Yeah, I've been good, sun bathing is all this weather's good for, it's too hot to do any work and lessons, GOD, they are unbearable in that heat, are you going to potions? Amy asked looking at her watch, one hour to go until the ritual humiliation starts, she thought darkly in her head

"I know! It's far too hot to actually concentrate during the lessons. This weather is enjoyable sometimes, but I could really use rain or something. I'll probably be at potions. That Professor still scares me..." Adelyn said, thinking back to the potions lessons she'd been to. Even though she never talked, the Professor still found a way to make her miserable. She shook her head, trying to push it from her mind. "So, are you going to the ball?"

Totally Amy nodded, literally, terrifiying, I mean I wasn't concentrating last time and l, well I'm proper scared of being set alight now, she mock trembled in fright, well... Amy thought, she wanted to but with no date, it was just a little uncomfortable, but then again, I think so, it'll be a laugh, you going?

"Yeah!" Adelyn nodded in agreement. "I mean, arg, she's just so unpleasant." She pushed her auburn curls behind her ear, and rolled onto her stomach, placing her chin in her palm thoughtfully. "I don't know...I want to...but I don't have a date. I'd feel really awkward. But then again, my mum figured out how to send me a dress and it arrived the other day and it's wonderful...I'm not sure. Maybe."

Come with me, not in like that way, but as a mate Amy suggested, I mean you don't have to but you know like, for fun, show the boys we don't need em, I mean it'll be a laugh, she smiled at Adeyln, don't need to waste that pretty dress she said flashing her winning smile and speaking in her most persuasive voice

"I guess you're right." Adelyn replied, "Okay, yeah. Sure, going with a friend would be more fun anyway." A small smile appeared on her face. It could be fun. She thought to herself, Maybe I'd find someone to dance with anyway... Her smile grew widen, growing more confident with the plan. "Yeah, it'll be great. I'd hate to see the dress go to waste, anyway. Do you have a dress?"

Um, yeah, I think so, Amy thought there was a letter from my family saying they were get something made for me, but I don't know, if not, I'll just grab anything, I stopped caring about how I looked for boys, so I'll wear whats comfy she told her

"Oh, that's cool. If you want, I probably have a dress you could wear...it wouldn't be really fancy, it's made of cotton or something, but it would look lovely on you." Adelyn offered. She loved dresses, so her trunk was full of them; sun dresses, mostly.

No really, it's fine, they'll probably send a dress Amy said, they'll probably get a ruddy courier for it she laughed drily, it may seem ridiculus, but she had gone through that humiliation before, but if they don't I have loads of gowns and robes I can wear, it's no problem, but thanks for offering, Amy smiled at Adelyn, if you ever need anything feel free to ask, I'll do all I can

"Oh, okay." Adelyn replied with a smile. "Thanks, Amy, and the same goes for you. I don't really have much to offer, but still. Anything at all and I can help." She liked helping, with anything and everything, it made her feel useful. "So, what have you been up to, besides lessons and such?"

Competitive gymnast? No wonder her cartwheels appeared so precise. "Huh, well from what I just saw, you must be a good gymnast." Probably lots of trophies, er, ribbons. Whatever they got.

Huh, this girl was certainly pretty. Cody, being Cody, couldn't help but notice that as the wind tousled her hair. Pretty, and quite the interesting character, or so he gathered.

"You as well Cadence!" And it was, upbeat people were cool! He needed more of those type of people around him. Mhm.

Cadi blushed slightly and looked away from the boy still smiling. Though she herself knew that she was good at certain things, it always made her blush to hear other people compliment her... not that she minded this attention so much. Shifting slight, she suddenly noticed something against her back... Cody's knee... and, looking around, jumped up quickly, her face now an even brighter red. "Oh, I am so embarrassed! I didn't realize... I'm so sor... Merlin! I hope I didn't make you uncomfortable! Sometimes I'm so oblivious to my surroundings, and I like to be close to people, so I don't even notice when I'm being a nutcase. I am so sorry, Cody!" she sad, speaking so fast it would be a wonder if he could even understand her.

Amy nodded and smiled, it's no problem, and as for me, I've been sun bathing, um homework, oh I got involved with the decorations side of the ball and um, sort of avoiding Simon, Amy went all quiet as she said the last bit, she was humiliated still by her cowardice

She was blushing? Aw, Cadence must have been a modest person then. Considering it would be odd to be shy while competing in front of people. Oh, she finally realized where she was sitting.

Biting his lip to keep from laughing, Cody shook his head, waving his hand nonchalantly. "Don't worry about it Cadence. I easily could have said something." But he didn't, 'cause he didn't want to embarrass her. Nor did he want to make her feel uncomfortable.

Jay shrugged. "Alright, if you say so." he said, not really wanting to force her to talk about her life. And then, he began to pull out some grass and shred it into tiny little pieces.

Cadence giggled cutely as Cody insisted she not worry and tucked her hair behind her ear. He was quite... something, wasn't he. Smiling at him, she quietly asked, "Well, why didn't you say something?" Because he probably should have... unless he hadn't wanted her to move. Giving her hair a flip as the wind blew, Cadence tossed her hair over her shoulder and gave Cody one of her heart-melting smiles as she waited for his answer.

Hmph, was it bad that Cody couldn't help but noticing Cadence was cute? Probably not, as long as he didn't do anything. Whoa, wait, what? Why hadn't he said anything? The question flustered Cody, "Well, er, I didn't really want to embarrass you. Nor sound rude." Plus, she woulda figured it out eventually.

'Cause, obviously she already did.

Watching him closely, Cadi noticed something glint in his eyes, and it was a look that made her smile even more brightly. Feeling a bit braver again, she took a step closer to him as she watched him falter under her question. He was precious. Raising her eyebrows at him, she whispered, "Well, I have a feeling that's not completely the truth, but don't worry I won't tell." This was fun. She knew nothing about him, but it was fun to... what was she doing exactly? Flirt with him? Yes. Flirting with a cute, nice boy.

"I've always been of the belief that you need to know what you are supposed to defend yourself against." Truebridge answered, looking up at the tree thoughtfully. "Knowledge is power, it is why I have ever been interested in History."

Truebridge looked at Jake gravely.

"Mine too. I felt precisely the same way at your age. I made one friend somehow, by accident, but otherwise it was just myself, my books, and the occassional detention or training session with Kazimeriz." The one friend... Ethan was still somewhat unsure how that had happened. But then Gavin just accepted him as he was, did not try to change him, and defintely didn't bother him when he was off doing his own thing.

One of the few negative things about Hogwarts was that it was hard to find anywhere to be alone. A fact that Oliver had only just discovered because he had never actively sought such a place before. There were students, like, everywhere and Oliver liked the company of others, so he had never had cause to complain; In fact, he despised stillness and he loathed silence: he hated being alone.

In his quest to find solitude, he found himself at the Whomping Willow and breathed a sigh of relief to find the area relatively quiet. He slumped against a nearby tree and sort of slid down it's trunk until he was sitting. He pulled his knees up to his chest and hugged them as he watched the Willow's gentle mournful swaying for for a while, lost in this thoughts and unaware that his expressive pale face was contorted with pain. He worked so hard all the time to keep things hidden, to cover the hurt he felt with humour and by acting the clown... and to the onlooker, he was nothing more than a shallow idiot who liked to take the proverbial and wind you up purely because he felt like it. And it worked because the vast, VAST majority of the time he WAS fine; he was happy.

He dug in his pocket and drew out the crumbled piece of parchment. Unfolding it, he smoothed out the creases against his thigh and began to read it yet again. The lettering was almost illegible like it had been rushed.. scribbled in a hurry. 'Was she panicked? Or did she want to write it and send it before she could change her mind?' He sat and read it over and over and over until his eyes hurt and the lettering faded into nothing but a blotchy inky blue blur on the page.

Soooo, Jake wasn't quite sure as to why he was getting that grave look. He thought that he and Truebridge had the absolute perfect way of life. Yup.

"Wwwhen I can," he added, feeling that he needed to point out one more point. "I lllike to ssspend time with my dddad. My mmmother too... but, attending Hhhogwarts kind of..." Kind of killed that idea. "When I'm hhhome my parents hhhelp me read or read to mmme... I ssso much prefer beng home. Don't nnneed friends."

He gave a sad sigh. "I'd be llllost mmyself if I lost thhem." Yeah, just 'cause they were his friends didn't mean he didn't still see him as his parents. His AMAZING parents.

But yeah, as Truebridge mentioned the training sessions with Kazi, Jake smiled an odd smile but didn't say anything on the subject. He wasn't allowed to anyway, and, though he did not know it, it was fine that he didn't say anything because Truebs rarely picked up on non-verbal things.

They were similar like that.

But back to the other subject.

"Ssssir... I sometimes thhhink, that bbbeing close to my ppparents is dangerous. I mean, dddo you think it's unhhhealthy that I thhhink that? Like... evvveryone leaves, you know?" This was a really weird subject to be breaching with a teacher, but... Jake kind of felt that he could relate to Truebridge. "Hhhave you felt like that about anythhhing. It's whhhy I don't want fffriends, like I said."

He always got close to someone and they ALWAYS left. Without fail.

AIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIR.
Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh. It was wonderful. It really was. Miranda took a deep breath and sighed it out. She then took another, but tilting her head down to see her chest rise - and then snorted. It was funneh how things worked. Hehe.

She was on her way to see the Professor, and humming along to the end tune of Star Wars, Miranda noticed a boy sitting by a tree and continued to keep on walking. But, her brain clicked and she stopped, turning towards the boy and she frowned. Wasn't that... It waaaaaas! He seemed emerged in whatever he was doing, and Miranda's eyes widened and a mischevious smirk appeared on her lips. Hehe.

Walking back a litte, to be out of the boy's range, she made her way and sneaked up a few feet behind the tree. HEHEHE. With a flick of her wand, she produced a sound so annoying it might've been misstaken for a vuvuzuela.

Hah! Take THAT for waking her up last year. Snort.

Oliver was oblivious to his friend getting closer and he was unaware that the Star Wars theme (which would have grabbed his attention immediately) was being hummed happily not too far from where he was sitting.

With a frown, he folded the letter into a small neat square and was in the midst of pocketing it when...

“GUUUUUAAAaah!!!”

He jumped, like his bum actually left the ground he got such a fright, and his hand flew to his wand holster where he rummaged trying to get it with some trouble as he was sitting. He eventually managed to draw the thing and scrambled to his feet, looking around cautiously for whatever had made that horrible sound.

But...

His eyes landed on Miranda. They narrowed. “The hell are you doing!?” He hissed at her with no trace of his usual smile which, Oliver being Oliver, would have had on his face following a awesomely awesome thought out prank like that. Ahem. But he wasn't in the mood... obviously. He realised he had his wand trained on the Huffie Captain and he swallowed and pocketed it awkwardly. “Really not in the mood, Rodent.” He muttered and sat back down by the tree where he proceeded to pout sadly.

Cody raised an eyebrow as she stepped closer, shooting up even farther at her words, but he chuckled none the less. This one was certainly bold. Mhm. "Whatever makes you sleep better at night." he gave her a quick wink as well. "So, Cadence, what house and year are you then?"

Cadence giggled at the boy's expression. Oh the eyebrow! It always made her giggle. She opened her mouth to retort with something witty like, "You'd make me sleep better at night," but she thought better of it. Instead, she moved on to answer his question. "I'm in Hufflepuff. Fifth year. You?" she asked, taking a moment to look him over. He looked sort of familiar...