Nia grinned as she saw Mariel's enthusiasm for matching hairstyles. She wondered what sort of things they could do with Professor Shackleton's help. They could even have Ravenclaw accessories like blue ribbons through their hair - how cool would that be? And maybe it would even cause a distraction. She giggled. "Do you think Willow would go for it?" she asked, "Or just us?"

As Mariel dismissed her purchasing request, Nia's face blushed slightly, before she smiled appreciatively. "Thanks," she replied, "its amazing stuff. And it's not claggy either." She ran her fingers through her hair, noting how easy it was - usually her fingers would catch here and there in new small knots, but nothing today. "Maybe I could come and help then, if Professor Bontecou gives his permission," Nia offered. "I could do with some practice preparing ingredients - my chopping is getting better, but still not perfect," she added with a smile.

So Mariel was a Kestrels fan…interesting. Another good team in Nia’s opinion - she’d seen them play a couple of times. Had quite a cute looking player if she remembered rightly, though quite a few Pro players fitted into the ‘cute and fit’ category in Nia’s opinion. "Quidditch World? No, not yet," Nia said. With all the excitement of going back to Hogwarts, she’d missed the fact the new issue was due out. “Mind if I borrow it after you? I like the ‘Moves to Watch Out For’ section, as well as finding out more on the spotlight players.” If she remembered rightly, the spotlight player was someone she liked and had met this issue, though who it was surpassed her. Though thinking of specific players she’d met… “Ooo, did you see Marco Denver when you were shopping?”

She grinned as her fellow third year expressed wanting to go again next year. “Well, I hope you can, cos it sounds like you had a fantastic time.” And lucky, no real close supervision. Probably just of enough their presence to be safe, and for all of Lasca’s friends to go out there, but not too much. “Lasca’s very lucky to have the opportunity to do stuff like that,” Nia smiled, “Not sure what my family would say to having a whole Quidditch team equivalent over, Dad would probably love to take the role of coach though…” She giggled at the thought.

Nia noticed Mariel’s tone. A sort of tone of indifference. And from her following words, Nia was perhaps relieved that she didn’t have a sister. She grimaced as Mariel said about them practicing spells on her, it didn’t sound very nice. At least Theo couldn’t practice spells on her – he couldn’t do many for a start. Though thinking about it, maybe she should be worried if he pointed a wand at her, who knew what would come from its tip. He’d probably say the incantation wrong and make her sprout extra legs or something equally horrible. “I guess that’s a good thing then, having the age gap, in the sense that they’ve already graduated,” Nia said thoughtfully. “New Zealand though, nice…I’d love to go there sometime. It’s meant to have the most awesome scenery.”

A smirk spread across Nia’s face at Mariel’s words. “Very true,” she acknowledged, noting Mariel’s competitive side and grinning. “It’s about time we played each other properly, so I really hope he does tryout. I won’t be put off by his cuteness in goal.” Nia had to admit she was surprised that Theo was put as keeper, after all he was tiny compared to the hoops. Bit unfair, in her opinion, but she’d still take advantage of it if and when Ravenclaw faced the Slythies. Nia nodded as Mariel spoke of Andrew, and was about to reply when her friend caught onto something else. She couldn’t help but laugh. “Not quite a disease,” she said, a huge grin on her face. It was probably one way to describe it though, seeing as how annoying it was and the whole family had been inflicted. “It’s a character from a Muggle kids’ film,” she explained, “And Theo has been addicted ever since I can remember. He has this talking one that he used to have to take absolutely everywhere with him. He was horrendous if he lost the thing, cried and howled and cried some more.” She rolled her eyes. “I think he just leaves it in his dorm now, and has Eddie the bat instead, thank goodness.”

Nia watched Mariel rub her eyes - maybe she was starting to get tired. She saw the smile on her face though, and Nia nodded excitedly. “I know, I can’t wait,” she said with a huge grin. “Best thing is, Elan has only invited me…so no way Theo is coming.” She looked thoughtful; did Theo even know she was going to Italy? She didn’t think so. Ahhh, she couldn’t wait, except for that mid…iss thing. She listened to her friend think out loud. Middle kiss did seem logical, but surely Elan wouldn’t have meant that, would he? They were just good friends, and ewwww, kissing was weird. Nia shook her head. “I doubt he meant that,” she said, tilting her head. “That’d just be weird, kissing, right?” She was partly looking for reassurance, even if a small part of Nia was thinking that kissing Elan might not be so bad. “I don’t know how many words there were, he was speaking very fast and I just completely missed the middle part. But he does speak Italian as far as know, so you could be onto something there…” She looked up at Mariel to see her looking at her lap with rather wide eyes. “You okay?” she asked curiously, unsure whether this was brought on by tiredness or that her fellow Raven had chanced upon some idea for her ‘mid – iss’ situation.