Hope made her way down the ground trying to enjoy being out of the castle for the first time since arriving. The common room was amazing. The food was amazing. The school was amazingly large. The students were nice enough...some of them anyway. The library was huge. The view from her bed when she woke up was amazingly breath taking. So far, it hadn't disappointed her yet.

The grounds... they were pretty amazing. She had let her feet walk wherever as her mind wandered on it's own free will. She had a book clasped in her hand and the urge to just vanish for a while. However, it seemed like that could be a potential impossibility, but who knew. She found a quiet spot under the shade of the beech tree and made herself comfortable as possible. Yes. This would be an amazing day.

Melek was wandering around the grounds, trying to find her way around when she saw the lake. A smile came to her face and she came to the Beech tree by it. Mel went to lean against it when she saw a box and decided to look through it. She found a good book and then leaned against the tree, starting to read it. Melek was content to just stay there and read the whole book in that day, no matter how long it took her. Mel didnt have a book to place in it anyways and it said to take one and leave one but she doubt that it would be any bother to them if she just took one, read it by the tree then replaced the book after she had finished. Mel made a mental note to get a book from this Hogsmeade place if it had a bookstore or have her mother owl her some of her old ones. She leaned up against the tree and glanced over the lake, watching for a few moments before opening the book and starting to read. The wind blew through the loose hair that was trailing down to her shoulders that had fallen out of her messy ponytail. Her eyes were moving fast as she read sentence after sentence of the book. Her fingers flipped through the pages as she read them. Melek had completely zoned out the world around her and didnt even mind the cold though she did have a coat one. It might seem odd that she had a coat on but the weather here was much colder than in Turkey. Tears were starting to fall down her cheeks as she read, partially from the sad part she had gotten too but partly because deep down in her mind, she was depressed that Annaleecia and her had fought and probably ended their friendship. It was even over a boy! Mel didnt know what they fought over, to be honest, but she was a bit mad that Annaleecia said that she should have been placed in Slytherin... though the Kace this and Kace that from Anna was annoying especially saying how Hufflepuff was the best house... Mel sighed out loud and then drew back from her book and went into her thoughts as they became more and more demanding.

You know what Abbi wanted to do? She wanted to relax! Mhhm! School would kick in real soon and then the relaxation would be kept to a minimum....or she could just not do homework and relax instead. That was an option too and one the second year preferred, cept Mommy and Daddy wouldn't be happy. Nope. Then she'd get lectures and blah shma blah.

But WHO needed to think about that now? She was going to RELAX! And out in the grounds.

Once reaching the lake, the auburn haired girl looked around for somewhere to sit, somewhere shady. Ohhh...the tree. She beamed. It would be perfect for her. Mhhm. Yet there was something new that wasn't there beside it last year, a box, okay? She walked over and peeked inside.

BOOOKS. OHHH. But naaah reading was thinking and she was RELAXING! So no books for Miss Abbi. Instead she sat down on one of the roots and closed her eyes basking in the outdoors. Ahhhh, relaxation at last.

So far, it was just nice being back at Hogwarts. Lily had honestly wondered if it would feel different, but it just felt like her home away from home. Maybe it was more her home away from home away from home, seeing as living with Aunt Elizabeth was her actual home away from home, but after the events from summer, she’d wondered if it’d feel different here. Plus, there were the new professors, but she’d get to really find out what they were like once classes started. Until then, she could just let herself get back into the swing of things, explore what was new at the school. She knew that there were always new places to discover every year, from stories anyway, and the grounds had always seemed like the best place to start. Not to mention the grounds were always the best place for her to just be able to practice her guitar without interruption, and she had it with her at that moment. Alec couldn’t be everywhere she wanted to play, after all, even if she didn’t really mind that the older boy knew that she was musical. She didn’t mind if anyone knew, but that didn’t mean she was about to want to sing in front of everyone.

Walking toward the lake, she’d seen the big beech tree and immediately been drawn toward it. It had to have been there forever, but she didn’t remember it. That meant it deserved investigation, and it seemed like a quiet place to sit and play for a while. She’d glanced at the little box as she’d gotten closer, but bypassed it for now. Books could wait, and if people followed the note there would always be books there for later. Right now she’d just intended on sitting against the tree with her guitar, but as she got even closer she noticed the small redhead curled up on one of the roots, eyes closed, and she stopped. “Oh, I’m sorry. I can go somewhere else,” she said, startled and backing up a step. Speaking might be stupid if the girl was asleep, but at least she’d apologized. Sneaking away wasn’t something she liked doing.

Now that didn't sound so much like nature? Abbi opened her eyes for a moment and looked up at the source of the voice. She took a quick up and down scan and took a double take when she spotted the guitar.

Ohhhhhhh! Nooo don't go away stranger, you havw a guitar that can play music. "It's okay!" A smile was immediately worn on her face. "Please stay" PLEEASE! Cause music! The red head shifted to make some space beside the root and gestured for the girl to sit beside her. See this was totally still relaxing and Abbi never, ever said no to meeting people. Contacts were good, mommy always said they got you places and made you happier.

"You obviously play if you carrying that. Can you play me a song, pleeeaasee?" Anything would do. Guitars were just too cool, okay?

Ah, what a glorious day it was outside! Tiara Tyner loved nothing better than taking a leisurely stroll around the grounds or camping out under a shady tree. So it was that she could be found settling down under a tree by the Black Lake the day after term started. Oh look, Orsino left a box here... I wonder what's in it?

Crawling over, she opened it up and saw something wonderful: books! Tyner was a bookworm at heart. She took out several tomes and read the back descriptions. "Oh this one sounds interesting!" Not that she had a book to leave, but she could simply come back another time rather than take this with her now. She took it back over to where there was a comfortable spot in the tree-- just perfect for her back-- and began to dive in to the first chapter.

With Wilhelmina tucked into his robes pocket safely and with a trunk rolling behind him Leo made his way out into the glorious sunshine to go check out the wooden book box Orsino had promised he'd put up near the big beech tree by the lake to promote reading amongst the student's.

Humming on a tune and with the trunk bumping up and down behind him Leo weren't paying much attention to where he was going. Short cutting under the tree to get to the wooden box faster he felt how his legs connected with something clearly human. Rocking forwards, arms flailing Leo stumbled towards the ground with a big "Ooof!" loosing the grip on his wand in the process causing the trunk to open up and shoot out books into the air with "WHOOSH, PLOP!" sounds coming from the books as they were scattered everywhere. Some books even ended up in the BLACK LAKE!!!

Honestly West was content to mind his own business, and would entirely have avoided the librarian if possible due to the poo!fish situation from when he was younger and all, but he'd sat down on the shore not far from the big tree and his peace had been shattered.

He looked up when the man stumbled and then almost at the same moment a whole lot of books went flying. In the lake? Seriously? He took his wand out and with silent Accios, busied himself trying to fish them out before they got too waterlogged, hoping they'd be salvageable.

This guy needed to stay AWAY from lakes. For sure.

The first item of business on Lana's to-do list was explore. So, of course, she started with the grounds. There was so much to do outside of the castle that the eleven year old didn't know where to start. The lake caught her attention first, of course, so she made her way down to it. Swimming was out of the question, since she didn't know how. She just wanted to check it out a bit since the it had been nighttime when she had seen it before.

This time, though, something else distracted her from the water. A tree! Not just any old tree, though. No, this was was HUGE. Lana ran over to it and stopped when she was just a few steps from the trunk. She looked up in wonder. Wow. How did it get so big? How long had it been there?

Caterina had seen the tree before, plenty of times, really. However, she'd heard that the new groundskeeper (that huge looking man) had added a new feature. Some sort of something about books. Cat liked books, so she'd decided to go take a look for herself.

Though before she even found the thing, Cat paused and watched a much younger student standing at the tree. She looked so amazed over it. It was practically the most adorable thing she'd ever seen. "It's a really, really big tree, isn't it?"

Still in awe over the tree, it took Lana a minute before she realized that she was being spoken to. By an older girl. She pulled her gaze away from the branches and looked at the girl. "It is!" she agreed enthusiastically.

She turned back to the tree and looked up again. "I wonder how long it's been here. Do you know? Maybe forever. Since Hogwarts existed. Wouldn't that be cool?" She looked back at the girl, her eyes practically sparkling. "I bet one of the founders planted it. I do." She nodded seriously.

There was something that Cat just adored about first years and it was definitely their enthusiasm and excitement about all the things. A tree was a pretty common thing and not a whole lot of people would be so excited about one. It took a special person to do that. Cat knelt down beside the girl and placed her hand flat on the tree, "I'm not really sure, actually. But it's entirely possible, trees can live for a long time as long as they're properly taken care of and the groundskeepers here are pretty amazing." And usually very easy on the eyes.

She smiled kindly at the girl, "Which one do you suppose it was? My guess is Helga Hufflepuff. Do you think it was her?"

Five pages in and she was already hooked. Engrossed as she was, she didn't even notice the noisy progress of one Leobald Kitridge with his trunk skimming the ground ever-so-noisily. So it came as quite a shock when suddenly he was on top of her.

"Leobald!" was all she could get out at first. Then... "The books!!" With reflexes born of her time officiating, she shot up like a rocket and ran towards the lake, sending Leo flying in the process. Tiara Tyner knew her priorities.


She had never been more thankful to see a Slytherin before in her life.

"West, the books! Are they okay?"

Marigold had heard about a book exchange thingy by the lake from someone in the Common Room, and decided to bring a book to put in. She saw the box and carefully placed her well worn copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Yes, she had another copy of home but she was still a bit sad putting the book back. Looking through the available books in the box, she noticed a red cover and took it out. It looked like some wonky sci fi thing but the synopsis grabbed her. Almost in a daze, she wandered over to the tree and sat cross-legged at the base of it. Opening the cover, she immersed herself in the story for several uninterrupted moments.

In what seemed like no time at all, Marigold was done with the book. Yes, it had been short, but she thought it was the silent setting with only a zephyr to keep her company. She decided she would stay here for a while longer, and put the book to her side. Stretching out her legs, the third year yawned and looked around. To her left was the lake, to her right was - a crying girl. Marigold hurridly looked away, then back again. The girl was reading a book, so the book was probably sad or something.

"Sad part?" she asked.

When the girl continued to talk to her, Lana turned to her and smiled. She stepped up to the tree and placed her hand on it, just like the older girl did.

She tipped her head back and looked at the tree thoughtfully. "Probably, yes. Maybe." She thought about all the things about Hufflepuff house that Jake had told her. "I don't think Godric Gryffindor would have, right?" She looked at the girl. "I think he would have been too strong to grow a tree." Logic. "Miss Hufflepuff would have been nice enough." At least the vision Lana had of her.

She looked at the girl. "Are you a Hufflepuff?"

Annaleecia walked up to the tree and smiled. She was hoping this would be a good place to practice, but... it seemed like there were a lot of people here and she was not going to be singing in front of everyone and embarrassing herself. She sighed slightly but still sat down and pulled a book out of her bag, maybe people would clear out yeah? Then she could practice... Yeah... or if it didn't she could run somewhere else and hide. She leaned back and smiled, using her bag as a pillow as she read her old book. Anna still peaked every now and again to see if people were still around but it seemed no one was clearing out.

West was still fishing them out, depositing them on the grass with a few flicks of the wrist.

Oh, Professor Tyner.

"I don't know, I haven't had a good look at them," He Accio'd another and lay it out carefully. Was that all of them? Had he missed any? Had any sunk?

"I guess it depends if they were imperviused or not." He picked one up gingerly and held it so that the water drained off it. Errr....

Cat watched carefully as the younger girl's thoughts processed. She wondered how much she actually knew about the founders of Hogwarts, but from what she'd gathered so far, she seemed to have things down right. In fact, she had offered up her own question too. Cat ran her hand along the rough bark of the tree thoughtfully. "I think you're right there. I think Godric Gryffindor was probably more interested in building the walls tall and strong and all. Men like to protect things."

Like papas liked to protect their daughters, kings protected their nations. "It goes the same for women, sure, but I think men need to show it in bigger ways." Or was she just confusing the poor dear now? Sophie was smart, she knew, so if this girl was smart like that, surely she had followed.

She smiled at the other question. "No, I'm a Slytherin. Are you a Hufflepuff?"

Melek practically jumped out of her skin as she got spoken too. Mel blinked and looked over at the girl and wiped her tears, "Huh?" She blinked, "Oh... ummm..." Melek glanced down at the book, "Yeah... umm... sad... part... yeah..." Mel nodded, not even going to tell the other reason why she was crying. She held up the book, showing that the title was: To kill a Mockingbird. "Yeah... How is your book?" Melek gestured to the one beside the girl then looked at her own. She only had about ten pages or so... it would be rude to try to finish it while the other girl is talking though... but oh how she longed to finish it. It was a really old book but she never heard of it before. Mel glanced over at the other girl and tried to look at the book that the girl had been or would be starting to read. "Oh, I am Melek or Mel by the way..." She gave a small smile and giggled.

Almost as soon as she had spoken, Lily had turned. There had to be somewhere else she could go for some quiet time with her guitar, somewhere that she wouldn’t be interrupting a possibly-sleeping younger student. She wasn’t even sure how the girl would take the interruption, after all, since she knew that her sister would have gotten irritated. It was possible this girl would be the same, so just leaving would be easier than interrupting alone time. Even if there were others sort of filtering in and making her worry sort of irrelevant. None of them had possibly bothered the girl, though, but she’d turned back as soon as she’d heard a voice. “Really?,” she replied, turning back, her guitar softly bumping into her leg at the movement. The relief in her voice was barely hidden, but she didn’t bother wondering if that would be questioned.

It seemed as if there was a distraction anyhow, and she blinked at the logical assumption even as she’d flushed a little. “I do, but I didn’t want to bother you,” she continued, surprised at just how interested her new acquaintance seemed to be. She went over and sat down in the spot left for her next to the root the girl had been curled up on. “I’m Lily, by the way. Did you have any songs you like? Maybe I know them.” That made more sense than just playing a song she liked, and it also made her feel less like it was a performance. If she was just playing for the girl, that was different. It was like when she’d played for Alec, just playing because she knew the other person enjoyed it.

What was there so to be surprised about? Was it that shocking that she wanted the girl's company? She wasn't a weirdo or anything right? After all she did look decent and so far was sweet so Abbi didn't judge her badly yet. Mmm. She'd give he a chance just like she gave everybody she met. "Yeah, why not?" Maybe the girl would actually tell her, her reason?

Nooo! She wasn't bothering her! Nuh-uh! Abbi shook her head abruptly then stopped to look at the girl. "You're honestly not. I was just relaxing." And music would help that relaxing, yesh yesh! Lily like the flower! Pwetty, pwetty! "Abbi! Um....you can play anything, I don't mind." Just not something baby-ish, but why would a older person do that?

Leo thought he heard Tiara’s voice shouting his name and then BOOKS before he felt himself being flown into the air and knocking into the beech tree head first. Sinking to the ground he groggily looked around and in a haze saw the open trunk. Stumbling to his feet never mind if his head was potentially bleeding or he’d just get a bump on the head. The books needed to be saved!

Walking forwards never mind the trunk, his wand or anything else he headed down to the lake bank where Tiara's blurry figure as well as West Odessa were hovering over a few wet-looking books. Trying not to make it clear he was seeing them both very blurrily and was groggy he asked worriedly. "Did..Did youuu get all the books out of the water?"

Lana nodded. She stepped sideways over a tree root to be closer to the older girl before speaking. "I think so too. My dad does. And my brother. They're both very good at protecting things. I think Godric Gryffindor would have been the same way." So was that a boy thing? The older girl said it that way, so Lana thought she was probably right.

The next statement made her think a little more. Men need to show it in bigger ways. "Hm," she said quietly. "Like building big walls, right?" That's what she had said. "And a big castle. Maybe Helga Hufflepuff planted the tree to protect too. Mum says plants are good for you. I bet that's why it was planted. Because sometimes you don't need just walls, you need other things too." She patted the tree with her hand.

"Slytherin?" She repeated, interested. "No, I'm a Gryffindor." At this, she grinned proudly. "My name's Lana. I'm a first year."

"Dads and brothers are really good at that, huh?" Cat grinned again, pleased that she'd found a caterpillar scooting around the tree. She held up her hand for the little green thing to crawl into it. "I have four brothers of my own." She added, glancing back to the girl. "Do you just have one?" Once the caterpillar was in her hand, she offered it over for looking.

"Exactly. Big walls and strong castles to keep all their students safe." She put on her thinking face and nodded, "Trees are most definitely good for you, and they're beautiful, too." She rubbed the very tip of her finger gently on the caterpillar's back, "I'm Caterina, I'm a sixth year." Carefully, Cat adjusted to sit on the ground instead of kneeling. "So Lana. What do you think Rowena Ravenclaw did?"