Isla Reeser had been strolling along aimlessly throughout Hogwarts, looking for more boys for her future pranks, finding new places she hadn't been (which was everywhere), and eating in the kitchen. She was exhausted and she had come across the corridor to the courtyard. Instead of actually going to the courtyard, she decided to sit on one of the stone window sills to relax. Maybe she would even see one of her friends in the courtyard or even in this corridor. Or even someone new. She didn't mind making new friends.

The brunette continued to sit there, eating the reeses pieces that was in a bag in her pocket, and watched as people walked by and socialized in the courtyard.

Tessa walked through the corridor, meaning to go to the courtyard but she noticed a girl sitting and eating some sort of candy. "Hello," she said politely, sitting across from her.

Isla turned when she heard a voice say hello to her and she noticed a girl who seemed like she was a first year or something. She was definitely younger and Isla was always so weird around people who were younger than her. She almost felt like they were babies in a way. "Hi." She said, giving a big smile. "You're so adorable! I mean...I'm Isla Reeser. Fifth year. What's your name?" Good cover, Isla. Way to go.

"Did you want some candy? They're reeses pieces." She nodded, holding out the bag of candy towards the younger girl.

Adorable? That was something new, and Tessa could feel her face going red. "Oh, I'm Tessa. First year." she replied smiling at the girl. She nodded at the offer of candy, taking some and eating it. She then took out of her pocket, a bag of peach rings, "Thanks. You want some peach rings?"

Isla knew it. This girl was a first year! She might as well be a muggle psychic or something. Hah. "Nice to meet you." She smiled, putting the bag of her candy back into her pocket. Oooh, peach rings. Those sounded delicious. "Totally! I've never had these before. Are they any good?" She asked, taking a few out of the girl's bag. They looked kind of sour, but she wasn't too sure. She was hesitant but took a bite anyways. "Mmm, these are good!" She nodded. "Thanks."

So Ophelia might have been exploring. And that might mean looking for all of those cool spots the second year told her about. Even if they weren't true, it never hurt to look. Especially when it meant places to hide your stash of candy. speaking of which, the small girl pulled some beans out of her pockets and popped the sweets into her mouth. Warm and somewhat stale, but good. Still good. Okay, she was completely just telling herself that. Because 'Ophie got a terrible bean and it was gross and now she wanted to spit it out into the grass and begin cleaning her mouth with other sweets. But sadly, she had only brought the beans. Yeah, the child wasn't much of a planner, not even knowing what she wanted to say half the time before saying it. Actually, her neighbor boy was the same way, and that's what started most of their fights. Especially since her poor other no longer took to watching the children outside the kitchen window.

And she might have been running a little bit, her wavy blonde hair tangling as it whipped behind her and repeatedly hit her back. But it was exciting, being released into the world like this at a boarding school --a MAGICAL one no less, like hello-- and having no restrictions on when to travel and what to do! Well, there were classes, but those HAD to be more interesting than the way mom presented lessons. They just had to be! Or she just might die of extended boredom! And that was a horrible way to go! Stopping quickly and shutting her deep brown eyes while cringing, she continued on quickly, trying to forget about intense boredom and it's effects on the human body. Eww, even when she wasn't by her mom, she was thinking. Gross. Although it was an interesting experiment. How boredom affected people physically. Hey, she could be her own test subject! In between trying to find old websites to watch television on and playing board games with her neighbor in her tree house, the firstie was sure she could find time to do this little project.

And that was also, boys and girls, why Ophelia spent most of her time outside, because that was where her brothers and sister's and parents were not. Which was important to her. That and having an adventurous spirit. That little factor also helped in exploration and discovery. including exploration and discovery of candy hiding spots and interesting clubs and quidditch and things to read..... she was getting ahead of herself and way too excited. Calming down halfway through the corridor, she decided to look outside for a bit before exploring to get herself hyped up again and sat near one of the windows, looking across the courtyard excitedly.

Before they all got swamped with homework and stuff, the fourth year Snake decided to take his skateboard out, and practice another skateboard flip. There were too many people outside the Courtyard, so the corridor would be the perfect place to practice it. Not much crowd, plus he’s got some sort of shade.

Heelflip. Heel. Flip.

Freaking heelflip, he couldn’t do it! Ethan did kick the board a bit harder than intended, sending his toy away from him while he was mid-air, thus landing on his feet once more. The prefect muttered some words under his breath in irritation. “Merlin’s beard…” he said finally as he walked towards his skateboard.

Despite the fact that she was alone, Pietra was feeling rather peaceful and calm. It had taken her a while to gather up the amount of courage she needed to make the walk down from the Ravenclaw Tower to the grounds and to keep going after she did. In fact, she'd spent about ten minutes hovering near the entrance to the common room, just in case she decided at the last minute that she wasn't so brave after all. But apparently Luigi had different ideas about standing around, since the kitten had run off, causing Pi to have to go after him and then she just kept going.

And going and going and going and she wasn't quite sure when she was planning on stopping. She paused to glance through the open parts of the wall thing and glanced back towards the castle, wondering if she should turn around and go back.

You know what was nice? Fresh air was nice. Fresh air that really filled in and cooled your lungs. And this time it wasn't air to frostbite them, either! So, hooray for non-lethal air.

Declan was returning from a very refreshing walk around the grounds, clearing his mind way better than he had managed to do in Divination. He figured now would be a good time to go bother Char or ruin Jun's day, one or the other sounded fun, when he walked by a certain girl, unconsciously smiling at her just as he done to all the people he had just cruised by.

Hold the phone...

He circled around a group of people walking by to make his way back to the girl he just passed. "Pietra!" It was Pietra!!!

Tessa noticed Ophie in the corridor and she excused herself and walked over to say 'hi' to her friend from the table. "Hi!" she exclaimed smiling at her.

Hogwarts was such a big place and if she allowed herself to, Pietra could very easily feel swallowed up whole by it all. But she had made promises to her brother before she left. She'd promised to give it a fair shot and to not give up on herself if she started to feel down about missing home. It was easier said than done, but so far she thought she was doing a pretty good job. Holding Luigi in her arms carefully, Pi leaned against the wall and kept looking more, processing her thoughts until she heard a pretty well familiar voice call out her name.

"Hi Declan." She offered the boy her best smile. She always tried to offer her best to him, since he was always so nice to her. "How are you?" Quite well, she hoped. Right?

"Hi!" He greeted, also leaning against the wall like she was doing. "I'm doing peachy. How are you holding up?" Last time he remembered, this one was feeling quite terrified of coming Hogwarts. He tilted his head to one side trying to see if she still looked scared or if she had opened up to the school yet.

"Almost didn't recognize you without Lincoln by your side." He joked, reaching over to pet the kitten in her arms. Seriously though, where was that kid? He owed him a game of football.

"Hi." She said again, nodding and watching him carefully. "Peachy?" Pi giggled a little bit at the expression, "I'm guessing that's good, though. I don't suppose peaches are bad." Though she also didn't suppose that feeling like a fruit was neither a good thing or a bad thing...

Her smile faltered a little bit at his question and she glanced around again before answering. "Pretty well, I think. I still miss home a lot." But maybe that was normal? Maybe most of the others around here really missed their homes as much as she did. Probably not thought because given the choice to stay here or go home, she was pretty sure that most of them would choose to stay. Whereas Pietra would have chosen to go back home in a heartbeat. So long as she could take Linc with her, of course. The kitten mewed at the boy and Pietra offered him over if Declan was interested in holding him for a while. Though maybe she should keep him to aid in hiding the bright blush on her cheeks that was now there. "I was feeling brave, thought maybe I'd wander around on my own a bit." Either way, Lincoln was going to be super proud of her for getting this far.

Right now she was just hoping that Hufflepuffs didn't make fun of people who blushed a lot.

Dec chuckled, glancing down at the ground. "Well, they're like fuzzy and like heart shaped so, it's like the Hufflepuff of fruits, I suppose." That's going to make him want to wonder what the fruit mascots for the other houses would be.

His face also fell when he noticed her smile die down. He doesn't blame her though. He was homesick during his few first months, too. The boy used to think that it was probably a mistake transferring, but then he met people and got comfortable. Started to think this place as a home away from home and things got better. Way better. "Hey," He said, tapping her arm with the back of his hand, "Ever heard of the Room of Requirement?" The room itself was a requirement, especially for homesick students.

He might've died inside of cuteness from the little mew the kitten made. It made him miss when Darth was a cute little kitten and not the grump he is now. He loves him regardless. GLADLY, taking hold of the kitten, he looked up at her, "Hey, that's good! You never know what you'll come across in this place." Dec nuzzled the kitten close to his chest, "Plus, you might find a new special place to spend your time at."

The Hufflepuff of fruits, huh? Pi giggled at the thought and she too was then curious about what fruits the other houses would be. That one was going to take a lot of thought that she really didn't feel like devoting the time to at the moment, so she decided to shrug it off. She glanced at him again, smiling a little bit more because it seemed like he was still trying to make her feel better. "I have, si. My cousin told me about it. It was the first thing Linc and I went looking for." She liked it there, it made her feel safer.

Pietra giggled again, it was just so cute to watch him cuddle Luigi! Boys with kittens were definitely on the list of the cutest things in the world, she was so very sure about that. It was too bad Linc wasn't here too with Lancelot. More boys with kittens to be cute! She reached out and rubbed the little kitten's head, right between his baby ears and then tilted her head in curiosity towards Declan, "Do you have a special place here?" She already knew about Charlie's special place and CB's special place too, so now she wanted to know about his as well.

Oh, she did. Well there goes his advice for the day. LOL. "Oh great! It's awesome, huh?" He was going to advice her to think about her home in extreme detail so that the RoR would literally become her home away from home, but he guessed her cousin was one step ahead of him. Whatevs.

Dec petted the kitten a few more times as he thought of the question she asked and then handed him back over to her. He shouldn't hog somebody's kitten so much, jeez. He'll just go snuggle Darth later, even if he has to coax him out from the under bed with multiple treats. "I spend a lot of time in the Room of Requirement and in the kitchens with my girlfriend," The boy's arm was falling asleep from leaning on it, so he shifted his weight. "But, honestly, I think my favorite place is the Owlery. I mean, it's covered in poop and all, but I like the walk over there and the view's nice." Not to mention, he liked petting the owls for all their hard work of hauling brownies and heavy ranting letters from Rorie.

Pi nodded several times in answer to his question. It was pretty awesome. She liked that room very much, for some reason it made her feel safe despite being inside such a huge place with all sorts of rooms that she didn't know about yet. She lifted Luigi up to her face so that she could kiss his cute little nose. "I just wish I could think up my brother into being there." That would be nice. She missed Rigo more than she missed home, which was saying a lot.

"That's quite a walk from the Hufflepuff common room." But apparently he liked it, so she wasn't going to say anything to the contrary. It was important for people to do the things that they liked, and it was also important for others to not make them feel bad about those things. Besides, the exercise was always a good thing.

Okay, that tugged on his heart strings. Besides the little kiss she gave the cute little kitten, the brother thing was the thing. It made him think about whether it was the right choice of him to come to Hogwarts without Rorie and leave her all alone. "Yeah, I'm sorry. I don't know how to help you there. You can always use two-way mirrors with him and stuff." He had to buy a new one for Ror since she broke hers on the first week last year.

Dec nodded, agreeing to the fact that it was a long walk from the common room. To think someone like him, lazy and all, would enjoy a walk like that. "It's a good way to clear your head. Reorganize your thoughts out in the open air, y'know?" Probably the only exercise he's willing to do.

Pietra did her best to push away the thoughts of missing Rigo and smile at Declan. It wasn't very easy, but he was a good friend and he was worth her not being super sad because it wasn't very fun to be around super sad people. Sometimes she didn't even like to be around herself. "It's okay though, he's way happy to be traveling and stuff." She knew it. Knew it. "Oh! We do have mirrors!" So that was helpful, it even made her smile more since he'd suggested it. It wasn't so uncommon then, if other people used them too. She nuzzled at Luigi's fur and watched the boy thoughtfully. "Clearing my head is something I have to do often, so I can appreciate that." Definite.

She glanced back at the castle and her gaze lingered for only a small moment before she looked back to the Hufflepuff, "Oh, I'm being terribly rude." Really. She was talking about herself too much. "Do you have any siblings?"

He could tell from her reaction to all this that she was very found of her brother. That's nice. Dec was very fond of being close with your family. That's the way they were raised, of course. Love each other, keep each other close. Because even when everyone else is gone, your family will still be there for you. His grandfather, rest his soul, started off their Christmas dinners with those same words and they continued to live by those words. Maybe that's why his mother hadn't completely separated from his father or at least yet. He wasn't going to get in to that though. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts. "What does he do? Your brother, I mean. Does he just travel freelance?"

Oh, yeah. Mirrors were nice. Every so often you need more confirmation than a letter that someone is okay. Or at least that's his deal. Especially now, that Rorie found out about their father.

Dec watched Pi for a bit. She seemed to want to leave. He couldn't blame her. She did good so far! He's proud of her for exploring a bit. He smiled slightly, "I have a younger sister and an older brother."

"Sorta." Pi snuggled Luigi closer and placed a few kisses on his head right between his little baby ears. "My parents travel a lot for their jobs so Rigo was always having to stay at home with me and now that he's graduated, he's doing a lot of traveling..." She liked to think that Ev was with him often and that he wasn't always on his own, but she didn't think that was the case. But as long as Rigo was safe and happy, she didn't mind so much having to be away from him.

Two siblings. Hmm. She wondered what that was like. Often Pi had wished she had more siblings but now she just thought that she really didn't want to have to share Rigo's attention with anyone else. Besides, she liked being the youngest. "What are their names?"

It was getting colder. Maddie could feel the chill in her bones but the lure of the outdoors was just too great and the second year opted to deal with the shivers if it meant getting to enjoy a bit of sunshine after class. Merlin knew winter was fast approaching and who knew how much more time outside she'd get.

She'd only made it as far as the corridor to the courtyard when the thirteen year old spotted a patch of sunshine she was going to claim for her own. And so after dropping her backpack to the floor, Maddison climbed up onto the sill and perched there, a small smile playing on her lips. This was nice. She was also acting like Zeus, having gravitated to the nearest warm spot and curled up there. Perhaps she'd been a feline in a past life. Perhaps.

Noel had noticed her from pretty far away. He wasn't stalking or anything, but he had followed. They hadn't talked in a while, you know? Not since the 5 am adventure and that needed to be fixed. They had parted ways on an awkward oh-hey-it's-your-birthday kind of things. Noel HAD wanted to go and wish her proper and maybe crash that ravenclaw party she must have had but she hadn't invited him - even when he had given her a pretty fantastic morning. So. Um.

Yeah, it needed to be fixed.

Moving to stand in a way that he towered over her and her sun got blocked, Noel said: "Hello there, Maddison Cooper" Grin. He just enjoyed annoying her

She'd heard footsteps and truth be told, Maddie was hoping that whoever was headed in her direction didn't stop. She was quite enjoying the quiet as it was good for thinking about things. Things which would be harder to think about if a stranger was bothering her, y'know.

...

Her. sun. was. gone. The brunette raised her eyebrows slightly and glanced up, only to find that there was a very tall Hufflepuff robbing her of her sunshine. HERS. He WOULD.

"Noel Wallace, you're in my way." Or in the sun's way but STILL. She DID smirk, though. She supposed she didn't mind HIS company as much as she would some others. "And hello." Because greetings were important too.