Elliot was right. Cora should call out her sister for this. At the same time, Cora thought she was better off just making new friends here. Her sister hadn't been overly helpful before, and Elliot was already proving to be a lot better of a friend.

"You're right, maybe I will talk to her. Well, if not, I don't really need her now."

That's odd, Cora thought. Cora had just been talking about her sister, so clearly she had siblings. Well, one. Maybe Elliot meant to ask if she had any other siblings.

Cora, being her usual self, had all the patience in the world, and wasn't bothered by this question. "Why, yes, just the one older sister. And you have two younger siblings, am I right? Are you excited for when they come to Hogwarts?" Cora smiled politely. She really did like Elliot.

Elliot nodded. "You don't, you're right. You're your own person, am I right? Who needs annoying older sisters who don't respect us? Hmph," she replied, rolling her eyes again.

Elliot slapped her hand to her forehead, completely embarrassed! "I meant any more siblings, so sorry. I probably sounded like a complete fool just now.." she stated, scowling at herself. Stupid, foolish little Elliot. Elliot rarely made blunders like that..she was perfect. Perfection is key, Elliot. Darius had told her that many years ago, and since then Elliot had been striving to be the perfect person that her father wanted her to be...so far, she was failing. Miserably.

Speaking of family, Cora mentioned her sisters. Ew.
"Yes, two. Danni, eight, is annoying. Sam, cute, is cool I guess. And well, Danni will probably go to Beauxbatons...because she's too 'good' for Hogwarts," she replied, sarcasm oozing from her very words. Danni was little miss princess, her mother's joy...she would go there. "And I don't know if I will even be here when little Sam comes. She's four now..so..." Elliot was never good with numbers. Anything but numbers, she was fine...but numbers? Math? Nope.

Eleven minus four...that's seven? Yes, so in seven years..I will be in my last year or graduated...
"Oh, I will either be here in seventh year or graduated...I can't think straight with numbers!" Cue throwing up hands in air dramatically.

Alexia was wandering everywhere for her spare time, she finds it amusing to wander around. then she passed the fourth floor corridor, thinking he might meet a friend, old or new would do.

"Geez, I didn't know you were such a chocolatier," Tori rolled her eyes. "I still say it tastes gross." And the way it melted in your mouth... yuck. It was worse than peanut butter, and that stuff was GROSS.

He even knew her zip code?! Tori gasped. "Yes, yes that's me! Oh we should SO go visit sometime, Paulie! You'd love it. There's lots of beaches and swimming and sunbathing and sailing and shopping and rollerblading and corn dogs and toy dogs and I LOVE IT!" She took a breath. "Yes."

"Well I could die, probbbbbably," Tori drawled. "I'd have to have a super-weakness, you know, like a bit of rock that I was allergic to or something." Isn't that how the Muggle superheroes did it? "What's your superpower?" Cuz he didn't say! Maybe he deserved a consequence for that. Heh.

Just one? Really? "Reallllllllllllllllly?" Tori squeaked happily. "Are you telling the truth, Sir Lemonade Knight? Because I don't want to have to punish you..." Lies. She totally did. She was a PUNISHER, that Victoria M. Bunbury.

The square root of... huh? "A turnip? I dunnnnnno what kind of roots numbers have...." Tori blinked at him and then her mouth turned into a big round O. "UH OH. That was one question I couldn't answer." She stopped right in front of Paulie and held out her wrists. "Lock me up, Sir Knight, cuz I need a CONSEQUENCE."

Dun dun dunnnnn.

Chocolatier made him sound quite fancy for a kid who simply liked chocolate. "You have crazy taste buds, then," Paulie concluded. If she were allergic, then he might understand, but she wasn't!

His head swirled with thoughts of typical California-type things to do when Tori listed them on and on. Gosh, sounded like paradise... and that's where she had lived! "Definitely! A trip to California, USA would be so cool." Not just cool, AWESOME. "So, how come you lived there? Was your dad a movie star or something?"

Paulie laughed at her mention of rock allergies. "Kinda like Superman and Kryptonite?" Paulie Foster was quite a fan of comic books, yes he was. Though he preferred Batman over the Mr. Perfect Superman any day. "My superpower is flying. Like, with no wings or broom or any of that." He answered promptly because, of course, he'd given thought to this before.

"Yes, yes. Really," Paulie rushed. "And don't go spreading that info about or my rep will be ruined!" Hah. If he even had a reputation at all. And then she was questioning his honesty again. "'Course I'm tellin' the truth, 'cause you said girls I kissed, not girls who've kissed me, right?" Yes, he was certain she said that. Princess Tori looked like she was just trying to get a consequence for him!

Huh, what? A turnip? What the heck - ohhh. Oh, Merlin's beard, she was talking about an actual root. Like... in the ground! "Yep, 'uh oh' is right!" Consequence time! He padded his pockets and flipped them inside out. "Shucks, I've seemed to have lost my shackles."

Now, let's see. What would be a consequence fit for a princess? Hmm. Hmmm, hmm, hmmmmm. "Okay, I've got one." He smirked. "Since you're a princess, you've gotta kiss a frog. Or a toad, if you'd like." But toads had warts, didn't they? He doubted she'd choose a toad.

"No I don't," Tori protested. "My taste buds are excellent, sir!" She liked the taste of him, for example! Too bad Tori didn't say that aloud.

Cali was TOTES a cool place, duh, cuz Tori was from there! And she was the definition of cool. "Naw he was one of those stunt doubles for action movies. Cuz he's a wizard, so he can do like any stunt pretty easily and not get hurt." Not a bad job, if Tori said so herself.

"Um, sure." It was totally like Superman and Kryptonite, but Tori wasn't going to say that and admit to being a nerd. "Why flying?" Tori asked curiously, blinking a little at his sudden answer. Had he been practicing this answer for ages or what?

Ha. Lost his shackles. "Good," Tori giggled, though her giggles quickly turned in a big frown when he said she'd have to kiss a TOAD. "A TOAD?!" Tori's voice rose an octave. "Why can't I just kiss a knight or a prince or something?" Or even a statue of armor?!!!

"Oh, I beg to differ, Princess," Paulie told her. "Or if something isn't wrong with your taste buds, then there must be something wrong in that head of yours." And he proceeded to knock on her noggin, THEN he gave a small gasp of disbelief. "Huh. Not hollow."

Her dad was a stunt double?? "Wow, that's awesome! So, what movies was he in?" Paulie would probably recognize some of them; action movies were totally his thing.

He rolled his eyes when she seemed to have agreed with his Kryptonite reference not because she understood it, but because she wanted to shut him up about comic book stuff like that. Why flying? For a second, he considered answering with 'Just 'cause,' but he didn't wanna lie to Tori of all people. "My dad was a pilot."

Hah! So much for those giggles, eh? "Nope!" Paulie grinned broadly. "A toad. You've gotta kiss a toad." That was her consequence and she had to face it, whether she liked it or not! And she did not like it. "I wanna witness this too, by the way." So she couldn't faaaake it. And so he could see her squirm. Heheh.

Tori gasped too, and her mouth remained hanging open as Paulie knocked on her "empty" head. "Heyyyyyyy!" she whined, smacking his arm hard. Well, hard for a girly girl. "You're not being very nice, Paulie! I'm going... I'm gonna have to sentence you to exploding lemonade torture if you don't apologize!"

She made a great big frowny face, complete with a trembling lip and everything. Cali girls WERE good actresses.

"I dunno," Tori shrugged, making kind of a face at Paulie. "They're a bunch of Muggle flicks.... like.... Batman 7 and the Lord of the Rings prequels.... and Mission Impossible 8..." Whatever else they were making in 2075.

Awwww! Paulie wanted to be just like his dad! "That's sweet," Tori commented with a little smile. "What's he do now?"

EWWW he was still on about that TOAD THING. "That's GROSS," she informed him with a sharp poke to the chest. "Just DISGUSTING. And where am I gonna find a toad anyway, hmm?"

"Owwwww," Paulie complained, shrugging the shoulder she smacked away from her. "Pfft! I have a feeling that you're just gonna threaten me with Exploding Lemonade torture whenever I do something that YOU don't agree with." With all the torturing she'd be doing, he'd be dead in a week!

He studied her trembling lip theatrics and smirked. "Not buyin' it!" Yes, he was getting to know the Princess' ways by now. Mmmmmhmh.

Paulie stopped in his tracks and his hands flew to his head as he gaped. "Batman?! He got to be a SUPERHERO?!" Not to mention the Mission Impossible movies. Those were cool. "Gosh, that is so cool.." Maybe he had even gotten to wear the whole caped crusader costume, too.....

Sweet? No, no, Paulie did not wanna be sweet. He wanted to be cool. Cool, and tough, and strong, and maybe have a real strong jawline, too. Yes. "Uhh," he hesitated. "His plane was shot down, so.." So, hopefully she got the gist of it.

And then the next thing he knew she was emphasizing 'GROSS' and poking him in the chest, hard! "You are ABUSIVE today! I think you broke my sternum." Not really, but he was one for exaggeration. "Where do you think you'd find one?.. Outside!"

.........Well yes, that was EXACTLY what Tori was planning to do. "That's," POKE, "RIGHT!" JAB! Tori huffed and puffed and stomped down the hallway some. He didn't even fall for her dramatic 'Damsel in Distress about to Break Down and Cry' routine! She was slipping!!!

"'Salright," Tori shrugged off Paulie's amazement. "You can meet him sometime if you want. He LOVES fans." O'course Batman did.

Tori halted too when he mentioned his own dad. She sniffled for reals this time. "Aww Paulie, I'm so sorry to hear that." She flung her arms around him and buried her head into his chest, giving him a comforting snuggle. "You don't have to talk about him if you don't wanna." Poor dear. She couldn't even imagine life without her daddy.

"Well you DESERVE IT!" the Princess snapped the next second, giving him one more poke and then stomping off down the hallway. "Well if we're gonna find a FROG we'd better get a move on it before it gets DARK."

MORE abuse! And then some dramatic stomping down the hallway and Paulie couldn't help but laugh. "Sheesh, I knew you were a princess, but you never told me you were a queen, too...." He stifled a laugh at the joke he was about to make. "A drama queen!" Bahahah.

"Really? I think I'll take you up on that," and hopefully he would get to meet her dad 'cause that'd be almost like meeting a superhero himself. Not quite, of course, but close.

He smiled a bit when she gave him a hug or a snuggle or whatever it was 'cause it was nice and it made him feel a little better. "Okay, thanks." And he wouldn't talk about it further because it was sorta a heavy subject, and those just weren't fun. Fun was joking around and making nonsense with Princess Tori!

Perhaps Paulie needed to invest in some armor, just for protection from this girl! heheh. He hustled down the hall after her. "Ya know.. dusk is the perfect time for catching frogs!"

"Oh no, don't worry about it at all! I was just a bit confused, that's all. You don't sound like a fool." Cora gave a reassuring smile. While Elliot was hiding it well, Cora could tell she didn't like to make mistakes like these and was a bit embarrassed maybe.

Then she thought about what Elliot had said. Cora loved numbers. "Well, it would depend on when Sam turned four. Actually, either way, she wouldn't be here when you graduated. Unless for some reason you were here an eighth year, or she started before she was eleven. But I'm assuming that wouldn't happen." Cora wasn't sure if Elliot would be relieved about this or disappointed.

"I love numbers. To me, they make a lot more sense than a lot of other things." There were lots of things that Cora didn't understand, but numbers weren't one of them.

Elliot managed a small smile. Cora was so, so nice. Elliot would never wish to be someone else, but she sure wished everyone was like Cora. She could take Elliot's personality, and she wasn't so sickly sweet that Elliot got annoyed with her. Thank Merlin.

Elliot sighed. That was sad to learn! "No! I love Sam. She's my...favorite!" she cried, furrowing her eyebrows. "I hope she comes here. Danni can go off and be a stupid Beauxbatons fool, but not my Sam!" Elliot loved her sister almost as much as her father. Sam was spoiled, a diva, and almost always got her way with things. Elliot admired her for it; she would go far in life. She thought that Sam was quite different than herself, but they both had one thing in common: icy outside, cold inside. Even at four, Sam possessed the same demeanor that Elliot possesses. And Elliot adored it. Plus, Sam looked up to Elliot the way Danni never did.

"I like words, English. I also know a fair amount of Latin..so I am more liberal arts, I suppose," she replied. She was rather tired of having her shoes off. She didn't much like it. At all. It made her feel...weird. She shouldn't be walking around without shoes on at school unless she was in the common room or outside. She looked down at her socked feet and grimaced. Blegh.

As Cora absent-mindedly brushed her hair out of her face, her mind turned towards her kitten, which she still needed to name, and wondered where she was. It was pretty ridiculous that her kitten didn't have a name, but she was working on it.

"That's good. I hope Sam comes here too, then. And Beauxbatons isn't too bad. I have heard a lot of good things about it. None as good as Hogwarts, of course, but if that's where she ends up it's probably for the best." Cora replied politely. She honestly couldn't think of any reason why someone wouldn't want to come to Hogwarts, but she knew there were other schools out there. At least if Elliot didn't prefer to have her in the same school, Cora would be on her side.

Curious. Well, of course, it wasn't hard to tell that Elliot liked words. Cora smiled at this, and thought about herself. Did she like words? Cora couldn't decide. Words were the one thing that got in the way for Cora, yet when calm Cora could string together the most beautifully-eloquent sentences she had ever heard. "I suppose i like words, too, but numbers are just so, exact." This seemed a bit too simple but Cora didn't elaborate, her sentence seemed to personify the word she was trying to describe.

"Ooh, Latin. That's got to be helpful with all these spells, isn't it? I know a bit of Latin, I guess, but only what I read in a book once, not enough to really say I know the language." Cora wished she knew more in this area. Nothing bothered Cora more than finding out she didn't know something, which she seemed to be discovering more often lately. She guessed it was the Ravenclaw in her.

"I really love how languages work, though. And I wish I knew more of them, or at least the important ones."

Jez walked down the corridor, her nose stuck in a Herbology book. She was enjoying the subject, and couldn't wait to get back in the greenhouses! She was on the last few pages of this book, so she wanted to go to the library to get another one.

Scott was walking back from the Libary reading his book on Charms, trying to find the page about metal charmers. He was in deep conecntration that for a while he didn't notice the girl in front of him. He walked straight into her.

"Jez?" he asked with a confused facial expression.

Jez was so engrossed in her book that she didn't realise someone else was there until she walked straight into him. "Oh! Sorry," she said, flustered. Then, "Scott? Hi!" Now she was even more flustered. "Are you going to the library?" she asked, trying to keep her voice even. They hadn't spoken since the previous night in the common room, and Jez wasn't sure how he'd react. The Hate Potion was still fresh in her mind.

Scott had almost knocked Jez over, so at least she was still on her feet.
"Hi Jez! Sorry about that" he grinned. The Library? He'd just come from there!
"I wasn't planning to, but thinking about it there is one book I need to get" he smiled "Are you?" he asked curiously.

"Yeah." Jez held up her almost-finished Herbology book. "I need another one of these," she smiled. So ... awkward silence. "What book are you getting?" Small talk. Great.

Scott ruffled his hair and then smiled at her. "Great!" he said enthusiastically.
What was his book? Something about...Transfiguration? "A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch" he nodded at her, believing that was the right one. "I know we were supposed to get it before coming here, but I forgot" he admitted shamefully, he really shouldn't be a Ravenclaw."Sorry about last night" he said biting his lip and looking down, which was fast becoming a regular occurrence.

They'd finally arrived at that topic. Jez bit her lip - she'd been doing it so often lately, that it began to bleed slightly now. Metallic taste - ugh. "Why are you apologising? It was my fault entirely. You had every right to be angry at me. You could have been seriously hurt there, or Nate or Pam could have. I didn't know it was so strong when I made it. I should have just forced the potion down that Pigmy Puff's throat, not tested it on you without warning." Jez thought they were going around in circles here - they'd spent a good majority of their last conversation apologising too.

Scott sighed as they danced around the topic, which he didn't want to talk about at all. He looked around to make sure no one could hear them. "Well, it happened, and all I want you to to know is that I'm fine with it" he smiled, there was no point getting any more roughed up over it.

"Okay." Jez smiled at Scott. "We're cool now?" She felt that knot in her stomach she'd had since last night loosen. Back to the way things were before. As long as he didn't bring up ...

"Yes, we're good" Notice 'good' not 'great' he thought to himself.
"Do want to go to the library now? Maybe we could meet Nate there and go on another patrol" he became puzzled, thinking about what Nate had said, but became aware of this and smiled.

"Sure, sounds good," smiled. Nate better not mouth off, she thought, thinking of what she had confided in him at the gargoyles. She shuddered at the thought of Scott knowing about that!
The puzzled look that had crossed Scott's face worried Jez a bit, but then he smiled and she relaxed. "See you in there, I've just got to find a book." She walked towards the library, determined to search the bookshelves for that one book she hadn't been able to get her hands on for weeks.