Just as Ellie caught his attention, she saw Braeden leap into the air. For a second she thought he was just really excited to see her, but then she heard the scared yelp and knew that that probably wasn't the case. She giggled a little at his reaction as he finally realized just who she was.

By then, she was in front of him. "Hey you! Long time, no see." Ellie grinned and gave the lion boy a hug. She missed him! Seriously, it felt like they hadn't seen each other in years. And he looked like he grew a foot. Either that or Ellie shrunk, but she was just short anyways.

Ellie laughed at his comment. Fancy indeed. "Yes, it's quite stra-HEYY." Ellie suddenly realized. "I need to have a word with you, Mr. Stonem." She said with a serious nod.

Braeden grinned as Ellie greeted him with a hug, returning the gesture and lifting the girl a foot or so off the snowy ground as he did so. He also did notice the height difference. Huh. It was strange, it seemed most of the girls he knew just kinda shrunk over the summer. Weird. Must be a girl thing.
Of course, what was really going on was that the lion boy was getting taller, but he was too dull to see it that way.

The Gryffindork watched with amusement as Ellie laughed at his comment, and his eyebrows raised in surprise as she suddenly changed the direction of the conversation. Apparently, she needed to have a word with him.

… A word?
Gulp.
Over the past couple weeks, Braeden's learned phrases like this usually DON'T lead anywhere good. So, obviously, he was immediately concerned. "Did I-- Did I do something?" he asked, brown eyes a bit panicked.

Ellie squealed a little when she felt Braeden lift her off the ground. And then she landed with a soft thud on the snowy path. Goodness, she was so puny compared to him. Ellie grinned and nudged him in the lanky arm.

Noticing the worry and apprehension on Braeden's face... Ellie didn't do anything to make him feel better. Heh. Ellie sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "I talked to Emma the other day..." She began, not really sure which angle to take. Let's see... How did she say this so she didn't embarrass herself or Braeden? "I'm your friend, right? And Emma's my best friend. I care about both of you. Tons." And Ellie was rather fond of beating around the bush. But, no longer. She looked up at lion. "Skinny dipping? Really? Are you an idiot, Braeden?!" She sort of exclaimed, hitting him in the arm.

But then she laughed a little bit. But it wasn't really an "I'm amused" laugh. It was more of a "I'm not amused, but I'm going to laugh to ease some tension" laugh. She was good at those.

Oh! Used to be? So, it was not a happy ending for the both of them. It was Erin's first time to hear those words knitted all together. Used to be bestfriends. "I'm sorry about that," she said hesitating a little but blurted out still in a calm voice, "What happened?" She looked at Presley intently and realized maybe she was going beyond the limit. "If you don't want to, I'll not force you."

Presley was very shocked after Erin's explanation about her letter from Hogwarts. "They did. But the owl came first. Is that the case for Muggles like me?" Erin had no idea, really, how the wizard community worked in their business with Muggles. " I kinda remember my father talking to a Professor. I can't remember the Professor's face."

The second Ellie brought up Emma's name, Braeden realized where this was going. And he was scared. He knew Ellie was for the most part sweet and adorable and very helpful, but he still hadn't forgotten that one time he found her dueling with some random girl. And, ironically enough, that had taken place right here! In the pathways!

OHMYGOSH, this was Ellie's spot for beating up people!! That could only mean one thing for him.

The cowardly lion grew a little paler at all these panicked realizations, but said nothing as he listened to Ellie continue. Uh-huh, yes, they were friends… right, she was very close with Emma… she cared about them, that was nice… This all sounded really nice and sweet, but Brae knew better than to think the girl was only here to remind him of how much she cared about Brama.

And then she got to the point - 'Skinny dipping? Really? Are you an idiot, Braeden?!'
The Gryffindork cringed. Well, thank MERLIN this wasn't about Caroline. If Ellie was this upset about the skinny dipping, which he had already explained to Emma, then… well, he just wouldn't want to imagine her angrier.

"I-- I know, I… I wasn't thinking!" the boy replied, or more like pleaded. He knew just how close Ellie and Emma were, so if Ellie decided the boy wasn't good enough for her best friend… well, there was a good chance Emma would listen to her. And Brae couldn't afford to lose Emma.

"It was-- I-- I just…" With a sigh, the boy ran a hand through his hair as a need to release some tension and stress. "I just didn't want Ruby to stay mad at me… She's kind of always mad at me, so I just…" He sighed once more. "And--and-- you're right! I am an idiot; I didn't realize what I was doing could've hurt Emma, I just-- I wasn't thinking… But you know I love her, Ellie," the boy admitted hopelessly. "I wouldn't do something to purposely hurt her. Ever."

Poor Brae felt like the biggest screw-up of life. It seemed no matter what he did, he almost always ended up ruining things for himself and Emma. For a moment, the boy paused, and, realizing once again just how close Ellie and Emma were, he asked, "Does she... know that? That I wouldn't hurt her on purpose, I mean... Does she know it?" If anyone knew the answer to this, besides Emma herself, it must've been Ellie. And Braeden needed to know.

"Nate," Faina whispered as he sat them down. "Nate," She said again, crawling into his lap and kissing him.

Nate was about to respond, but he had a Fai in his lap kissing him before he could reply. Holding on to the kiss for as long as he could, he finally backed away and whispered, "Yes, Faina?" while stroking her hair and hugging her head to his chest.

"I love you," She whispered, kissing his chest.

Scott saw that girl and Nate sitting by a tree on the pathways, he frowned at them and then shouted: "FILTHY HOOLIGANS!" as he walked past. The nerve of them, seriously! First years and acting like freaking adults! What was next? A romantic embrace by the tree, and then going to the cinema and watching a chick flick? Yuck.
And despite all that had happened, Nate really saw it fit to rub salt in the wounds.

No, he was not in a good mood.

Jordan was just ambling by as usual, when he heard the cry of "FILTHY HOOLIGANS!" from a very familiar voice. As he reached the pathways, he noticed Nate and Fai looking quite romantic under a tree. But that moment had been completely ruined by the angry Scott, Jordan wandered up o the boy and began cracking up. "Nice... One!" he choked out between hysterics, before catching Faina's eye and he felt all the heartfelt emotion and of course the jealousy and anger coming back to him in one foul swoop.

Minerva looked at the balloons and smiled. "Oh thank you William." She gave him a hug and then kissed his cheek."Oh California what sport? I'm from the States. We have moved a lot and while I've been here this year my parents actually moved right before Christmas to California. My dad's military."

Nate made his best effort to pay as little attention to Scott and Jordan as possible. "Just ignore them, Fai." He hugged her tighter, feeling her warmth. The place she had kissed him was especially warm, though. "I love you too, Faina. I love you too," he said, pulling her more onto his lap and resting his head against hers.

" I am glad you like the balloons" Willaim told Minerva. " My father played baseball for the SAn Francisco Giants and football for the San Francisco
49'ers " William said to Minerva. He starred in both professional sports as well as in muggle wrestling on the WWE and in quidditch" Willaim explained to Minerva." Do military families move a lot?" Willaim asked Minerva. " I bet you he is a top man in the military" Willaim smiled.

Minerva noticed the word Muggle in his sentence. "Are both your parents wizards? Yeah he is pretty high in the military. Yes we have moved so many times through out the years. I was born in Florida, and have lived in 2 other states before moving now to California. What does your mom do?"

" WEll, they are bothwizards, but maybe not since my mom is a blueblood but she is part Veela" Willaim explained to Minerva," So is there a rank in the military?" Willaim asked Minerva." My mom works in Ministry in the Deptarment of Magical Creatures" Wiliam said to Minerva. " My fad is semi-retired and he works for the Ministry too in the Magical Sports Department." Willaim told Minerva. "Do you prefer Minerva or " Minnie" as others call you?" Willaim asked Minerva.

"Yes there are ranks in the military. Sorry, but whats a blueblood? I'm sorry see my mom is a wizard, but I never even knew it. My dad is a muggle. Mom met him while she was vacationing in the states and they fell in love. My brother and I were raised as muggles until a year ago when I started doing weird things. Mom finally told me about the wizarding things. You can call me which every you like best. Minnie is fine or Minerva is fine as well." Minerva smiled at William. "Is there a nickname you like to be called?"

Faina smiled. "I just don't get that Scott fellow," she admitted, "He looks at me like I'm some filthy creature yet I have never held a conversation with him in my life." Her voice cracked. Why was she so emotional all of a sudden?

"Faina," Nate said, gently lifting her chin so he could look into her eyes, "Ignore him. He's one of my friends, and he's mad at you somehow because of the Pam situation. It isn't your fault, though." Nate kissed her quickly, but in the bak of his mind hoped she would come back for more. He began to run his hands along her sides and gently stroke her hair, still leaning over her, almost daring her to kiss him again.

Faina groaned. He found her weak spot. She couldn't resist people stroking her sides. But she had to. She knew Nate wanted her to kiss him, he was showing it clearly. But Faina was too much of a tease to give in. She leaned in, as if to kiss him, but quickly swerved and kissed his cheek instead, smirking evilly.

Nate smiled back, but the glint in his eye showed scheming. "Alright," he whispered in her ear, "Two can play at at that game, sweetheart. Tittilando."
His wand was already pointing directly under her ribs. And Nate was sure that the tickling hex would work well there.

Faina squirmed, laughing. She was so ticklish it wasn't even funny. "Nate! No, Nate! Make it stop!" She squealed, writhing and trying to get it to stop. "You are so going to pay for this!" She muttered.

Nate turned his wand away, but kept running his hands gently over Faina's hysterical button. "Pay how?" he whispered innocently, raising an eyebrow.

"Hmm," Faina pretended to think for a moment about his payment. "How do you think you should pay me?" Faina asked, turning the flirt in her on high.

Nate started twirling Faina's hair around in one of his hands, the other still caressing her side and around to her back. "Well..." he breathed, leaning in until their lips were just barely brushing each others'.

"Well?" Faina breathed against his lips, teasing him.