Notebook in hand, Kurumi made her way to the terrace not really knowing why she had decided to come out here when she found the castle much warmer during this time of the year.

Setting her notebook down on one of the tables, Kurumi looked around at all the flowers and noticed the presence of a familiar looking lion standing by one of the trees. "Lucas!" she waved shyly from the table as her cheeks flushed just a bit. "How have you been?"

Lucas turned slightly when he heard his name. "Oh!" he said. "Hey, Kurumi! Good, you?" He walked over to the table where she'd set her stuff down. He grinned at her. Maybe she would practice DADA with him... ?

"I'm doing alright," she smiled. Although she was pretty sure that her features showed that she was more than just alright. November had been a big growing period for her with lots of twists and turns, but she had come out feeling a little more confident that she had in October. "Been practicing flying a lot recently. Mostly due to Selina. W-W-We...I-I-I...made the Qudditch team..."

Was she turning darker shade of red? Breaking out in hives?

"Whoa!" Lucas said, his grin widening. "That's brilliant!" He held up his hand for a high-five. "I'll make sure to come cheer you on at the matches, then. A cool Quidditch-player friend... I'm gonna be popular in no time," he joked.

Kurumi's cheeks flushed and she just stared at Lucas' hand as it waited for what she assumed was for her to return the gesture. She did so, but very timidly and left her hand on his. "I-I-I wouldn't get your hopes up on that," she whispered through a nervous laugh. "I'm hardly the best flyer on the team...and I only just got my own broom. Simon gave me his old one..."

She looked up at Lucas and tried to smile. Her eyes flicked to their hands. "T-Thank you though. I-I think I am going to need all the support I can get."

Lucas chuckled at Kurumi's version of a high-five. She was funny, albeit not always intentionally. It was funny how shy she was. She was like an adorable little animal of some sort that you just wanted to squeeze and tell everything would be okay. "But you got on the team!" he protested. "That means you've got to be better than some people." He dropped his hand with a smile. "I will be your personal cheerleader. I'll even wear a shirt that says 'Go Kurumi' if you want me to."

"Th-Th-That won't be necessary," she stammered now waving her hands in front of her face. The less attention brought to her on a broom the better. She would probably fall off and end up in the hospital wing for a week....missing classes! That was a horrible thought. Worse than breaking a bone really. "Selina had been training me over the summer. I-I didn't plan on trying out for Quidditch really..." Although, she supposed the image change was for the best. Helped her move on and figure more things out.

Kurumi realized that she had left her one hand up in the air and she quickly dropped it to her side. "So...what brings you out here?"

Lucas chuckled again at her reaction to his shirt suggestion. "A giant hat, then," he grinned. "But you did, and now you're on the team, which is awesome." He could tell that trying out for Quidditch was out of Kurumi's comfort zone. He was sorta proud of her for doing it.

"Not much," he answered. "Just exploring a bit. I was thinking about doing something for DADA, but I don't really know what..."

He was joking....right? He wasn't really going to come to a match wearing some huge hat or a lion head was he? If he did, Kurumi hopefully wouldn't be able to see him from her broom. She supposed that that was one good thing about being up so high in the air. "I guess...I'll give it my best shot. That is really all I can do," she nodded. "A small Gryffindor flag would be sufficient." And not bring all that much attention either.

Kurumi picked up her journal and flipped through the pages going over everything she had done. She had done plenty of running, and she clearly wasn't dressed for it, so that was out. "I was actually thinking of doing some of it myself," she nodded. "We could do something together...although...I'm afraid anything with too much movement won't work...no karate or running." Or swimming really since there was no lake or pool.

"I suppose I can make that work," Lucas grinned.

"Sounds good. But darn, no karate?" he asked in mock disappointment. "Oh, well. What are our other options? I haven't really done much... My diary is... Erm... A bit lacking."

Phew. Slight Quidditch crisis averted for the time being. She could breathe easier now.

Kurumi frowned and wished that she had dressed in at least jeans. It seemed like Lucas had really wanted to practice some karate. She had done a little with Eino the other day - which had turned into a mild disaster when she had misenchanted the dummy and it had gone nuts chasing Eino around the room like some strange version of cat and mouse. "Well...the other parts of the assignment are...singing to someone, stretching, talking to a mirror about your goals and....ballroom dancing..." Her cheeks flushed a bit. "W-What do you want to do?"

Lucas frowned slightly. "Hmm. Well, talking to a mirror about our goals seems silly if we're working together. What kind of stretching? Can I just stretch really quickly with my arms over my head, or is it the weird, lying-on-the-ground kind of stretching that takes 20 minutes? Because I don't want to do that." He scratched his head. "I don't know. What do you want to do? And what does any of this stuff even have to do with defense against the dark arts? I highly doubt I'm going to ballroom dance with an Inferius should one ever cross my path."

Kurumi burst into a fit of giggles at his Inferius comment. "M-Maybe you need it for when you come across a kappa? Could be a way of tricking it into bowing you know," she replied shrugging her shoulders. It was possible she supposed. Although she highly doubted that a kappa would wait long enough to allowed you to put your hand around its waist. Just suck your soul out right there on the spot. She pouted her bottom lip for a moment. "Maybe...ballroom dancing is supposed to teach us how to be fluid and graceful with our movements? Isn't that something that is important in Defense Against the Dark Arts?" That, and she supposed it kept them on their toes.

Kurumi looked at her notebook and frowned a bit more. She didn't really want to do any stretches either and didn't blame Lucas for not wanting to. There was also meditation, but that seemed silly to do together as well. "I-It seems like the only thing that works with partners is...ballroom dancing..."

Great, here she went again getting all flustered in front of an older student.

"Hmm," Lucas said, considering this. "You make a good point. Tricking kappas and being fluid and... Whatnot. Although I think I would probably run if a kappa tried to dance with me. Just saying."

He rubbed the back of his neck a bit nervously. "Ballroom dancing... Well, I'll give it a shot if you want to, but I have to warn you that I'm not very good." His cheeks flushed a bit. To be fair, he didn't actually know he wasn't any good. He was just making an educated guess. He'd never really tried before, so he could be a prodigy for all he knew. (Of course, the chances of that were slim to none.)

"A very valid point," Kurumi laughed. "I don't think that ballroom dancing would be the first thing to pop into my mind if a kappa showed up." Truth be told, she probably would just burst into tears on the spot. "One of my older brothers played American football and the coach made them take ballet. Made them all lighter on their feet. Supposedly." Made about as much sense for Quidditch players to learn how to sing in six different language - not that Captain Simon had suggested they do that.

"I'm afraid I am not very good at it either...I've....I've only ever danced with someone once..." well, technically twice. But her and Adam dancing at the end of her first year could hardly have been considered dancing. "J-Josh tried to teach me how to, so I at least know where my hands are supposed to go." Well, she thought she did anyway. Seeing as Lucas wasn't as tall as Josh, there was already an advantage there.

"American football players taking ballet!" Lucas said. "That's hilarious! I can just imagine them in their helmets and pads and whatnot with tutus over the top."

"Well, let's give this a try, then. Do you have any music in mind? I'm pretty sure I've probably got something somewhere on my iPod if you don't." Well, that was specific. Good job, Lucas.

"I heard they looked ridiculous," she laughed. Whether or not tutus were involved was an entirely different story. She would have loved to have seen Junichiro in one though.

Music. Kurumi had had the same issue previously. She wasn't entirely sure what was considered proper music to dance to under these circumstances. Fumbling around in her pockets, Kurumi found the bottle and other trash she had collected down at the lake the other day with Selina. "Um...I am not sure about music," she laughed removing her wand from her pocket. "But I know that we will need something to play music with."

She set the trash on the table and gave her wand a gentle swish to the left and gently tapped the item. "Covadium," she commanded as the trash first melted together and then began to twist and writhe until it took its new form in the shape of a wooden music box. Please with her spell work, Kurumi grinned up at Lucas. "It should play whatever tune you want."

Caroline's face turned the same shade of red as the rose behind her ear. Well pretty close to the same shade. He wanted her to sing? She raised an eyebrow "You want me to sing?" Obviously he didn't know how bad this idea was. She doesn't sing at all. Okay she sings but not to great. She can really jam out on the piano.

"Okay, you asked for it!" She smirked. She cleared her throat. Opening her mouth and closing it again, She really knew what he meant my his mind going blank. What was she going to sing? She was kind of stuck now, she needed to think, like now. Okay so she totally went with the song, one of her fathers favorites, "Dad would sing this song to me all the time when I was little." She said with a slight smile, she did talk much about her father, he did love to sing to his sweet Caroline. Clearing her throat again. yeah this was going to be interesting.

"Oh, I could hide 'neath the wings Of the bluebird as she sings" They started dancing in circles again, doing quite well to her suprise. Her singing could be better, but thats what kind of made it funnier. "The six o'clock alarm would never ring But it rings and I rise Wipe the sleep out of my eyes My shaving razor's cold and it stings" Oh yeah this was embarrassing. She stopped at the end of the verse and raise her eyebrows. She was sure that he didn't want to be tortured by her singing any more than that.

"Whoa," Lucas said, his eyes widening. "Brilliant." He thought for a moment before saying, "I don't know... I don't really know much music appropriate for ballroom dancing." He shrugged. "Does it come... Erm... Preloaded with anything?" Was that a dumb question?

Kurumi's cheeks flushed. "J-Just something we learned last year in Transfiguration." Although she had to admit that she was really pleased that she had found a practical application to it outside of the classroom. Kurumi turned her attention to the music box and cocked her head to the side like a curious owl. "I'm not sure," she laughed. She supposed there was only one way of finding out. Slowly, she turned the knob on the side of the music box and suddenly the terrace was filled with soft music. The melody made her cheeks burn a deeper shade of pink, and Kurumi bit her lower lip shyly as she cast her violet gaze back towards him and stood their awkwardly waiting for Lucas to do something.

"I-I-I guess it does."

Connor smirked. So she really was competition. Well Connor Campbell was not one to give up so easily, he sped up a little more and had soon caught up with her. "It is...I was just pacing myself, I don't want to run out of energy too quickly." he replied, still able to breathe normally. He placed his fingertips at the base of his neck and calculated his heart rate he smiled when he realized he was well within target heart range. He looked over at Selina who seemed to be having a fine time. He smiled at her. "I'm glad we're having this time to get to know each other."

"It's pretty," Lucas commented, listening to the music. He cleared his throat and said, "Well, I suppose he should dance, then?" He held out his hand for Kurumi to take. He hoped he wouldn't be too terrible at this. He didn't want to step on Kurumi's feet or anything like that.

"It is," she smiled. She wasn't sure if the tune was familiar or not. It wasn't something that she recalled her mother playing on the piano or something that she had heard when she was a child, but there was a soothing quality to it.

Then, Kurumi's eyes widened slightly - though they really shouldn't have considering this was the whole point of them being there. Nodding, Kurumi reached out and took a hold of his hand, chewing on her lower lip a bit more as she did. Drawing herself in a bit closer, she reached up with her other hand and placed it on his shoulder. "G-Good thing you aren't ridiculously taller than me," she joked.

Lucas chuckled nervously. "Yes, I guess that's a good thing." He tentatively put his other hand on Kurumi's waist and took a step, just hoping that he was doing it right.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand looking down at the ground....

Kurumi took a small but fluid step back to match Lucas' movement and suddenly became very aware of his hand on her waist. Ug...why couldn't she have worn jeans or at least her track pants. Karate seemed to be an easier task for her than ballroom dancing was - and that was mostly due to her nerves. "H-H-Have you ever done this before?" she asked finally looking up at him as she waited for him to continue to lead.