Lexi considered him for a moment and reached over and took hold of his arm, to pull his hand from his pocket. "I didn't say to let it go, I just said to loosen the grip. And who said we were just friends, Nems?" she said with a sly smile.

Lorcan looked at Lexi, utterly gobsmacked as she pulled his hand out of his pocket. He blushed deeply, wishing he still had his curls to hide in.

A fit of daring seized him and he leant forwards and kissed her on the cheek.

"I ummm, I errrr, yeah, I missed you." He whispered in her ear.

Lexi just giggled and said, "Yeah, me too Nems, me too. How have classes been going?" She had not seen much of him this term and spoken to him even less than she had seen him.

Aaron was just itching for something else to get involved in. His legs couldn't keep still and there was still no word on when Quidditch practice would be. The only thing he knew was that he'd made the team as Keeper, which was exceptionally rare. But other than that, he was in need of SOMETHING to do. Anything that didn't involve sitting still and reading one of them textbooks. Of course he didn't mind reading textbooks, but not now. Not when when couldn't sit still. He had far too much energy.

Which is where the suits of armor came in, as he caught glimpse of them. Nothing that would get him into trouble, of course, but he did need to do something and fast.

Two students who seemed to be reconnecting after a long separation, but also seemed not much older than him. Armor.

Tapping his wand against the armor casually to grab their attention, he grinned at the tinny sound.

"Anyone up for a quick game?" Of course he hadn't decided precisely on the game yet... But if the kids were anything like him . . .

Lorcan gave her a lopsided grin. "They're boring. I've had no-one to narrowly avoid trouble with." He was about to say something else when...

Lorcan looked away from Lexi when there was an annoying tinny tapping. He looked up and saw a vaguely familiar first year, a fellow Hufflepuff.

"Oh, hello. What sort of game?" He tried not to sound too annoyed. He had hoped to go for a nice long walk with Lexi and talk but never mind. "I'm Lorcan by the way, and this is Alexa. Who are you?"

Alexa looked up curiously at the boy and smiled. "Oh a game, that sounds fun." she said to him, nodding her head emphatically

Lexi waved her fingers at the boy when Lorcan introduced her and she smiled wider still. "How about we finish this conversation later, Lorcan. Let's go play!" she said with excitement.

Yup. He had totally just interrupted something between the pair. But being Aaron, he really didn't care.

Ignoring the first question - for now - he nodded when the boy introduced himself as Lorcan and the girl as Alexa. "Nice to meet you both. I'm Aaron," Aaron said simply enough, brain reeling through game possibilities.

Ah good, they were both on board with the game. Well they seemed to agree that it sounded like fun; after all, what more was there to do for young kids on a cold day in December?

"Hmm... That's up for debate, but I was considering maybe hide-and-seek or ... maybe something more magical. Like jinx the armors?" Aaron pondered, amused by his second suggestion. "I think hide and seek sounds better though... we can even bring more people into it."

Alexa was bouncing with excitement. "Oh yes, hide and seek sounds epic! We could use magic too though... like maybe we could use tripping jinxes on people as we hide, make it a bit more interesting. Oooo, Oooo, Oooo when we find someone we could turn their hair pink or something crazy like that, just to show that they lost. Whataya think?" Alexa blurted out and jumped up waiting for Lorcan to join her.

This day wasn't going too well for Enid.
First Cissy and Becks go missing on her (after making her carry that frightful one million pound anaconda on her shoulders), her trip to Hogsmeade had been wasted away waiting in a line to pay for a broken kaleidoscope, and now that everyone was spread all over the place, she could not find one familiar face.

So there was only one other way she could entertain herself - bothering the little ones. "Oh, this is too convenient," she muttered to herself with a bit of a smirk at the sight of the little ones further down the hall.

She tip-toed her way closer to them, hiding behind the suits of armor every now and then to avoid being seen. She listened as they planned a little game of hide and seek and couldn't help but smile with amusement at their innocent plans.

After a few minutes of eavesdropping, the girl jumped out of her hiding place with a triumphant 'AHA!', ready to-- Cue the record needle scratch. "Alexa?" she said, turning to the second year girl. "Oh... well, this didn't go as I planned..." she muttered, now more to herself than to the others.

Alexa turned when she heard another girl shout and her face quickly changed from a scowl to a smile when she spotted her friend, Enid. "Hey! How have you been?" Alexa asked as she ran forward and hugged the girl quickly. Turning to face the boys she told them, "Hey guys, this is Enid. Enid, this is Aaron and Lorcan."

Now that introductions were out of the way... "Wanna play hide and seek with us, Enid? It should be pretty epic," she told the girl with an evil little glint in her eye.

Arya skiped around the second floor, exploring places she had yet to see. She came to a skidding halt when she almost ran into a group of students. "Whoa--Hey!!" She looked from the students to the armor and back, atempting to gather her thoughts."Whatcha doin?"

Lorcan looked at them all skeptically. How old are we? he thought grumpily, standing up. He could tell that Lexi was excited and since he was keen to stay on her good side he plastered a smile on his face.

"Fair enough, who's going to be 'it'?" he asked, in a tone which said Don't think it's going to be me.

ALexa turned around when another kid approached. "Hey, we are about to play hide and seek, wanna play too?" she asked the new arrival.

Eyeing Lorcan she thought for a second... "Hmmm, we could play rock paper scissors for it," she suggested. "Or draw straws," she added as an afterthought. She was too stoked about playing she didn't care who was it.

Alexa was SO animated and into the game, Aaron could just leap for joy. And the sad thing was that they hadn't even started yet and she was already psyched for it. "No pink," he frowned, shaking his head at THAT suggestion. Anything but pink would be fine Aaron.

That was more people showed up, including a girl apparently named Enid, as Alexa soo kindly introduced. "Hi there, Enid. Nice to meet you." Aaron greeted back ever-so kindly.

Before he could mutter anything to Lorcan about his quite unenthusiastic personality with regards to the game, yet another girl showed up and asked about what they were doing. Alexa answered, to which Aaron just nodded. Who was she and did it matter? Not really because the more the merrier!

It? Not him. He was a HIDER, not a seeker!!

"We could start with the oldest as it first," Aaron suggested, glancing from Lorcan to Alexa and then Enid. One of those three was definitely it, cause he was pretty sure the last newcomer was young. She looked it.

Arya's eyes lit up at the prospect of a good game of hide-and-seek. "Sure!" She said cheerfully, looking at all the students in the room. They all seemed about her age, some alittle older but that mattered not. She was about to ask who was it first when a boy about her age made a spook up. Pointing in his direction with a big grin she looked back to the other student, "I agree him. Oldest first." It still hadn't crossed her mind that she didn't know any of there names nor they hers.

Alexa frowned, knowing that Enid was the oldest she didn't think that was very fair... "Umm... okay, only if Enid wants to that is," she said with a smile for her friend. She wasn't going to make her do it if she didn't want to... Although Enid would probably enjoy turning younger students hair funky colors when she found them. Looking to Enid she waited for an answer.

Enid gave Aaron a friendly smile as he greeted her, then watching as the little ones tried to decide who would be it. She was barely aware of what was going on anymore, her mind drifting away to thoughts of where to go next when she suddenly heard her name again.

Blinking her large green eyes, Enid turned to Alexa. "Eh!?" When did she join in the game?! And to be the seeker?! She turned from Alexa to the other little first years and sighed with a faint smile playing at her lips.

But of course, what the kids didn't know - though Alexa most likely knew - was that Enid was not one to play fair. No way. Never. Where's the fun in playing fair and square?! "Alright, I'll count to ten. You guys go hide."

Victoria walked pasted the suits of armour, she had just returned from the holidays! She had just become a auntie and godmother, she wondered where her friends was?

Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!

Tyler walked along the suits of armor, looking at them up and down. Now if he knocked one over, he would get in trouble. So better not get near them. Ty kept walking until he bumped into someone. "Oh, my bad," he said and saw who it was. "Oh, hey Victoria. Long time no see. What you been up to?" he asked and smiled.

Suddenly she had someone bump into her, she looked up and it was Tyler "Hey Tyler, nothing much! I become a auntie and godmother during the holidays".

"No way! Congrats. Is it a boy or girl?" Tyler asked and leaned on the wall that didn't have suits of armors on it. He could barely remember the day he became an uncle. He was only two years old and obviously didn't have a good memory.

"It is a little boy called William Andrew!" she told Tyler, "I haven't seen him yet but he was born on Valentine's day!"

"Awwww how cute," Tyler smiled and nodded. Babies were adorable to a certain extent. Like if they throw up, crying for hours and wake you up early, yea, that's when Tyler didn't like babies. But maybe once he had one, years from now, he'd get over it. "Valentine's day? Aren't we just in January?" he asked, sratching the back of his head with a confused look.

"No, it was Valentine's day two days ago!" she told Tyler, she wondered when Katalin was going to send her a picture of her new godson and cousin.

Tyler had another confused look on his face again. But he had just come back from break and pretty sure it was still January. He shook his head and shrugged. "Oh, ooooooookay," he said and put his hands into his pockets. "So, whatchu got for Christmas?"