"Seriously!! Me too!!" said Nessie happy to know she wasn't the only one. "I love Joburg".Ness knew she could use Joburg as if she lived there she would know that, thats what people call it for short. "I miss it so much!" said Ness.

Caroline made her way down it the terrace. She was late, something that rarely happened to her. When Carter had asked her to meet him so they could work on this ballroom dancing for DADA homework, she got alittle excited and decided to dress up a bit. After trying on a few different dresses (because that's all she owned was a few) she finally found one that made her look amazing. She actually dressed herself up which is something she doesn't do to oftten. But she just got in the mood to dress up for their homework assignment. Hey they were dancing so why not dress up a bit, right?

A blonde figure paced only a few yards away as she walked around a corner of the path near a clearing of the terrace. Grinning to herself as she stopped to watch before she approached him. She wondered if he was as nervous as her about ballroom dancing. which was alot from the dancing that did in the dorm when she was alone or at home in her own room. Luckily Caroline had musicality element of dancing from playing the piano, most of her life.

Carefully and quietly she walked up behind him. Tapped him on the shoulder. "Looking for a dance parnter?" She laughed.

Apparently Carter was facing the wrong way. He smiled as he received a tap on the shoulder.

"As a matter of fact..." he began as he turned to face her.

Then he was at a loss for words. She looked absolutely gorgeous. It took a few seconds for him to recover from the staring. "Wow... you look great." he said before giving her a kiss. He then held out the rose for her. "I got this for you." he said. And by 'got', he of course meant stole from the student gardens. But really he had no choice. There really should be a flower shop at Hogwarts. It would make dating tons easier for everyone.

Then he remembered why they were there. "Yeah. I am." he said. "May I have this dance?" he asked as he held his hand.

Caroline watched as he turned around to face her. She flashed him a smirk at first as it led to a sheepish grin. He stared at her for a bit. It seems as if she should dress more often."Thanks" She blushed slightly and kissed him back.

And a rose? Well that was nice. "Thanks, it's my favorite flower." She smiled and took it. She was half temped to stick it in her mouth and tryout a foxtrot. Instread she put the rose behind her ear. "Yes. You may." She took his hand and put the other arm around his neck. There was so thing missing. What was it? Music? "I think we need some music" They were going to dance after all.

Carter smiled as she took his hand. "Music..." he repeated. He knew he forgot something...

"Umm... I could hum?" he suggested. Or they could dance to the sound of the nonexistent crickets and the sound of buzzing bees.

"Or we could get the singing part of the assignment out of the way too..." he suggest. Singing is something he hadn't done since second year. Marilyn, his first girlfriend, really loved his singing. Well... unless you counted when he sang to Destiny. Which... he didn't. (Although, maybe he should reenact that. He never really paid her back for the potion. And what better way then to embarrass her?)

Caroline laughed when he repeated music Dancing with know music was like playing football without the ball. She had been around Carter to long, now she was comparing things to football. She smiled. hum or sing? She would have to think about that a bit.

"How about we learn some steps then work up to going with some music?" It wasn't the she didn't want to hear him sing or anything she was just nervous about the whole fancy dancing stuff. She could go with the music after she mastered the steps.

o_O

Wait a minute. "YOU'RE from Joburg too? But, didn't you say you were french?" Di Marco blinked, trying to remember if the girl had said she was french, or just that her name was weird. Or was it the other way around? All these ants kept distracting her from her conversation with the midget. See? THIS was the reason the only time she preferred to be outdoors was on a broom, flying over a quidditch pitch. There were no ants up there.

"My names French, I was born in South Africa, though" said Ness happy to be a proud South African, as when her parents had her, they were still living in France, but they were on holiday in S.A when she was born. "I live there now too (while kind of seeing as I'm here at the moment), I used to live in France though, but South Africa is A million times better!!"

Nessie was so happy she knew somone from where she was. She was happy she met somone who would understand her better. "I really miss using the South African slang" said Nessie realising she was really pushing the limit now, so she shut her mouth then finished her coffee.

Carter smiled. "That sounds great." he said. Leave it to Caroline to come up with a great idea when he forgot to do something. That was one of the reasons they worked so great together.

"Alright. So it's fairly simple." he began. "You're just going to do the exact opposite of me." he said.

"Sooo... if I take a step back..." he said while stepping backwards slightly. He was careful not to move too far. He didn't want to pull Caroline completely over. He just wanted her to feel a gentle pull in his direction.

Caroline smiled back and nodded, the music part didn't make her as nervous as the dancing part. She listened as he explained to do the exact oppsite of him. Okay so he was taking a step back so that meant she was suppose to take a step up. "So that means a take a step up?" She asked and stepped up anyway.

When she took a step up, she must've took too long of a step because she ran right into him and bumped her head on his chin "Oh, Sorry" She blushed, this wasn't as easy as she thought it would be. At least she didn't step on his foot. Yet. She shook it off and took a small step back. Okay now that she wasn't all over and close to him that was better. She didn't mind it but it was hard to dancing that close.

Carter smiled. "Exactly..." he said. But it seemed like he spoke to soon. He rubbed his chin a little. "Oh. It's no problem." he said.

"Okay... let's try the other way." he suggested. "I'm going to step towards you now." he warned.

Hopefully this worked better. You know... unless he decided to fall over.

He then took a step toward her and hoped that she was taking a step back.

Caroline was really nervous after the whole head to chin bump. "Mum always said I had a hard head." She really never believe it untill now. Whoa they were starting again. Mmmm okay she could do this. He is stepping up so she needed to step back. Didn't bump heads? Check. Didn't step on his feet? Check. Still standing? Well for like five seconds.

Plop.

Right on her bum. At least she didn't fall to hard, obviously she had been spending too much time around Kyle. Clumsiness wasn't her thing. Actually she started laughing. Her hand was still holding Carters. She pulled him down beside her. "It's only fair if one falls we both do." She laughed and smiled. "Now let's get back to work." This DADA assignment was going to be the death of her. First swimming and running, now with the dancing, she would be lucky to be alive come Christmas. She got up and took his hand and put the other arm around his neck. Making sure that she had a good balance before nodding that she was ready to continue.

Carter chuckled. "My mum has told me the same thing." he said. Mostly it was because he never seemed to hurt himself when hitting a football with his head. Taking a bludger to the head was quite a different story though.

Before he knew it though he found himself on the ground. He sat laughing after he realized what happened. "Well... in all fairness you did warn me." he joked. He then stood up and brushed himself off.

"Maybe we can just switch to circles?" he suggested. Sure, it wasn't exactly ballroom, but it was still dancing.

And a lot safer.

Connor listened to Selina, she seemed to be a rather blunt but caring girl. She was a good friend to Kurumi and he appreciated it, he hoped that perhaps one day he could be considered her friend to her too. He was already a good friend, the big brother type to several people and he was already proving that he was doing his best to control his veela half. If anyone cared to find out they would discover that he had not even cone close to dating anyone other than Kurumi.

He nodded. "You're right. I have been selfish. I have no excuse." he bowed hi head. He pushed himself away from the terrace rail and stretched. He knew that most people judged him on his veela half. Ku"rumi and His best friend Dani had both told him that he needed to accept his veela half. Maybe they were right, but it was so hard to do if people in general were going to judge him based on only half of who he was. He would have to make the human side of him stronger. The best way to do that was to take control of the veela. "I do hope that one day I might earn your friendship Selina. Meanwhile would you care to join me for a run that way we may get to know each other better?"

Selina watched him struggle for a moment inwardly and she felt bad for a moment. Maybe she was too blunt. Merlin knew she had been told that many times in her life, but people could never say they didn't know what was exactly on Selina's mind. To lie and sugar coat things only ended up hurting people in the end. And Kurumi was involved she would not allow her to be hurt. She was already in so much pain that she did not advertize. Only Selina really knew what she was feeling because she would cry to her on a daily basis in the Common Room, the Dorms, the Corridor, and sometimes even in publc places. She was grieving and Treyen and Connor both were not helping. "Look Connor, I can tell you mean to do right by her and I appreciate that, a lot. Just give her space, be her friend." And Selina cocked her eyebrow and said, "And maybe learn to control your Veela side..." She could tell he was a Veela when he first walked in the room. Her friend Violet was a Veela so she could tell in an instant, "...dont worry. If you don't want people to know I won't say a word."

At the request of a run she replied, "Yeah we should do that. I'd like to get to know you better. Kurumi sees a good person down under all of that make up so I'd like to get to know him as well."

Whoa WHOA - who died and made Midget the Babble Queen? "Erm... That's good for you," Di Marco nodded, trying to not appear alarmed by the sudden overload of information being thrown at her. Did she ask for so many facts? The brunette had only exclaimed surprise that anyone else from Joburg would be so stupid as to send their kids HERE. There were such fantastic schools there, WHY did she come to Hogwarts?

"What did you say your name was again? NessMay?" she asked, still thinking that it was a really strange name. Eh well - her parents sent her to Hogwarts so their judgement clearly can't be trusted. Pfft.

"I just have one question though. Why does everybody assume that just because I am HALF Veela that all I want is the superficial things. " He asked softly. He ran his fingers though his hair and then sighed. He was so frustrated with everyone's judgement. "I just really wish people would take the time to get to know me." His mind flashed back to how Kurumi's friends had reacted in the Ice cream shoppe. "A lot of people assume I'm using veela power all the time. I'm not. In fact the best way to tell is if I'm sweating even a little and there is the smell of Cinnamon and Vanilla around. I tend to smell like a kitchen full of snickerdoodles." He told her, being completely honest. He tried to smile but he was having a hard time putting on that happy face. "Come on let's have that run." He invited heading down the stairs.

Selina listened to him intently as he spoke. For some reason he sounded exactly like Violet, then again the two would sound the same. They did both, after all, have Veela blood in them and therefore were burdened by the same charm. It seemed that every person she knew in Violet's family hated the blood because people were always so enamored with the outer looks that they never took the time to get to know the person underneath. By the sound of it that was how Connor felt, "I don't know. I have a lot of the answers, I'm not being a jerk I just do, but I can't answer that. I don't think people think you are superficial, but people in general are. Looks make such an impression on the world. When you first met a person the first thing you get about them is the way they look. I didn't write the rules I just live by them. So in all honesty Connor I think people don't think that of you. I think that they just as superficial."

When he took off down the stairs Selina ran after him laughing, "Watch out, I play Quidditch. I'm in serious shape so if this is a race prepare to lose."

Caroline rubbed her forehead. "I think your mum's right." He did have a hard head. She laughed. Okay, maybe this time they could more than five minutes without bumpping into each other or falling. Well it seem more like Caroline was bumpping heads and falling more than Carter. Carter was doing great, loads better than her. At least she had a good partner and teacher. She was going to be sore it the morning. She could already tell.

Circles? Eek she already felt dizzy just hearing the word. Taking a deep breath and stepped up to Carter and started dancing in Circles. There they go. They had this. This was a piece of cake. "I think we found our calling, Just dancing around it circles." She laughed and put her head on his shoulder. Now let's hope Caroline doesn't start to fall asleep. "I think now would be a good to for some music."

Nessie giggled."I'ts Renesmee, but you can call me Ness or Nessie like everyone else does." said Ness smiling the girl seemed to be opening more and more to her. Maybe Ness was a true Hufflepuff after all, she thought. She then took a biscuit and started to nible slowly, as she didn't have much of an appetite.

Right. "Renesmee," Di Marco repeated slowly, quite mystified at how parents would give a child that name. Her parents must be those mentally unhinged people who look all nice and understanding to the outside world but inside are wacko. Like Bridget, for example.

Looking down, she saw yet ANOTHER ant - and this was was crawling up her arm. YUCK. "Ok, see ya, Nessamay... Have a nice time here with the ants," she flicked the horrid thing off her, grabbed her back and strode off towards the castle, taking out her wand in the mean time. She felt like hexing something.

... Wait, her name was Renesmee, not Nessamay. Oh well - if she saw the girl again she'd get her name right. If she remembered. Looking back at the terrace, a brief shadow of a smile appeared on her lips; another person here was from back home. It was a comforting thought - not that she'd ever admit it to the girl. A twinge of guilt for leaving a girl from Joburg so suddenly startled Di Marco from her thoughts and rolled her eyes. Hogwarts was making her soft - it was all stupid HOGWARTS' fault.

Carter smiled at Caroline's uncertainty. There was really no way to mess up circles. Unless they go too fast or dance too long.

"Music?" he repeated. Once again he forgot about that little part. But he quickly recovered. "Right. Music..."

Now, what kind of music? Nothing was coming to him other than his parent's old music. "Would you believe my mind just went completely blank?" he asked with a chuckle. "How about you start?" he suggested.

Hmm. Lucas hadn't been out here before. Time to explore! He smiled to himself as he looked around. It was pretty out here. Fresh air, plants and... erm, stuff. Whatever else was out here. Anyway, it was cool. There were a couple of people hanging out, but he didn't know any of them, so he didn't pay much attention. Hey, maybe he could do something for DADA while he was out here. He kinda wished he had a partner, though. He didn't want to look like an idiot/loser, practicing alone.

He turned and jogged backwards a bit. "Come on slowcoach I thought you were in serious shape! Wait though I'm a runner and in serious shape myself so I might just give you someone to pace yourself with my friend!'" He smirked for a second then concentrated on his stride as they ran together around the greenhouses. It appeared that they were fairly well matched. it was nice to run with someone who could give him some competition without fainting and pretending to have a sprain or something just to get him close...
He glanced up to see he was about a half a stride behind her. He put on a burst of speed to catch up.

Selina was shocked at how fast Connor suddenly moved. She assumed that this was going to be no competition but she was wrong. From his screams from ahead of her he said that he was a runner. Figures. No one was that good unless they practiced and he was really good. But she was good too. So when he kicked up his speed so did she. In a matter of twenty seconds she was neck and neck with him. While they ran she waved at him before taking the lead. She knew that because he knew how to pace himself he would still most likely beat her, but for the moment she was winning and it radiated off of her, "Come on Connor. I thought this was your turf?"