The Whomping Willow
 

This. Was. So. Amazing.

It was one thing to read about the most amazing tree, but it was something completely different to see it. A lot of feet away, of course, because Nora also knew what the tree could do, but still.

With her tiny lizard in the pocket of her robes, the girl was slowly approaching the Whomping Willow, but still kept a fair distance between them. But... since catching her attention was not a difficult thing to do, she eventually noticed this slightly familiar boy.

... so why shouldn't she just go and say hi?

"Hello... the one on whose feet I stepped on and I still feel bad about it," she said with a large and cheerful grin on her face, hoping that she wouldn't scare him, because she kind of appeared in front of him all of a sudden.

*waves*
 

The wind blew Jonathan's hair. The weather was cool but not too cold. Sometimes it could be warm but not so hot. Definitely, fall is coming anytime soon and quite frankly, he is just happy that his mother bought him tons of trench coats for fall this summer. Norway is a much colder place, so the coats would definitely be something cozy to be in. And of course, Jonathan loved the fall season.

It may be dark and gloomy but to him it is the most serene season among the four. As much as he doesn't want to do it this term, one of the major reason why he likes fall is that he gets to hibernate. Now, with OWLs and everything in between he can't just hibernate right? That's not the best idea to be doing during fall and don't get him started over winter season. Last term all he did was sleep, he was procrastinating a lot that the only class he manage to complete was Potions.

Fifth year. He's a fifth year already. The least of his worries right now is if his pillow back at the common room is as comfy as it was before. NO. He needs to reassess himself with all this. His father is just expecting too much of him.

Jonathan's thoughts faded as he heard a voice from behind him. He turned his back to see who it was and saw a girl that seemed to be very familiar. New kid that he talked to perhaps, no? Transferred student, no? His expression right now is puzzled. He can't seem to remember her but he does know she is familiar. He has seen of her.... somewhere. Only the name strikes him.

"Uhmm..." he mumbled. he looked in a different direction so that he could at least recall names of people he just met. Think Jonathan... think. He met a lot of people during the feast, unless he met this girl over the summer...

Then that hit him. SUMMER! Yes, he did saw this girl down at Diagon Alley this summer. And she recalled that she stepped on his foot. WHAT? A lot of people has stepped on his lovely foot. Why was that?

Focus. Her name... HER NAME..........
Jonathan is always having one of his pauses everytime he greets a stranger that knows him "--Nora?" he said in slightly confused tone. Now, he can't be sure if that was her real name. Worth a try. Besides, if it was in correct, the girl will just correct him with her exact name.

Danae had been walking back from Herbology when she noticed a boy standing alone by the Whomping Willow, a tree, as it had in Hogwarts, A History had been on the grounds of Hogwarts for more than 100 years.

Hearing an odd sound, Danae wondered if the boy had been smacked because he seemed to have faltered a bit. Walking over quickly, not even thinking of the danger of the plant she asked, "Are you okay?"

Eh. Paulie thought the tree was interesting enough, but it totally just murdered a bird. If he happened to score a date this year, he made a mental note not to set up a lovey-dovey picnic at this spot.

But a voice soon pulled him from any thoughts passing through his mind, and he turned to see a girl. A girl with, like, the best hair he had ever seen. She was a looker. "Me? Oh, yeah.. I just..." He glanced back over to the willow, then back to her. "I don't think that bird is."

For anyone
 

William sits down by the tree. He is waiting dor somone to talk to today.

Anyone...
 

Rose walked up to the Whomping Willow. Obviously not so close, that'd be stupid! And if there's one thing Rose isn't, it's stupid. Sometimes. :D

hey
 

Janice went around Hogwarts Grounds on the first few days after the summer break. Near the whomping willow, she saw Rose.
"Hello..."

'Hey, Janice!' Rose smiled. 'How've you been? I didn't get to see you at the train, we lost you!' Rose laughed.

Janice laughed.
"Yeah, I kinda got lost in the back part of the Train. It was so hectic and everybody's screaming until I can't even find my way to the small bathroom and back. I went into the wrong compartment twice, and fell a lot of times.."

Ouch. That hurt.

Even if it made her feel better when he actually remembered her, it still hurt that it took him so long to remember Nora. See? The common name was to blame. But... did this mean that her face was common as well? Like... that hard to remember?

Alright. Just because she still felt bad about stepping on his feet some time ago at Madame Malkin's, Nora decided to put on that usual smile, and not act as if she was really hurt. "Ten points for Slytherin for guessing my name right," she grinned, marking off the green part of his uniform. Yup, a fellow Slytherin, apparently. "Or make it twelve, so we wouldn't be in the negatives anymore." What happened, anyway? Since she noticed those pretty hourglasses, the Slytherins had minus twelve points. How was that even possible?

It took him a long time to figure out the little girl's name and did she happen to be a Slytherin like himself? He didn't know for sure. He hasn't seen her go by the common room yet and if it were true then maybe Jonathan had already dozed off when she even entered the area. Yes, Jonathan is indeed a fan of sleeping. Always was... always will.

The puzzled look now turned into a smile when the girl joked about giving him 10 points for Slytherin. If only those points were real, then he could really make a great contribution to the house. Jonathan loves earning house points but he seems to be a little bit behind last year. As he said, he was hibernating a lot last year that even thinking of points made him lazier and lazier. But now, he is willing to change that. No more slacking off.

"That's funny" he chuckled when the girl added 2 more, to make it 12 additional points. Speaking of which, those are the exact points they lost over the great hall. Bubble gum incident was it? Jonathan couldn't remember why Slytherin was deducted by the head of the house herself. All he saw was Lafay talking to Sierra, and two other girl and they seemed to be covered in bumble gum or at least Sierra was. Everything just felt blurry to Jonathan right now, He doesn't even know if he saw the scene correctly.

One more thing, "Sorry I completely forgot your name." he truly was. Curse his ability to forget names easily. "I met A LOT of NEW people this summer and your not the only one who stumbled nor stepped on my foot" true, there were a couple of kids who stepped on his foot.

Was that a new trend anyway?

"Bird?" Danae frowned and looked up at the Whomping Willow, not seeing a bird in sight. What sort of animal would be stupid enough to go near a tree so dangerous, surely their little birdie pals would tell them about it.

"I don't see a bird." she shook her head looking at the boy again. Maybe he was in shock over something?

"Did you hit your head or something?" the young girl asked with concern, fighting the urge to play Healer and start feeling his forehead for a temperature.

For Lottie
 

Cassie had no idea why at least once for the first couple of days back at school every new term she had to visit the whomping willow. It was a weird tradition she started back in her third year, but for whatever reason it confirmed her being back...after all nowhere else had a tree that whacked anything that came close to it.

She folded her arms and watched as the tree swayed gently..almost as if it was dancing. It must be in a good mood today or something. It almost made her not want to chuck a rock at it to see how far across the lake it could hit it.

What on EARTH was this?

She was all for nature and stuff but this tree was moving, and not with the wind, it was moving of its own accord. It was certainly a tree she wouldn't find herself hugging.

Approaching it warily, not taking her eyes off of the sweeping branches, Gwen got as close as she possibly could without being too close. She didn't know how much harm it could do to her and she was pretty certain her brothers had never told her anything about this before. As she got closer she noticed an older student stood about the same distance as she was.

"Well that's different" she spoke, almost to herself but hoping the other would hear it. Gwenyth wasn't brilliant at talking to people she didn't know, especially in a strange environment like this.

Cassie turned around not expecting anyone else to be there and saw a girl who she was pretty sure she had never seen before. She didn't look like a first year though so she assumed that she must be a transfer. She held the stone that she was about to chuck at the tree in her hand. Stoning the whomping willow was definitely not a smart thing to do and she didn't want to set a bad example for the younger girl.

She smiled at the girl and nodded, even though she might not have been talking to her."Yeah it is pretty different and violent." She looked at the tree that seemed to be growing more restless now that it had an audience of sorts."I don't think I've ever seen you before today..are you new?" She turned away from the tree now so she could fully face the girl.

"Violent?" the brunette repeated as she stepped closer to the older girl. Violence wasn't something she was used to, in fact it was completed prohibited in her household. She stared up to the top, taking in the entire tree. Yes, definitely something she wasn't going to hug in the future. "I've never seen anything like it" she blinked a couple of times before deciding to edge a few steps further back.

Oh. Well there was the proof that no one knew her and she didn't know anyone else either. "Yes. Third year but I'm new to magic" she smiled weakly and apprehensively. Would people find it weird she wasn't a first year? But she was sure there were a lot of older students that were completely new to magic, she couldn't be the only late developer. "I'm Gwen" she told her moving her eyes back to the girl to speak.

Cassie nodded and looked at the tree again."yeah it's done a lot of damage over the years and have snuffed out quite a few birds too." Poor birds. It was a good thing that the owls were smart enough to avoid the tree otherwise students would have to replace their pets quite often. Despite all that the tree was pretty amazing in it's own right."Well I doubt there's anything quite like it anywhere else."

Cassie was only a little taken aback by her third year late to magic tale. It wasn't completely unheard of, at least not to her. Freddie started in his seventh year and Thomas was a third year now? So yeah she knew a few late bloomers."Oh you are? I know another person around your age who is new to magic too." She smiled at the girl and offered her hand."I'm Cassie."

She sounded skeptical. "Well, uh.." Paulie glanced over his shoulder to see, of course, nothing but the Whomping Willow. She didn't see a bird because he was dead! "Yeah, there was one.. he just, I think he's on the ground, you know? Like, dead."

Merlin's beard, she didn't believe him at all. To top it all off, she thought he was hallucinating! Although.. Maybe he should say he was concussed. Then she might feel bad for him and at least he'd get her to stick around outta sheer pity. Hmmm. "You know... I can't remember," he lied, sneaking a glance at her to see her reaction, and hoping he wasn't too transparent. "You're right.. I might've hit my head or something." He tried to suppress the smile that was twitching at his lips, but the truth was the the boy wasn't exactly the greatest liar. "So.. you wouldn't mind keeping me company until my thoughts come back to me, would ya?"

It killed birds? "Oh those poor things" she spoke sympathetically, glaring up at the tree as if that would give it a big telling off. But it was still a living thing and Ma had always told her to respect nature. Besides the tree probably didn't know what it was doing? Right? Maybe not. It seemed to have a mind of its own after all. "Definitely not in the muggle world" she blinked at the massive club like branches. "The willow doesn't act like this" The normal willow that was. The weeping willow as it was more commonly known.

So it wasn't as shocking as she thought it would have been? "I've met two others, they're both my age" Kinda weird. Maybe thirteen was the typical age for discovering your magic if you weren't born with it? But then she had a hand outstretched to her and so the Brunette took it and shook it. "It's lovely to meet you Cassie" she smiled warily.

Poor things indeed, but you'd think after the birds had seen so many other birds get creamed by the whomping willow they would stop flying so close to it. No such luck, so poor them indeed. the girl seemed a bit upset about the unfortunate fate of the birds but not upset enough to really dislike the tree. She seemed conflicted with her feelings on the matter..perhaps she was a nature lover? It would explain why she came out here to look at the willow."Hardly anything that isn't alive moves in the muggle world. The magical world is so much more exciting and vibrant..." she stopped herself before she went into a rant." [B]Oh we have a few normal ones here as well, but they don't attract quite as much attention as this one."[/B

Two others? Hmm She only knew about Tom and now Gwen, that would make up her two. Perhaps late bloomers were more common than she thought." Really? Is one of them a Thomas Broadmoor? Goes by Broadmoor?" If not then that would take them up to four late bloomers in their their third year. She grinned and shook the girl's hand as well." It's a pleasure to meet you too Gwen, I hope you enjoy your time here at Hogwarts."

" How do you like the Whomping Willow?" Willaim asked the girl. " I am jsut sitting around and enjoying myself" Willaim said to her. " i am not sure id we met, but my name is Willaim Starr" he introduced himseslf to the girl. " Like to sit here with me?" Willaim asked her.