Yeah, I forget things too."

"I just don't think they need to be so harsh, I mean yes, some rules were needed and more strictness in the way people talk to adults, but the standing stuff and running. That is a bit much. They are downright scary at times." Growing up with the parents they had and their parent's friends Chloe had never been really afraid of adults, but these ones were terrifying.

She was a smart witch, that was nice of him to say, but he was her brother, he had to say it. "But I'm not, nothing is coming easily to me. I was struggling all last term and this term I've spent most of my free time in the library. " She looked back down at the plants. She didn't like admitting that, but it was how she was feeling. "Even quidditch this year, at least last year I had that I was starting in quidditch, I don't even have that now."

Gunnar shrugged a bit. “Yeah. Well. What are you going to do about it though?” Not her specifically, but… rules were rules, weren’t they? And maybe they were getting a little too harsh, but some people really brought this on themselves. He’d admit that they were becoming awfully oppressive though.

Chloe was his sister and he could be more patient with her than he was with most people, but this feeling sorry for herself nonsense was a little annoying. Still, he was here for her to talk to. "Now you know how I felt last year when my little sister made the starting lineup and I was only reserve. Do you think I sat around saying I wasn't good enough?" He looked at her momentarily but didn't really pause long enough for her to answer.

"Nope. That's when I started running regularly with Alessandro. And I practiced all the time with the team. I was going to make sure I made the starting team this year." And he did, with hard work and determination, not by feeling sorry for himself. Though to be fair, he had felt sorry for himself at first but that only pushed his determination.

"And I don't know if you think that being a Ravenclaw means you need to be some sort of genius that everything comes easy for them, but you know that isn't true. It's just a stereotype." He shrugged a little. There was more to each house than that, and he really disliked house stereotypes no matter what house it was.

Chloe sighed feeling like even her brother wasn't really understanding her anymore. Biting her lip she looked at the plants again, "I want to learn more about our family. Maybe I could ask mom some more questions and write them down." She was interested in their history and she wanted to learn more about how she was related to the Blaze family, but she didn't want to upset her mother either.

"How much do you know about the Blazes? I mean they are all snakes and stuff, yeah?" She wasn't sure how much to ask him either, but if one of her best friends was her cousin she wanted to learn more.

She didn't want to be upset over his comment, but she felt an annoyance coming through her, she didn't get on the team on purpose and she had worked and practice, she couldn't help that the claws didn't have anyone older to take the spot, "Yeah but you are on the team now and you didn't get shut out by someone you clearly beat the last term." The struggle in her own dorm was real when trying to let that go.


She got up and just stared at him, "You know if I wanted a lecture I would have just gone to someone else, I wanted someone that would just listen and try to understand. Being a snake has changed you." Turning she started for the door.

If Chloe was feeling misunderstood, Gunnar hadn't noticed. As far as he was concerned, they were just having a normal conversation about what they thought of the new administration. And he was resigned to it being what it was.

He nodded, thinking it was a good idea to ask their mother things about the family because she'd probably know it best. "Yeah, some people are really into genealogy." That's what it was called, right? He wasn't into it and wasn't sure if their mother was or not, but it was cool if Chloe wanted to be. "Uh, yeah, Edward and Eivan...? They're in Slytherin. Quiet and keep to themselves, not very friendly.... how are we related to them again?" He didn't really know them very well and wasn't sure how much he wanted to, but the idea of them being related was a little intriguing.

............uh, what? Gunnar raised an eyebrow as his sister got up and basically flipped out on him. What had just happened? He thought they were just having a conversation and he was giving her a little brotherly advice. What exactly was her problem?

"First of all," he started, his face fairly impassive except for that raised eyebrow. "I'm in Slytherin, I'm not a snake." Calling someone a snake had rather negative connotations and he didn't appreciate her using it that way, which he was pretty sure she was doing on purpose considering how nasty she was being right now. "And I haven't changed. Maybe you're the one who's changed. You've never been one to sit around and feel sorry for yourself until this year, or get really sensitive and defensive like this.... and I'm not going to treat you like a baby." Was that what she wanted from him?

"And I wasn't giving you a lecture. I thought we were talking. I do understand and I was trying to give you some advice on how I tried to deal with things... but if you'd rather have someone just baby you instead, maybe you should go so you can mirror Dad." Because he wasn't having it. And she was being ridiculous and not even trying to hear him.