Kylie just so happened to have Chutes and Ladders hidden away in the common room in those times when she needed a little smile. "One second," She let go of his hand only to go get the board game. She also moved a table in front of where they were sitting. As she came back, she sat closely to him once more. She started opening the box.

She realized she was still wearing the Hogwarts uniform and his sweatshirt. Nice. Reeeall Nice, K-J.

As she was trying to get the box open (it was stubbornly shut), she started talking about her family again. "So, you know how I was telling you about my brother? He calls me K-J.. and Kyle... and Kylez. All this other stuff." She talked about him with real love. She did, she loved her brother. He'd been her only friend until she came to Hogwarts, and he was still her ultimate support. Her number one groupie.

It was times like these she wished he were magical, so after this night was over, she could rush to him and tell him all about it. And then ask for advice. But that wouldn't happen.

She figured the nicknames would get a good laugh out of Zach, though.

Zach chuckled. Those were pretty good nicknames. "Why K-J?" he asked. It occurred to him then that he didn't even know Kylie's last name. Smiling, he reached over and opened the box for her. "How old did you say your brother was, again?" She seemed like she really did love him. He totally understood the sibling thing.

Kylie was a little shocked when Zach took the box, but relaxed as she realized he was just going to open it. "Sorry," She said, referring to her tensing up when he took the box. "Well, my full name is Kylie Jayde Matthews. J-a-y-d-e instead of J-a-d-e. It's supposed to be a play on words, although... not a very clever one.. about my eyes. You know... how they're super green?" Kylie chuckled a little at her own joke.

"Well, my Mum and Dad would call me Kylie Jayde. My brother got sick of it and shortened it to Kylie. Then, he got sick of that and decided to do the whole 'Kyle' and 'Kylez' thing. Then he got sick of that and has now finally settled on K-J." She paused while gathering her thoughts and setting up the game.

"He's... well, he must be seventeen now." He was sixteen when she'd left home, but his birthday had passed in December.

"Ahh. Original parents," Zach said with a laugh. "Now it all makes sense, though. K-J." He smiled. "I think I'm just gonna call you Kylie, though." He smiled again as she talked about her brother. He "must be seventeen?" What did that mean? "Does he still live at home even though he's of age?" Wait, was he of age? She'd said that he wasn't magical, hadn't she? He thought he remembered that. And weren't you of age at 18 in the Muggle world? Was that even a polite question to ask? Wow, he sucked. Zach, you're stupid. he told himself.

Kylie burst out laughing. Zach was so sweet. "Kylie's good." She chuckled, trying to calm herself. She didn't think anyone at Hogwarts even knew about her brother calling her that. It felt... good, in a way. That someone knew.
"Well, he was sixteen when I left and his birthday's in December. So. Must be seventeen." She was still trying to choke back laughs as she explained.
"Well, he's muggle." Something must've been distracting him if he forgot that conversation. Weirdly, she kind of hoped it was her, "And so where we live, he'll be 'of age' when he's 18. That's one of the things he says he's jealous of me. I get to be 'of age' sooner than he did... Except not to my parents." Kylie laughed again.

She suddenly found herself wishing she knew more about Zach. She knew he was kind, sweet. Everything a Hufflepuff was... but not much about HIM. She wondered silently if it would be too straight forward to just ask questions.

Zach grinned as Kylie laughed. "Ah, okay. Got it." He felt better now. He always thought he asked really stupid questions until he realized that they weren't actually that terrible. "That would be weird... Being counted as an adult before your older sibling. I bet they wouldn't be happy about that," he said with a laugh.

Kylie nodded, "I guess. I don't really get it, to be honest. I mean, he'll be like... twenty. I guess he probably won't care by then. Just bothers him now?" Kylie had totally forgotten about the Chutes and Ladders she'd half set up. She realized she didn't really WANT to play. She just wanted to talk to him. And keep having fun. So, she started packing up the game. "You know, I think we're having more fun talking than we would playing this..." She wasn't sure he'd agree, but, too bad.

"So... what's your family like? I mean, where do you guys live? Have you ever lived anywhere else?" She'd found out upon coming to Hogwarts that she didn't live TOO far away from a lot of magical folk. Outside of London, close enough that it's not too much of a drive to go in the city, but far enough out that a lot of her magic friends happened to live around there. There was always a chance he didn't live anywhere near her, in which case her grandmother's floo powder might come in handy...

What was she TALKING about? She was already thinking of ways to go to his house over the summer! She mentally slapped herself. She was being absolutely ridiculous.

Nymphy entered the common room and saw Kylie. "Hey! Whts up....Kylie!" he said, smiling. He would have said hello to the other kid, but Nymphy couldn't remember his name...

Zach agreed with Kylie - talking was more fun than playing a game. "My family..." he said. "Well. I've got a lot of siblings. I think I mentioned that before. My brother Zeke just graduated not too long ago, actually. We live a little outside London. I've never lived anywhere else, personally, but I think before I was born, my family lived somewhere else. I don't really know, though." He thought for a minute. It seemed like he was just answering her questions without offering any more information. But what else was there to say? His family was totally boring. "What about you? Where do you live?" She'd already told him about her family, a little bit at least. He wanted to know more about her, but he didn't know how to ask exactly... Which is why it was convenient that she was asking the questions first. He could play off of what she asked him. Mwahaha.

Avery hadn't spent much time in the common room lately so she decided that that was where she was going to do her homework today. She sat in her favorite chair by the fire and pulled out her school books getting ready to write and essay. She looked around the common to see if she knew any one in here. Or at the very least...any one she wanted to talk to.

"hey Avery!!" Nymphy said, walking over. "How have you been!?!?!?! We should totally hang out...." he said, smiling.

Amy jumped into the common room, skipping over the bit of wood that always caught on her robes and made her trip over, and how humiliating had that been. Gathering her robes as she jumped she landed on the other side of the portrait and jogged off to the bookshelf and ran her finger over the bruised and battered spines, eventually deciding to leave the books and do something else. Amy walked off in the direction of her dormitory and came back a minute later, without her bag but instead a little black sketch book and pencil case, she jogged over to the leather chair by the fire and plumped down onto it, opened up the book and began to sketch the majestic fireplace into her book

"Hey Nymphy!" Avery smiled finally seeing some one she knew. "I know it's been a while since we've hung out." Avery was glad that she found Nymphy, he was such a good friend, it made Avery feel so much better when he was around. "What would you like to do then, this homework can wait." She said closing her Transfiguration book, she was ready for a new adventure with Nymphy. They always had a good time together.

"Hmmmm.....lets go up to the suits of armor and use magic to make the swords fight. What do you say?" he said, putting his bag down and getting ready for an adventure.

Kylie laughed. "Zeke, eh? Isn't there a muggle show now... Zeke and Luther?" He would have no clue what she was talking about. SHE barely had a clue what she was talking about... but that was all right. Made her laugh a little anyway.

"Actually... I live just outside of London as well. Northeast of it... just a tad." She bit her lip in anticipation. It was ridiculous that she was even HOPING for him to say he lived nearby. Especially since school wasn't just QUITE over yet... but she wanted to be able to hang out with him over the summer. She tried to reason with herself in her head, but, there was just noooo goin' back.

OCC: Eeep! I should sleep. I just tallied how many hours I'll be awake tomorrow... I'll be back on Saturday or Sunday!

Zach laughed. "I don't know," he said with a smile. He wasn't too familiar with Muggle television. "I know it gets kind of confusing for people outside the family because of the whole Zach and Zeke thing. But I don't think they realize that Zach is short for Zachariah, and Zeke is short for Ezekiel... They don't really sound that similar when you use our full names. I don't think Mum and Dad really thought out the nickname thing, though." He grinned. When Kylie told him where she lived, he said, "Well. Sounds like we're neighbors!" Maybe not, you know, next-door or anything. But... closeish? Probably? Hey, that meant they'd probably be able to hang out when they were both home. Cool!

OOC: See you then!

Avery giggled every time Nymphy came up with an idea. It never failed that he would come up with a good one. "Alright, but I bet my knight will be yours" Avery liked to make a competition out of things, always made for a more interesting time between the two of them. "Wanna race there?" This was another game that they often played!

"Defintly! See you there!" he said as he started running (trailing off at the end due to the distance at which he had gotten ahead).

Kylie stared wide eyed, "Zachariah. That's such a cool name. I'm Kylie.... JUST Kylie. No special Kylietta or something." She laughed at her own silly statement. She leaned a little of her weight on Zach as she was getting a little tired. She didn't really realize she was doing it, she only felt a little warmer upon doing it, making her a little MORE tired than she already was. She yawned slightly, it was kind of cute. Not a huge 'MAN I'm tired' sort of yawn... more of a 'Oh look at me I'm adorable and gorgeous and talented and I'm kind of tired' yawn.

Not that it was by choice. Nothing she'd THOUGHT about... it was just how Kylie yawned. "That's crazy, that we live so near each other, I mean." She said with a tired tone.

"Kylietta," Zach said with a laugh. Kylie leaned on him and yawned. She must be getting tired. "Yeah, it is crazy. We'll have to hang out when we're both home." Why did that thought make him smile so hugely?

Torin figured that maybe if he studied here in a corner of the Common Room, there was no chance that anyone could come and bug him. He didn't want to deal with anyone else being sad about him leaving. And he didn't want to see Lori.

And that was why he formed a pile of books on the table so that he was hidden. He was going to do his best to stay out of sight because he was sneaky like that.

"I can still see you Torin." Brody giggled, as she stood infront of a big pile of books. Oh why was he being so sneaky. hehe. But anyway. She looked much better today, her little talk with Gold had really helped. Although she still missed Lori. She missed her already, and she hadn't even gone yet.

She sighed, running her fingers through her hair. "Tor...Lori hates me."

He frowned a bit as he was told that his hiding place wasn't very good. "Yeah, but you always know where to find me, so that doesn't count." He stuck his tongue out at her and kept writing in his notebook.

Well, it was true. She was very good at finding him generally.

He stopped at what she said next.

"She doesn't hate you. She just is upset now. She loves you very much really. Give her some time."

He pulled out the chair beside him because he wanted her to join him.

"Isn't that my job though? You are my boyfriend." Brody giggled, as she sat down next to him, giving him a smile. He was studying, which was cute. He was going to do good in exams, she knew it, because he was amazing.

"She does..." Brody sighed, rolling her eyes. She thought Lori was a little silly really. But still. She missed her, of course she missed her. "She doesnt want to be my best friend anymore."

He rolled his eyes at her. "It is. It's a good thing that I like you finding me." She was amazing and he loved her very much. So he would let her find him. He was a good boyfriend to her in that way.

"Anyone would be crazy to not want to be your friend anymore, Brody. You're the best friend anyone could have." And he meant it so much because he believed it to be true.

"Come here." He put his arms out so that he could hug her. He wanted to hug her better. hehe.