Damien stopped rubbing his arm, clearly not getting the reaction he wanted from Isobel. She smirked in her direction; of course he would just have to deal with it. But he enjoyed her teasing, so it would all be worth it.

He looked at her curiously, tilting his head to the side, watching her face suddenly pale ghostly white, a panicked expression to accompany said 'ghost face'. "Hey now, what's the matter?" he asked hand still extended out to her. He even moved a bit close to make it easier for her to grab.

"Oh I've been around." They may not have hung out together a lot but Mia was still able to know what was going on with her friends.

A small giggle escaped Mia's lips at the whining tone in Evelyn's voice. She wondered if her Slytherin friend was often like this or did the girl just save these moments for when she was around Mia. "Apparently you don't listen properly in muggle studies either." she said with a small grin on her face. "That's not how the story goes at all." She couldn't be bothered going into it now, Evelyn would just have to come and visit her so that she could bring her up to date on stuff. "Visit you? Sounds interesting. What would we do?"

Mia inclined her head ever so slightly. That was true, everyone did have their moments. At Evelyn's question, she shrugged her shoulders and smiled a little. "Have you ever seen me not be kind and giving?"

Isobel looked at him, her face still pale. "I'm deathly afraid of heights," she said in a small voice. "The last time I went up there..." she shuddered at the thought. She had fun, until she had looked down and realized she was millions of miles above the ground and may possibly fall to her death...even though it wouldn't hurt.

Ariella walked along the wooden pathway, enjoying the fresh air and nice view. She took a deep breath as she turned a corner. She looked down to see a hoard of black organisms swarming in a heap. Cockroaches?

She bent over to get a closer look. Yes, those would be cockroaches indeed. Yuck. She started to walk away, but quickly whipped herself around and jogged back to the pile. Potions homework! This would be her last ingredient! Good thing she carried an empty potion jar in her bag just in case.

The creatures crawled around in the jar, making Ariella shudder. Finally! Her homework was finished!!!

" None of yoru business but whatever" Willaim smiled at Rose.

Afraid of heights? "Wait a minute ... I've seen you fly hundreads of feet from the ground on a broom, throwing some large ball back and fourth. That takes incredible coordination on your part; Keeping track of where your flying so you don't hit anyone," (or run into the stands) "Not to mention watching where you're throwing ..."

He just didn't understand it. What was the difference between going up in the Treehouse and going up on a broom?

Damien lowered his hand slightly, not wanting to presure her. Or worse, cause her to have a full out panic attack.

He took a step closer to her, which would either make her more nervous or do nothing at all. "What happened the last time you went up there?" he asked. Not that he'd expect her to retell the story ... but maybe?

Isobel had to grin at that. "Well, that's different," she said. "When I'm playing quidditch I don't focus on how far off the ground I am." After the game she got a little nauseous and had to get to the ground quickly.

She wasn't sure if him being closer made him more nervous or not. How was she not sure? Isobel wasn't even sure how she could not be sure....even though she knew that didn't make sense. Maybe she just didn't want to admit to herself that she was nervous. She focused on what he was saying. "Well...I realized how high I was and I got suddenly terrified. And then...I fell. Off."

Fair enough. Isobel had made a good point on the different between playing Quidditch and walking up around the Treehouse. She really did have to focus on so many different things while up on a broom. Made sense she didn't pay attention to how far off the ground she was.

Damien half wondered if by closing the distance betwen the two of them he had, indeed, made Isobel nervous about talking with him about what happened the last time she was up in the Treehouse. But she still mustered her courage and explained. That she hadn't realized how far up she was until she ... actually looked.

"Did anyone catch you?" he asked. "That isn't how you broke your arm, is it? I thought I remembered you telling me you feel off your broom."

But had she gotten hurt after the fall from the Treehouse?

Isobel shook her head. "There's a cushioning charm around the treehouse, so you can't actually get hurt." But it was still high up, and that was why she was scared. She wasn't scared of getting hurt, she was scared of being so far up. "Yeah, I broke my arm by falling of a broom....the second time," she muttered that last part.

Well, that was good. Smart, really. Damien gave the staff here loads of credit; putting a cushioning charm around the Treehouse was quite brilliant. But he still felt bad that Isobel was still afraid to go up there; understandably so. But he wanted to go with her to explore up there.

He would never force her, though.

Wait, the second time? "The second time?" he repeated. You've fallen off your broom more than once ... perhaps you should request a cushioning charm to be put around you."

If that were even possible.

This had to be one of the most awesome places on the grounds. The giant treehouse. Spike grinned happily, curls bouncing as he clambered up a ladder and into one of the little houses. And there he perched himself, legs hanging over the edge and swinging loosely underneath him. A moment's pause to survey the area, before going on to new heights. Quite literally.

He pulled a chocolate frog from his pocket, and nibbled it as he read the card. Merlin, heh.

Ronnie went up to the tree house and looked around. "This place sure is big!" she said to herself, getting up on a swing by herself.

Ness was feeling much better then yesterday. She was feeling a little sick, but it seemed to have been a twenty four hour bug, which now was gone. She decided she needed some fresh air, so she headed out to the tree house.

She spotted a girl, which seemed to be all by herself."Hey!" said Ness being friendly and trying to make new friends, like Damien had told her to do.

This was supposed to be fun, yeah? Climbing and swinging from ropes and stuff. It was supposed to be, but Ellie thought it looked kind of dumb. She'd rather be on the pitch training, but couldn't do so at the moment. And she wasn't going to knock it until she tried it.

She decided to just climb. And get it the air. It might be more pleasurable if she was off the ground, like when she flew. Climbing, though, wasn't fun, she quickly decided.

But she saw Spike. He was a good distraction. "Hey bud," she said, as she went over and joined him. "Who've you got?" On the card, that is.

Isobel shook her head. "No, I meant the second time I broke my arm. Well, the first time I didn't break my arm, I broke my wrist. And it wasn't because I fell off my broom, it had nothing to do with quidditch at all. I fell down some stairs." And it was all Maybelle's fault.

Spike saw a familiar flash of red hair climbing up the rope ladder he himself had come up. "Wotcha Ellie," he replied, as her face finally appeared. He patted the space beside him for her to sit, though apparently she'd planned to do that anyway. "Only Merlin," he said with a shrug. "Already got him," he said with a shrug. He shoved his hand in his pocket, and pulled out another.

"You want one?" he asked with a smile. So, it was a bit of a squished and even melted chocolate frog...but it was still chocolate, right? Luckily for Ellie, his real frogs and Matilda were safely in the dorms. The boys' ones, of course. "I've probably got some lemondrops else?"

Oh Merlin, yeah. Ellie had at least one of him, too. "You collect them?" He collected creepy crawlies, why wouldn't he collect cards? It was a far more normal thing to do, in her opinion.

Chocolate? Sure. Chocolate always helped. "Thank you," she said, taking the candy, and opening it to reveal the distorted frog. Heh. it didn't matter, though.

"What're you doing up here?" Ellie asked, biting off one of the frog's legs.

Spike gave a half hearted nod. "Kinda. I'm not a hard-core collector of them. But if I have chocolate frogs, then I always check." Not that he had chocolate frogs all that often...not at home, at least. His parents had the strange idea chocolate made him hyper. And, of course, the Muggle sweet shop in town he sneaked to didn't do chocolate frogs. They were a Hogwarts treat. More of a treat now he was saving his allowance for a new broom. "Who'd you get?" he asked with a nod towards Ellie's deformed frog. Oops.

"I like it up here," Spike said with smile, before nibbling some more of his froggy. "Reminds me of the woods at home. And an escape from work, and practice and stuffs." Unless you brought the homework with you...but why'd you wanna do that, and ruin it? "Why'd you come?"

Damien grinned at Isobel. She seemed to be quite accident prone; falling off trees, falling off brooms, and now falling down stairs. He hoped she wouldn't do anything to hurt herself seroiusly though. That would not be good.

Not at all.

His eyes turned skyward to the top of the Treehouse. He really wanted to go up there to check it out. Mostly, he wanted to go up there with Isobel. He had an idea.

Holding out his hand to her again, Damien took another step closer. "For the first time in a while, something about this school actually holds my interest," he began. "And to be quite honest, I'd much rather experience this interest with you." He moved closer to her still, hand outstretched, ready to grasp. "Come on, Isobel. Won't you please go up there with me?"

Isobel just looked at him, butterflies fluttering in her stomach when he kept coming closer to her. But no, she wouldn't tell that to anyone. Well, maybe Maybelle.

After a long minute she sighed. "Okay," Isobel hesitantly placed her hand in his and looked up at the Treehouse. Don't focus on the height, she told herself. She could focus on Damien instead.

Strange, strange kid. Ellie loved him the way he was, though. No matter if she'd preferred he collected...well, anything really, to bugs. Still, he wouldn't be Spike if he did, would he?

Ellie flipped the card over to the front side, to see the picture with the name, rather than read the boring stuff on the back. "Gondoline Oliphant," she read. Mmmmkay. That might be a new one. Ellie didn't know who she was, at least.

Hmm. That was cool. She supposed. "Makes sense." It did seem like a Spike-thing to do - Climb trees. The redhead sighed. "Too many people using the Pitch." That was the easy way to put it. But she'll add more, "I wanted to be high, do something physical, clear my head." All of which flying usually did for her, and she'd thought climbing the tree might be a good substitute.

Spike raised an eyebrow. "Who?" he questioned, leaning forward to peer at the card in Ellie's hand. He frowned, unsure if he recognised the name or not. "What is she supposedly known for? Anything good or useful?"

Of course it made sense, Ellie. It was where he spent all of his holidays, afterall. It was where he felt most at home. And where he could avoid annoyances in life - parents, sisters, chores and homework...amongst other things.

Hang on, she wanted to practice? Oh her own? Better than Jacob's crazy tactical practice sessions, he supposed. Ones he never understood, however hard he tried. His lessons with Finn were far more successful, going on the match against the Huffies. Two injury free matches. Odd, boring...but meaningful too.

Then she explained. Oooohhh. "Trying to get away from something?" he asked slowly. He understood the action, even if he might not get the reason. "If so, you're probably not high enough yet." Especially if she wanted height, and a vague feeling of windy in her hair. "Or you could try the rope swing."

"Gondoline Oliphant," Ellie held the card up in a way that she could read the back, and Spike could see the picture. "She studied trolls, apparently." And then suffered a nasty death by clubbing. Wasn't too bright, was she? To study trolls and not protect herself from being beaten to death?

Get away? Hah. Well, not away from something physical. "Kind of. Just move past the last Quidditch match." Honestly, that was what she really wanted to do. Because she wasn't mad at Treyen...only, she was...kind of, but she didn't know why. And she didn't want to be because...well, why was she? It was ridiculous to be irritated for no reason.

She gave the rope swing a glance at its mention. Meh.

Treehouses. Weren't those for children? As in, little children? Sierra wasn't here to play, though. She was here to comb the grounds near the treehouse in search of a fifth and final potions ingredient. Hissy Fit roamed around a little, occasionally hissing at a student or two, as Sierra looked around for anything that also appeared on the ingredients list.

She felt sort of silly doing this while everyone nearby climbed into the treehouse and either played or hung out; but since everyone had the assignment to do, as well, she figured they'd probably know what she was up to. A few minutes later, she identified a nearby plant as a peppermint plant. She smiled as she realized this would complete her assignment. She'd be done collecting and could then turn in her ingredients and be done with this.

With her gloves still on, she leaned down and pulled up a sample of the plant. She bagged it separately then stuffed the bag into the larger bag with all her other ingredients. One done, she removed her gloves, called out to Hissy Fit, and then left the area.

While he had no idea what Isobel was feeling, Damien felt his heart begin to race, and could have sworn his palms were slightly clamy. And he couldn't offer an explanation for it at all. Of course he ewas in the presence of someone he thought very highly of. Damien liked Isobel. A lot. But why all the quickening pulse and jitters?

As she slowly lowered her hand into his, a rush of vertigo suddenly took him by surprise. He swayed slightly on the spot, but not enough for anyone to notice but him. Taking a deep breath, he dismissed it immediately and closed his hand securely in Isobel's.

"I promise," he said. "To not let go of your hand the entire time we're up there."

Damien made sure to take things slow. Racing up to the top probably wouldn't make her feel any more comfortable with the situation. After going up a few feet, he slowed down more and looked over to her. "How are you doing?" he asked. "Alright then?"