"What's wrong with that?" She liked the kid. He was a good kid. Not nearly as annoying as other first years were. Which were annoying, even last term when she was one.

White. She watched the board turn toward her. "So... now what?" Someone moved that little guy in front, right? And something about two spaces... Ellie would have referenced the letter again, but it wasn't necessary with Eli there.

Why did she like him? "He's nice. He's quiet. He's not going around getting himself into dumb drama like he thinks he's the coolest first year ever. Which, by default, makes him the coolest firstie." Special? "I...don't know. Why do you care. I'm sure you'd like him too if you weren't being a git."

Eli was churned up inside. The coolest? Nice? AUGH! He kept his expression neutral, though. He didn't want her to realize how much it irked him that she liked That Guy.

Well, he tried to keep neutral, anyway. Ellie knew him pretty well.

"I'm not being a git." he said coolly. "You can move any of your front guys one or two spaces straight forward, or your knights can go up two and over one in either direction, left or right." he gestured to show which one was the knight. "And I'm sure he's nice-- for a little firstie. Maybe not the coolest, but okay I guess. I just happen to think that you could do better than to hook into some first year, you're more awesome than that. That's all. I'm only thinking of you and your rep. Besides, he has poochy girl lips." he wrinkled his nose, concentrating on the board so he didn't have to make eye contact.

It was killing him. She DID like That Guy. She was probably going to marry him, because his hair was normal and he had big poochy lips and was niiiiice and boring. Ugh!

"You were being a git." Ellie said matter of factly. Truth.

She... what? The knight? Now that was just confusing. She just took one of her front pieces and moved it forward. Two. Cuz two is better than one.

He rep? "He's adorable." She looked up at Eli for the first time since he'd turned the board around and studied his face.

Wait.

Ohhh. Hah. Ellie began laughing. "You're an idiot. I said I liked the kid. I didn't say I wanted to... How did you put it? 'Hook into' him." He was just an adorable friend. Jeeeez.

Adorable? He wanted to die, just a little bit, though it was stupid.

And then she laughed, and with her next words-- relief! He glanced up at her, the color returning to his pallid, freckled face. "Really? Cos, erm, yeah. I mean, he's just a firstie, and only sort of okay. And you're brilliant, so you shouldn't-- I mean... You just... yeah."

Flustered, Eli moved his queen's pawn up two as well, so that his was diagonal from hers. "Your move. You can move another pawn - even that one, if you wanted, could attack mine here, diagonally. Or you could move your king's bishop- that's this guy - now, because it's open here. He can go diagonally to any space as long as you stay in a straight line. Or you could move your knights still, up two and over one. The point of it all is to get my king- that's this guy - and protect your own." He stared at the board for a moment in awkward silence.

"It's great that you don't want to hook into him." he said quietly, eyes back down on the board. "You could do way better than 'only sort of okay'."

Nia had bright eyes as she headed down the stairs from the girls' dorms. Her hair was braided back at the front, and her lack of fringe hanging down showed her eyes matching the colour of her turquoise top. For whatever reason, she was feeling refreshed, good, and ready to study the heavy book wrapped in her arms.

And as she skipped down the stairs a couple at a time, Nia spotted a small figure headed her way. But it wasn't the posture of a happy chap, and Nia paused as she reached the bottom step. She shifted her book to her right hip, and held her left arm out welcomingly.

"You alright little fella?" she asked softly. He was holding a charm book, maybe he had been puzzling over homework?

"You're an idiot." Ellie repeated. "Now you're gonna have to go and apologize to him." Poor Max.

Then Eli started going off on all this chess stuff. Her eyes followed his points, and went to the different pieces and he explained things. And.. she got lost quite quickly. All she'd taken in of all that, was that she could attack him. And that's just what she did. Hah. Now she was winning.

"Who knows, he could be more than 'sort of okay'." Now she was going to taunt him with this. Because, it was just too much fun.

But it made her think of JD. And...that mess. And she was STILL confused by all of it. Did she do better than 'sort of okay'? I mean, he was more than 'okay'. But... she didn't exactly know how she felt about him. She really didn't.

"So, it's your turn?" she asked, very willing to think about something else at the moment.

Max had just reached the stairs when a taller figure appeared in front of him. Nia. Grasping his Charms textbook tightly to his chest, he shifted awkwardly and did his best to sound more confident than he really felt. "Yeah, I'm fine. I was just gonna go study a bit... or something..."

To be honest, he wasn't entirely sure what he was going to do when he got up to the dorm. He was just trying to escape. He was very, very relieved to see Nia, though. Just the sight of a familiar, happy face made him feel a million times better.

"Or something?" Nia repeated quietly, with a raised questioning eyebrow. There was something not quite right, she was sure. About his demeanour. But she didn't know him well enough to detect what sort of thing that might be. Maybe he was just struggling to settle in at Hogwarts, and got homesick. It happened to everyone, now and then. She ran her fingers through the back of her hair thoughtfully.

The weight of her book pressed down, and despite only resting it on her hip moments before, it was soon an awkward position. Nia turned slightly, so she could lean some of the heaviness of her book against the wall.

"Just finished the Charms? Or about to start?" she asked with a smile and nod towards the book. "I'm about to start looking through some Tranfiguration myself." She shifted the spine so Max could see the title of the book, Transfiguration for Purposes Most Useful. As well as being thick, the book was evidently fairly old too, with yellowing pages and peeling spine. "Wanna come join me? To study or chat...or something?"

Max's eyes dropped down to the book in his hands, avoiding Nia's eyes. She was completely skeptical of him and knew something was wrong. She was an observant one, all right. But that kind of went with being a Ravenclaw. "Yeah, I've done a bit of Charms studying already." He nonchalantly scratched the back of his head as he tilted his head sideways to read the spine of Nia's book. "Sounds fascinating," he commented honestly. "Sure. Lead the way." Anything to take his mind off the previous embarrassment with Ellie.

Serena sat down beside Skye and sighed. "My day has been pretty good. It is a bit cold outside but thank goodness for the fire here in this Common Room." She gave an involuntary shudder for some unknown reason as she said this even though she wasn't feeling cold in any way whatsoever. Maybe it was the idea of going back outside that made her do that.

With a little awkwardness, Serena asked Skye. "Do you have siblings or is it just you and your folks?"

Was he...avoiding looking at her? Nia looked at him bemusedly. She wasn't sure quite what was on his mind, but something sure was. She looked at him kindly, almost in a protective kind of way.

"Awesome," she replied with a smile, as he mentioned having already studying some charms. "How've you been finding it?" And then as he responded about her own book, she nodded happily, despite its size. "It is fascinating," she replied with a nod, glad that someone else also seemed to appreciate it. "It's a little bit of extracurricular research..." Okay, so maybe not so little. But she was a Ravenclaw, right?!

"Sofas by the fire," she said, leading the way there. Best place to do a little light reading, in Nia's opinion. And for chats, too. She placed her book on one of the coffee table nearby, and fell back into the softest sofa. Tucking her legs underneath her, Nia waited for Max to do the same.

Eli made a face. Apologize? For what? He sighed, knowing if Ellie wanted him to apologize, apologize he would. Even though he had only been cool to the bloke, not out and out rude.

Eli nodded, quickly moving his king's bishop to b4 on the board. "Bishop to queen's knight four- check." he said. "Check means your king is in danger of being taken. You need either move him, block me, or overtake my bishop to protect him." His bishop drew up his staff, as though readying to attack her king.

"He won't be 'more than okay', just like-- well, he just won't. Trust me. Honestly, woman, you're brilliant but you have no ability to judge character. Except in choosing me as a bestie, of course. On that you did quite well." he smiled, glancing up at her. Her hair was really bright; the firelight made it seem to glow, with flecks of gold in the red. He liked looking at it.

...okay, he supposed he should have expected that, but still, he'd more thought that she would take the hanky and do it herself, seeing as how she'd yelled at him to stop being motherish before.

Will a small sigh, he kept smoothing the handkerchief over her face, "I'm not sure; I don't really know what grows around here. Wildflowers, I guess. Maybe with a few conjured flowers to..."

Why was he talking about flower arranging? It was... it was emasculating. His father would not be particularly impressed with him right now.

Pam walked in, almost bouncing. She couldn't believe what had happened. She was going to to Australia!!! Her face practically glowed. She found her usual arm chair, grabbed some paper, her favorite quill, some ink, and began to write. She needed to tell her parents that she wouldn't be able to come home this vacation. But she'd send Tahlia with news as much as she could.

Enya had been enjoying her quite time, which she actually liked a lot these days. When she was interupted by a girl - Skye in fact - Enya was a little shoked, having not seen the girl since the beginning of term and all. Sigh. Enya leant back in her seat - comfortable my i add - to listen to what the older girl was saying.

Join her and her friends? Gah, she hated meeting new people. But she also knew she needed to, get to know people and all. Sigh. Five minutes after Skya ha left her she looked over to where she was sat - with some girls. SHE Shrugged to herself, she might as well. It was nearly the end of term and all.

Sigh.

Standing up from her seat she slowly walked over and sat down into front of Skye. She looked at the girl. "Well..." She asked awkwardly.

Ahh! Danger?! So many choices! Err...

"How exactly?" Cuz... all she saw were a bunch of pieces. All she heard were their mixed shoutings. And. She was confused.

"Oh, really, now?" she couldn't judge character? Huh. Well then. "He seems more than okay. He's cool." And Ellie liked him. Yup.

Eli couldn't hold back his outburst. "You've known this bloke, what, ten minutes and he's 'cool'?! Merlin, Els, really?! You hardly know him, and you're practically -- it's just -- you're so -- I-- I just... You hardly know the bloke, but even from what I could see of him he didn't seem, you know,anything special. Not-- not like--"

Eli pressed his lips together, holding his breath for a moment. Calm down. he told himself. There's no reason to get upset or twisted-up inside. I mean, it's Ellie. Ellie, your bestie, your-- He exhaled hugely, pushing the thought away and looking down on the board.

"Look, you could move one of your pawns- the little guys up front here - to block me. Or you could move your king but he can only go one space and your pawn is in the way, so that's out. Or you could move your queen, but I'll tell you right now if you do that I'll take her right from you." he gestured with each move to indicate which piece was which. He looked up at her, breathless at the way her hair was still glinting in the firelight like a golden aura. Like a halo. He looked back down at the board, as though it hurt his eyes to look too long at her.

"I just don't want to see you give away something so valuable and get-- get hurt." He wasn't strictly speaking just talking about the chess game.

Rose threw herself down on a sofa, looking around the room at all her housemates. She's not actually met any of them, save for Morgana of course. Her sister. Eeesh, that felt so odd to think of! Bur she'd have to get used to it... Morgana Riddle. Rose sighed and leant back on the comfortable, worn old leather, making herself comfy. She had a lot of homework to do - this was gonna be a long night. Or maybe she'd do it tomorrow?

Jacob walked into the Ravenclaw common room proudly, with his head help high.

Yeah... thats Right. Jacob is the best! He's just awesome... Truthfully Jacob didn't do anything awesome or amazing to be deserving of this sudden proudness that came from him. But he was allowed to pretend like he did once in a while, right?

But something small, hairy and crawling caught his eye.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

A very girly high pitched shriek escaped jacobs mouth, and he quickly jumped onto a near by chair. Jacob bit his knuckle and stared at the hairy beast spider that was crawling towards him. He watched it carefully as the monster very small thing crawled out the window.

Jacob took his hand out of his mouth, and stepped back onto the floor. He cleared his throat, and straigtened his clothes.

Nobody saw that.

Eh?

Guys weren't supposed to scream. Especially not so high-pitched. Whoever it was, he sounded like a girl. Rose turned to look, and noticed the spider. Oh, well he had an excuse. Rose hated spiders. They were the most awful creatures on the planet. Besides slugs. Beccause they were even more awful. Blech, slugs. Disgusting creatures. Oh, look, the spider had crawled out the window. Rose let out a long breath she hadn't noticed she was holding in, and relaxed. 'Twas gone.

She smiled at the boy, and waved a little. She'd not met anyone at all, so why not meet this dude? Yupp. Rose logic. 'Freaky, aren't they?' she said, making a face. Scaryyyy!

Heh. Woah. Woah. Was he-? Was he REPRIMANDING her?!

Oh. Well. "For your information, Mr. Jarod, I met him at Diagon Alley, Saw him at the feast, and was having QUITE a nice conversation before YOU came along." Rawr.

She looked back at the board as he explained stuff, and studied it, weighing her options. Then, she became oddly aware of him staring at her. Ellie lifted her head back up and GLARED at him for a bit.

Looking back at the board, she moved her pawn to block him.

"Hmm?" What was that last thing he said?

And Jacob came in. And screamed. And.

BAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA. Ellie laughed. Hah. Hahaha.

She was sooo mean. Jeez.

Lily-anne skipped down the stairs from the girls dormitory into the common room. looking around she spotted a girl sitting on one of the sofa she walked over to the girl "hey" she said with a smile

Jacob scowled at Ellie, and stuck his tongue out at her.

That should show her... Laugh at Jacobs fears, will she? He had a beaters bat, she shouldn't mess with him! Then again, she did as well. Well there goes that logic, way to go Jacob.


Jacob felt... watched. Oh My God! firstie... oh no wait. He'd seen her somewhere before. Second year or Third.

She was talkin' to him?
WHY?!

Wait Jacob, be polite. "I'm not really sure what your talking about." he said quietly. Yeah... He'll just pretend like it never happened. He doesn't have a fear of spiders, whatcha talkin' about.

Skye nodded in agreement. "I hate the cold," she said. "I'd rather lie on a sunny beach all day." Speaking of warmth. She scooted a little bit closer to the fire, so that she could feel its glow on her face now.

"No, it's just me and my parents. I'm an only child, but sometimes I wish I had an older sister." She said this with a slight hint of wistfulness hidden in her Irish accent.
Skye looked back up as Enya came over and hovered rather awkwardly. Then as Skye watched, the girl sat down in front of her. Skye suspected this was much too near the fire. "Here, sit on my other side," she said, pointing at the empty space of sofa on the other side of her to Serena.

"So..." she said carefully. "Does this mean you forgive me?"

Jenn had been twisting and turning all night it seemed. No matter what, she couldn't stop thinking. About what you might ask? Life...books...boys...mostly Kel. She was of coarse, being a girl. She was worring about how her hair might look tomorrow, if she would pass the up coming test, so on. You get the idea. Finally, she had given up on the "Counting Sheep" deal, and the "Stare at something so boring you end up falling asleep" manuver. In fact, staring at the moon actually was more interesting than she thought it would be. But anyway....

Flinging back the covers, Jenn slipped on her brown bunny slippers, and tied her long hair back into a messy bun, some of the hair hanging loose from the tie. Pulling on her warm sweat shirt over her long sleeve blue pj's, she made her way to the door, closing it softly behind her before descending the stairs down to the common room.

It was...of coarse...very, very quiet. With the soft pop and crackle of the fire burning out, it was the only sound in the whole room. Pulling out her wand, she waved it, whispered a spell, and poof, the fire rose to a warmer glow, and Jenn nodded in satisfaction. Sighing softly, she picked one of the squishy arm chairs that were beckoning welcomly to her to sit down, and she plopped into it, hearing the woooosh as the leather seats lost some of the air. Not bringing anything to do, she pulled her sleeves over her hands and folded her arms tight around her, bringing her legs up to rest on the arm of the chair, while her warm brown eyes watched the ashes and embers burn around the logs of wood. It was relaxing, and a perfect time to think.