Princess Tessa must have taken a wrong turn at the stairs or something of the sort because she had absolutely no idea where she was. All she knew was that this statue she found herself in front of looked just about as lost as she felt.

Tessa sat down near the statue and looked left and right, down each side of the corridor wandering if she could find her way to the Gryffindor common room from here or if she was just going to die a lonely death beside this statue...lost on her first days as a Hogwarts student. How terrible would that be?

"Surely someone will find me." Tessa said standing up and straightening her clothes. "Besides. I am Tessa A. Hart." She said with a smile to the statue.

Malcolm had wandered off on his own getting to know the building fairly well so he wouldn't get lost, whenever he was on his own. Making his way to the Gryffindor common room he noticed a young girl standing next to the statue.

Not really knowing who this person was, he simply waved and smiled at her.

Maybe she needed a friend?

Or she was happy on her own? Hm...

Hearing footsteps coming towards her and the statue, Tessa turned to see who it was, desperately hoping it wasn't any of the professors that she was sure was out to get her for no reason. When she saw it was a fellow student she was a bit more relaxed.

A wave? That's all Princess Tessa got?

"Hey!" Tessa called from near the statue. "Who are you?" Tessa asked. She didn't know if this was someone from another house or not, she had to make sure before she asked for directions. She crossed her arms in front of her and waited for the boy to answer her. Oh come on. Tessa thought as she tapped her left foot impatiently.

Malcolm's eyes widened he couldn't tell whether the young girl was displeased or very excited! "Hiiiii!" he greeted with his oh so very cheesy smile.

Who was he? He turn around to check if she might be talking to someone else, then he pointed to himself "I'm Malcolm!" he beamed "and who are you?" he asked.

Tessa took a few steps closer to him. She nodded her head, "Yeah, you. I wasn't talking to the statue!" She giggled.

Malcolm? Interesting.

"Which House are you in?" The Princess asked, she was rather nosy some times. "I'm...Princess." Tessa said with a huge smile as she turned and curtsied for him. She wasn't going to tell Malcolm her name until she found out what house he was in...just because.

"He's some lost guy." Tessa explained, pointing her thumb in the direction of the statue. Though, had Malcolm taken the chance to look, he could have clearly noticed how lost the guy was.

Adrienne dragged Tora with her to the statue and sat down on the floor, gesturing for her friend to join her. In the pockets of her robes she had her wand, some scraps of wood, and a pair of those magnifying glass-like attatchy-bits from Astronomy, one of which she snapped onto her own wand and the other she handed to Tora.

“We’re making art,” Adrienne said, surprisingly cheerful-sounding for how tired she looked. It was only the beginning of the year, but she’d already stayed up until the wee hours of the morning doing homework and... things. Namely, owling her friends back in France and reading books by wandlight. Still, she wasn’t in much of a bad mood today, so she pulled a couple of small pieces of wood out of her pocket, handed one to Tora, and angled the magnifying glass so that the pale light streaming in through the window and illuminating even the dust in the air was concentrated by it.

“Solis Focalis,” Adrienne murmured, and when she focused the beam of sunlight she slowly began to trace out a design.

At first Tora was confused. How was this art? Than she noticed the burn marks in the wood starting to make a sort of design. In that case... Tora might as well go all out. She traced the outline of a crest into the wood and.. "Diffindo" with a crack the wood cut along the lines. Then she began to draw with the light. "Solis Focalis" she said softly after the noise of the splitting wood. The light focused into a point and Tora began the outline of a head and beak. This was fun, she liked this idea much more than she liked the other uncooked chicken one.

Adrienne was nearly finished with her design, which had a border of simple swirls and flowers and, in curly writing with plenty of flourishes, she'd written Adrienne Rebecca Colbert through the middle. It would certainly look nice hung in her room back home, or shaved down and placed on her trunk so there wouldn't be any more mishaps where someone in the dormitory uses her socks instead. (Which, in her opinion, should never have happened in the first place if someone decided to use their common sense.)

It wasn't until she was totally done that she noticed Tora's creativity with adding in another spell. Well. That sure was fancy, wasn't it? There was no way Adrienne was going to let herself be outdone, especially when this had been her idea in the first place.

Her beam of light was gone now, and with a glance at Tora she tapped her engraving gently with her wand. "Colovaria," she said softly, and smiled as the wood that she'd used as the background of her burn-picture slowly faded from its regular brown to a pretty lilac colour.

Ravenclaw, that was the inspiration for Tora's design. Tora was nearly done with her Ravenclaw crest, so she just finished up the wings on the eagle. Very detailed wings, to be precise. Now all that was left was to burn Ravenclaw across the wood and she would be done! She looked over to see how Adrienne was doing, noting the fancy detail... and the color?! Well. Tora couldn't let Adrienne be the only one to have color. "Colovaria, Colovaria" she said pointing at different parts of the design, leaving the crest blue, the bird bronze and the writing plain burned wood. It turned out quite beautiful in Tora's opinion.

But something else needed to be done or she might be accused of stealing ideas. What else to add? "Piertotum Locomotor," she said smiling as she tapped the eagle in the center of the crest. It promptly started slowly flapping its wings and generally moving about within the wooden frame. Eventually it settled down again, but its head moved, slowly scanning the outside world. Now wasn't that cool?

Dylan, with his hands shoved into his pockets, walked along the fifth floor corridor. The weather outside wasn't looking pretty so he had decided to explore inside today. He still couldn't believe he had tons more of the castle to explore, it felt like he had been everywhere in it, yet there were many other things he had not yet seen. Such as Boris the bewildered.

The first year almost ran into the statue as he was walking. He had been staring down at the ground, admiring how clean it was and hadn't seen where he was going... he toppled over onto the ground with a thud. Quickly, the boy worriedly glanced around himself, hoping no one was around to see that. Seeing that he was alone, he gave a small sigh of relief and rubbed his elbow that had hit the ground pretty hard. Wincing slightly, he rolled up the sleeve of his sweater to see it was a little red. He frowned. It would probably turn into a bruise soon.

Ella was on her way out of the prefects' bathroom when she saw the little badger rubbing his elbow. The blonde raised an eyebrow and looked around, wondering what had happened. No one had hurt the kid, right? Captain badger wouldn't like that one bit. NOPE.

"Everything okay, kiddo?" They'd met before, hadn't they? In the common room or something? Ella tried to remember his name as she eyed his elbow with concern. It started with a D, yeah? Hm.

Suddenly, he heard a voice. He glanced up to see it was...oh! The nice girl from the common room. The Hufflepuff quidditch captain. What was her name again? Hmmmm....Oh! Ella! Riight. Blushing slightly, he scrambled to his feet and shrugged. "I...I think I'm okay. I just didn't see where I was going and kinda bumped into the...er...statue..." he trailed off, his attention moving back to his arm. He moved his sleeve back down and decided to just tough it out. He was a strong boy, wasn't he? And he didn't want to look weak in front of a girl. Especially an older one.

"It's Ella, right?" he then asked, looking up at her. She was rather tall. Well, most people were taller than Dylan. He was a bit short... heh.

Blushing? N'aw. Ella smiled warmly and eyed the statue, amused. "Don't feel bad. I walk into things all the time." True story. Ella was pretty clumsy sometimes. "As long as your arm is okay." That was most important.

He knew her name. This meant that they had met and that Ella was probably right about his name starting with a D. "Yup, Ella." Grin. "And you're..." Think, Ella, think. "D-ylan?" HOPEFULLY.

"So how are you liking Hogwarts?" Y'know, besides the whole walking into statue thing.

Dylan chuckled softly when she mentioned walking into things all the time. He felt the red in his cheeks die down at this and he smiled. This girl was truly nice to help make him not continue to feel stupid. And it was good to know he wasn't the only one who walked into things here... "I think I'm okay, thank you though." he told her with another smile. Really, it was very nice of her to stop by and check on him and make sure he was okay.

The first year watched the older Puffer as she thought for a minute about his name. Chuckling again, he gave a nod at her guess. "Yup!" he said. "And Hogwarts is great. I love it! What about you?" he asked.

"Anytime." She had really done anything, yeah? Just made sure he wasn't completely broken due to statue-related injuries. Any decent person would have done the same. Mhm.

Dylan. Cool. Ella was relieved because she would have felt like the biggest jerk if she hadn't remembered his name. It was her job to know faces and stuff, yeah? Her being a Captain and all.

"I'm glad you're enjoying it!" Really. She remembered how some of the first years had had it last term and was pleased at this turn around in attitude. "Me? This place is like home. I'm really glad to be back." GRIN.

"So Dylan, what do you do when you're not walking into statues?" Tell us more, kid.

Dylan beamed and nodded. Yes, he was quite glad he was enjoying it too. Heh. He then smiled. "That's good. How's the whole Quidditch thing going?" he then asked. He had wanted to join the Quidditch team but had missed out on tryouts and besides, he felt kinda hassled lately with everything he was busy with. Perhaps next year would work out. Plus, he needed more training with a broom. Not that he didn't know anything about the sport, he was pretty good at flying. But he should maybe learn a bit more on how to play and work on his skills.

The first year chuckled at her next question and looked at the older girl thoughtfully. "Well," he finally said after a moment of thinking. "I enjoy reading, learning new things, and playing guitar. That's about it." he told Ella with a small shrug. "What about you?"

Quidditch talk earned the first year a smile from the Captain as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "It's brilliant. The team looks really good this term." And yes, she recalled seeing the boy's name on the tryout signup sheet but she wasn't going to call him out. Hopefully he'd take an interest again next year.

"The guitar, huh?" That was the thing that had caught her attention the most. "That's a nice hobby to have. How long have you been playing?" She loved music and was curious, her having played a bit of guitar in the past as well. "Me? Well, I read too. I also like cooking and spending time with the magical creatures." And the boyfriend. First years found that kind of thing yucky though, right? She didn't mention it just in case.

They were doing good? Well, that was wonderful news. Dylan had a good feeling that his team were going to have lots of wins this year. "That's great! I'm happy to hear it." Dylan told her, smiling. He really couldn't wait to root his team on at their next match. He had something great planned for when he would show up, that was for sure... hehe.

The first year nodded, still smiling. "Yeah! And I've been playing for um..." he glanced down at the ground thoughtfully for a minute. "Oh! Ever since I was seven." he finished with a shy smile. Heh. Dylan. He was kind of forgetful sometimes. But ooo Ella had some nice hobbies! They had quite a bit in common so far, it seemed. He had a good feeling they were going to get along nicely. "Oh, you cook?" he asked, cocking his head and studying the girl curiously. "I'd love to try something of yours sometime then!" he told her. Like cookies? Dylan really liked cookies.

Dylan was a smiley kid, huh? Ella approved. She liked smiley. She liked it a lot. The blonde nodded her head and wore a cheerful expression, leaning casually against the wall.

"That's brilliant. Maybe I can hear you play sometime?" In the common room or something? Ella didn't think any of the other badgers would mind an impromptu performance. Actually, maybe some other badgers were musical too. Ella could sing...horribly but still. She'd totally join in if anyone broke out in song.

"I'm not an expert or anything." And really, she'd only gotten into it seriously in the past couple of terms. Mostly because without Kurumi around, she had no one to make her treats. "I'm actually quite good at cookies now! Maybe...we can bake some! I'll teach you, if you want." Gingerbread? She hadn't tackled those yet.

Playing for Ella? Dylan wouldn't mind that at all. He always enjoyed playing for people and hearing feedback on how he did. The first year gave many nods of his head. "Of course! I'd be more than happy to." he told her with a bright smile. "Do you play any instruments?" he asked curiously. "Or sing?" he added. Singing was nice. Dylan wished he could sing but... eh. His voice wasn't too great. Although Melanie on the other hand, her voice was perfect. He could fall asleep to her singing.

Psh Ella was probably a great cook. "Well, I'm sure you're fantastic." he said to her with another smile. Then, his face lit up when she mentioned cookies. Was this girl a mind-reader or something? The firstie grinned, nodding eagerly and clapping his hands together in excitement. "Ooooo! Yes yes yes! I'd love to!" he exclaimed, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

Cool. Ella smiled a bit wider and tilted her head, regarding the first year curiously. "Know any Beatles stuff?" Cause they were her favorite. As for her, the blonde shrugged. "I know a bit on the guitar but it's been a long time since I practiced." Too long, actually. "And I'm a horrible singer but that's never stopped me before." GRIN. Ella loved to sing....mostly to her dog and turtle but still.

"Thanks for the confidence, little dude." And hopefully he wouldn't think her cookies were rubbish. Alec seemed to like them, though. That was something. "Alright. It's a plan, then!" The gingerbread cookie making, that is.

Dylan beamed and gave a nod of approval. Ella had good taste, that was for sure. The Beatles were amazing, and he loved them so much. He didn't know if many wizards or even Muggles knew of them though, since they were from so long ago. But he couldn't have been the only one, and he was thankful for that. It was nice to meet people with similar taste in things. "Most of the songs I know are their songs. They really inspire me and their my most favorite band of all time." he told her. He then raised an eyebrow. Ella played guitar too? Merlin's beard, they had more in common than he thought! "You should play for me sometime, I'd love to hear you. I also have no doubt you're a brilliant singer. I can just feel it." he then said with a smile.

Another smile for Ella. "No problem!" he said. The first year then grinned. "Yay! I can't wait!" He really couldn't wait. He could already taste those cookies!

"Yeah? That's brilliant. My dad got me into them, really. He's a fan and I'm a big one now too." It was something they shared which was nice. Ella liked spending quiet afternoons just listening to records with him. They hadn't done that in a while though. As for playing, Ella shrugged. "If you let me use your guitar? Mine is at home." Which was sad but it's not like she used it often. Also sad. "You can feel it?" This amused the blonde and she laughed, ruffling the younger badger's hair. "You're cute, kid."

"It's a plan, then. I'll find you in the common room next time I'm going to the kitchen and we can bake, okay?"

Dylan grinned. "That's awesome. My mum and dad are big fans of them and I pretty much grew up listening to them." he said. He then gave a nod. He was a bit uneasy letting others play his guitar but he trusted Ella, and besides, she knew how to play and knew what she would be doing. People who didn't know how to play on the other hand that just wanted to mess around on it, Dylan wouldn't let them try his guitar. Ever. Heh. "Of course! Just let me know whenever you want to and I'll grab it for you and we can play together." he said. The first year then giggled and smiled wide as Ella ruffled his hair. Hair ruffles. Dylan was actually starting to like those. "Yes, I can feel it. And thanks, I think I'm pretty cute too." he said with a wink.

"Alrighty!" he smiled yet again at the thought of the cookies. He could already smell their amazing scent and taste their deliciousness. Mmmmm. Cookies were great. And now that he was thinking of them, he was starting to feel rather hungry. He made a mental note in his head to stop by the kitchens on the way back.